Is Your Website Designed To Be Easy To Use

Wednesday, May 28, 2008 by Mistlee


Can't see any images? - !


WebProWorld Forum News and Editorials Highlighting Web Business


Click to Play

There's More to Success Than...
"It's no longer sort of easy for the small guy to have a great idea and just send it out to the public." Those are the words of Steve Trollinger, a partner at J. Schmid & Assoc..

Recent Articles

Variety Of Press Releases For Different Purposes
Thank you to Erick Schonfeld and Michael Arrington for giving me the opportunity share my vision, and experience, on the evolution of the press release on TechCrunch. There's certainly no shortage of...

Choosing The Right Web Address For Your Business
Choosing the right Web address can be a daunting task for many business owners. Consequently, many companies often rush this process and end up...

Measure Your Mini-Conversions
If you don't read the Occam's Razor blog by Avinash Kaushik, you don't know what you're missing. He had another great post last week, to help people identify how to measure more than Web sales as the...

Do You Know Your Customers?
Do you know who your customers are? Do you know why they chose you? Do you know what they like? What they want? Where they spend their time? If you don't...

SES: B2B Tactics
The session started with Patricia Hursh from SmartSearch Marketing outlined 8 tips for successful PPC advertising: 1) Reach prospects early in the buying cycle. 2) Focus and align copy (through the cycle).

05.28.08

Is Your Website Designed To Be Easy To Use

By Michael Gray

Does Your website have a squeezy top? Is it designed and laid out with the ruthless goal of facilitating conversions, or is it series of compromises that barely accomplishes it's true goal.

Find someone in your organization who isn't part of the web development process, people in accounting, bookkeeping or HR usually make excellent test subjects. Put them down at a computer on your website, and ask them to purchase your most popular item or fill out your most used lead generation form. Can they get there from the home page? Does it take them more than 2 clicks? Are your lead generation forms cumbersome with dozens of questions or even worse multiple pages? How many pages is your checkout? Have you tried adding or subtracting one, do you know how it affects conversions?

More often than not websites end up not being designed to accomplish the main goal, such as facilitating transactions or gathering information for a sales follow up, but instead end up a compromises to appease the ego's of corporate infrastructure. Case and point here's an excellent article from Online Spin Marketers: Beware Of Blogging Simply For SEO. Want to make a comment on the article you've got to slog through a 3 step registration process yeah good luck with that way to discourage interaction with your readers.


This process of mucking things up is usually gradual, someone adds something here, some one else wants something over there, and eventually you end up with an unusable unmovable blob uselessness, kinda like a wide receiver or running back who's fattened up during the off season eating nachos and cheese whiz. So spend some time and re-evaluate your core functions and looks for ways to streamline them, do it regularly, trim ruthlessly and keep only what you need to survive.

So where did the squeezy top reference in the post title come from? While I was on vacation last week we changed hotels mid week. One hotel had squeezy top shampoo bottles, the other had screw top. I'm sure the cost difference from one to the other is trivial on per bottle level but over a years worth of guests the screw cap shampoo bottle's will probably result in some cost savings. However for the customers using them there's a benefit to the squeezy top bottle's. If you're saving costs and inconveniencing your customers make sure it's for something trivial, like washing your hair, and not for core functions like completing a transaction.

Comments


About the Author:
Michael Gray is SEO specialist and publishes a Search Engine Industry blog at www.Wolf-Howl.com. He has over 10 years experience in website development and internet marketing, helping both small and large companies increase their search engine visibility, traffic, and sales. Michael is a current member of Internet Marketing of New York ( IM-NY.org) and a guest speaker on Webmaster Radio. He is also an editor for the popular search engine new website Threadwatch.org.
About WebProBusiness
WebProBusiness is a collection of news, articles and tutorials designed to keep Internet professionals informed about the latest trends and topics relevant to online business. News and Editorials Highlighting Web Business





WebProBusiness is brought to you by:

WebProNews.com Jayde.com
MarketingNewz.com SalesNewz.com
CareerNewz.com InvestNewz.com
eCommNewz.com WebsiteNotes.com
AdvertisingDay.com ManagerNewz.com
SearchNewz.com CRMNewz.com






-- WebProBusiness is an iEntry, Inc. publication --
iEntry, Inc. 2549 Richmond Rd. Lexington KY, 40509
© 2008 iEntry, Inc.All Rights Reserved Privacy Policy Legal

archives | advertising info | news headlines | free newsletters | comments/feedback | submit article

Unsubscribe from WebProBusiness.
To unsubscribe from WebProBusiness or any other iEntry publication, simply send an email request to: support@ientry.com

WebProBusiness Home Page About Article Archive News Downloads WebProWorld Forums Jayde iEntry Advertise Contact WebProBusiness News Archives About Us Feedback

0 comments: