Anyone can sit at a computer and push buttons on a program to make a web site. Its not hard. If you have used Word, you can make a website. But like so many brick and mortar businesses out there, just because you build it doesn’t mean the will come. The next company comes along and guarantees you traffic, which you get, but are they completing the task on the site? Ease of use, also called usability is king on the web these days. Content and how easy is it to achieve the reason I came to your site. Thats what the customer is thinking. I’ve put together a small checklist below of simple yet game killer principals to follow. How does your site compare?

• Does your site load in a reasonable amount of time? bounce rate is the percentage of people that leave your site without leaving the landing page. How high is your bounce rate? You want to do your best to keep your landing pages under 100k, preferably closer to 60k.

• Is you landing page cluttered or well organized? You want to have close to an equal ratio of text and blank space to not overwhelm the reader.

• Site navigation: How well is your site laid out through navigation links? the goal is that no item is more than 3 clicks away from your home page. Once on the page 3 clicks to a sale as well.

• Are your links and navigation well marked? As in do you have a lot of icons with no descriptions? Are the most important buttons for the customer readily accessible?

• Its a proven fact that 73% of internet users do not scroll; If they don’t see it in the top 780 pixels, they may never see it. Is your most important information above the fold?

• Do you use fonts that are big enough and readable?

• Are you color schemes attractive, consistent and do they aid in readability?

• If you have ads and pop-ups, are they unobtrusive?

• Are your page titles, headings and subheading self explanatory? You would be surprised how many times i have come across page titles and headings that read more like riddles than titles.

• Is you main copy clear and concise?

• Are you store policies and return policy easily available, especially during the sales process? Are your policies clear and concise?

• Is there a clear About Us page that actually lists verifiable information?

• Is there a clear Contact Us page that lists emails AND phone numbers for prompt contact as well as hours of availability?

• Do your forms support the task? Are they easy to use and clear?

Related articles by Zemanta

• If You Are Losing Visitors You Need To Know These 6 Website Design Mistakes (ronmedlin.com)
• Analysing Bounce Rates & Satisfaction Rates (blogstorm.co.uk)
• Searching Without Result (yoast.com)
• Website Design What To Do First (ronmedlin.com)
• Tips to Increase Ranking and Website Traffic (ronmedlin.com)

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