Whether your business is based online, with no kind of real-world outlet, or a brick-and-mortar store or business is your primary source of income, with an online presence to support it and help it to grow, your website building is a crucial element to your business.
Even the smallest of businesses today have a website and a social media presence.
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Your Site – Make It As A Tool
Your website is a fantastic tool. It can help you to attract new customers and give you a way to reach a much wider audience. A website can give you an easy way to communicate with your customers and a fast way to provide them with any information that they need.
Your website gives you a place to engage with your audience and a chance to grow loyal relationships, as well as somewhere to give them extra information and support.
On the other hand, it also offers your customers an easy way to reach you, ask questions, and provide honest reviews and feedback. Your website has many benefits, to both your business and your customers, and it’s easy to see why so many brands are investing so much time and money in theirs.
But, it’s only a useful tool if it’s used well. You might think that your website is easy to navigate, loads quickly, makes sense, and gives your customers what they need, quickly and without confusion.
But, you spend a lot of time on it, and it’s really not you that it needs to impress. If you don’t have the time it’s best to hire a web design company to do it for you.
Make Your Website Building User Friendly
A good website needs to be user-friendly, easy to navigate, and exceptionally simple. The layout needs to make sense, essential information needs to be easy to find, and if you sell online, the process should be straightforward and fast.
Take a second to look at your website as someone who has never been on it before, is it really user-friendly, or have you just gotten used to it?
Is Your Website Accessible?
Firstly, ask yourself if your site is accessible to everyone as you are having a website built. Do you have up-to-date translations installed? Is your font easy to read?
Are your photographs and graphics have descriptive and helpful alt text?
Do your videos include audio description services? Is it keyboard accessible, or are there areas that require a mouse to view?
Consider getting a focus group to spend some time on your site and offer your feedback. They might spot things that you don’t.
Does Your Website Work Well On All Screens?
Not everyone viewing your website will be doing it on a desktop computer. In fact, most of them probably won’t be. You might find that the majority of your viewers are on tablets, smartphones, and other devices.
But, chances are you work on it on a desktop or laptop with a large screen. What you see, isn’t necessarily the same as everyone else.
Take the time to check your site on different screen sizes, to make sure that it looks the same, all of the pictures and graphics fit, and the headings still make sense.
I’m always checking my mobile device when I publish a new blog post and poke around a few pages while I’m there.
Is Your Website Building Made For Speed?
Modern websites are huge. Yours probably has videos, photos, and plugins taking up space. This can make things slow.
But, most users will click away if a site doesn’t load within a few seconds, as we’ve become so used to instant internet access.
If your site is slow, consider optimizing images, hosting videos on YouTube and embedding them, and other website speeding-up techniques. If you are unsure, go to the Google page speed test page.
Of course, you can (and should) check the mobile speed. Sometimes plugins come and go, so be sure to monitor those too for your website as they can slow down the speed of your website. (As you can see below I have a little work to do on accessibility.)
Does The Navigation Make Sense On Your User-Friendly Website?
For your site to be easy to navigate it needs to have basic things like an easy-to-find menu and a search bar. But, beyond this, ask yourself if it makes sense.
Do your website categories and menu items make sense? If you came on looking for specific information, could you find it easily?
How Is Your Readability?
Many website owners are guilty of focusing so much on SEO and keywords that their text is hard to read and sounds unnatural when reading out loud.
Make sure it’s easy to read with headings, small paragraphs, and good writing, and SEO should follow. Break up large chunks of text with bullet points, pictures, and graphics.
Then make sure you proofread everything at least twice, with one real-through out loud to get a better idea of how it sounds.
Can Your Website Make Money?
Have you ever tried to make a transaction on your website? With a sharp change in consumer behaviors and trends towards buying online, if you are using your website as an eCommerce platform to sell products or a service, it’s essential to make sure that you have an up-to-date payment system.
Flexibility and choice are important to many customers, so look into systems, such as this site, that work for any bank or payment source for a smooth customer experience.
Have you ever tried to make a transaction on your website? That’s the way your website can make money.
Have you tested your links, your email sign-up form, and your social media buttons as your website is building a new look?
The best way to make sure things work is to check them for yourself. Do this regularly, don’t just assume that because it worked when you installed it, it always will. Make sure your website is also protected from being hacked.
Conclusion: Website Building To Increase Leads
In wrapping up, creating a user-friendly website is key to converting visitors into leads. Focus on clear navigation and fast loading times.
Make sure your content is easy to read and relevant, and use compelling calls to action that speak directly to your audience’s needs. Don’t clutter your pages. Keep the design clean and professional, ensuring it’s mobile-friendly too.
Regularly update your site with fresh content to keep users coming back. Remember, a simple contact form can make reaching out easy for potential leads.
By prioritizing user experience, your site can become a powerful tool for generating leads.
How often do you test for website usability yourself? Do you have someone to monitor your website for usability?
I’d love to know more in the comments below about how you are making your website more user-friendly.