The Top Four Layout Hints that will keep your Website Visitors from leaving

The first think I look at, when checking the analytics of a website, is the bounce rate. This is the percentage of visitors who enter the site and then leave again without viewing any other pages, often within a matter of minutes. My aim is to keep the bounce rate as low as possible. And to do that, the site needs to engage with each and every website visitor as quickly as possible.

Source: teachingmycalling.blogspot.com via Kelly on Pinterest

 

So – how do you optimise your website for visitors? Below are four hints to help you achieve a successful website design for your business.

1. Design with your audience in mind.

2. Make your site easily navigable.

3. Ensure that your information is clearly communicated.

4. Leverage your site’s content with links.

I’d like to think that I can create something worthwhile. Maybe not a Colesseum that will stand for thousands of years, but perhaps the online equivalent, with an effective website that will stand the test of time. And the way to keep it effective is to ensure my vistors don’t leave at the first available opportunity.

How navigable is your site really?

This is Hint Number Two in my series on ‘Successful Website Design’. Once you’ve considered your audience, now it’s time to plan out your clear, logical navigation.

Source: eschoolnews.com via Christine on Pinterest

Navigation refers to ease of accessibility of information. Do you only have one page, with everything on that page? Or have you categorised your information so that ‘like’ is with ‘like’, and therefore easy to find? Have you used tabs with Drop-down menus? Are there call-out menus from within these? Are all of these tabs and menus clear and logical, or is information placed under categories where it doesn’t really fit?

As you may (or may not) know, I run the Seniors-only social network GoodOldTalk.com – and this site needed quite a bit of forethought with regard to navigation. Firstly, we didn’t want Seniors who might not be particularly computer-literate to be overwhelmed; but on the other hand, we didn’t want those who’d been using computers for years to find the site too simplistic. We also had to consider vision problems, physical barriers – and therefore we came up with five large tabs on the right hand side, with larger than normal font size. Each of these tabs then led to the main sections of the site, with no drop-down menus to make things potentially more confusing.

Compare this to a school website, however, and the differences are remarkable. Several tabs (generally at the top of the page) and their drop-down menus – and call-out menus within these menus – lead to dozens and dozens of pages. But the difficulty here is still making the HomePage accessible, and visitor-friendly, without cluttering up the screen, which in turn makes the vital information too difficult to find.

My tip here is to categorise. Really, really well. Your information needs to be clearly and logically organised, and I can’t emphasise that enough. And once you think you’re done, get a focus group together to test it. Can they retrieve the information they need? And how long does it take? Would it help to have a ‘search button’ on your site? Or a ‘Site Map‘? (Although one thought that crosses my mind it that, if you need a Site Map, then perhaps your information organisation wasn’t clear enough in the first place! Either that, or you’re trying to give too much information in the one site, and you need to split it up over several sites. Some government or large corporations fall into this trap…)

So… make it clear. Make it logical. Make it easy to find. And check these – regularly!

All done? Then it’s time for Hint Number Three – vet your information!

Is your Website Layout holding you back?

It’s often said that, in the online world, that ‘Content is King’. Those who hold to this opinion, believe that the most important aspect of any website is the amount and quality of the content uploaded onto it.

Well I’m sorry, but I disagree.

Source: stumbleupon.com via Kathryn on Pinterest

Think about your own searching habits for a minute. When you’re online, trying to find specific information, you click from link to link to link, checking out various websites to see if they meet your needs. In real terms, you visit half a dozen or so (at least!) websites – maybe even more than this, depending on the accuracy of your search terms in the first place. And because you’ve only given yourself a limited amount of time in which to find this information, every website you visit, (prior to finding the one that has the information you want, of course) you probably spend less than half a minute on. In fact, there’s every possibility that it’s a lot less. 20 seconds. 10 seconds. 5 – or maybe not even that long.

Now – think back to your own website. Does it capture your visitors’ attention? Remembering that you may only have 5 to 10 seconds (or less!) before they click away, is it the brilliant first impression for your business that you REALLY want it to be? Does the appearance of your website enhance your business image? Or hinder it?

I wrote recently about the importance of customer service. How image is everything – and reputations last longer than we’d like to admit. I wonder though, if sometimes we forget that our website also has a role to play in promoting our image. Your own website appearance – what image does it give about your business? Is it too cluttered? Too sparse? Is it covered with ads? Do you have clear About / Contact information, above the break (the point in the page where the visitor has to scroll down)? Or is your website expecting too much from your visitors – making them click around to a number of various places on your site, trying to find the information they need? Remember, the last thing you want to do is to frustrate a potential customer!

This post marks the first in a series ‘Designing a Successful Website Layout’. This series will show you how to optimize the appearance of your website, so that in those all-important seconds when a visitor discovers your site for the first time, they are impressed enough to stay; to read; to maybe click around a little bit. Or – even better – to return again.