Nowadays, everything is instant.  Think about it:  instant messages, instant coffee, instant food.  Add the Internet to this mix, and you’ll find that most of us have an ‘I want it NOW’ mindset.  Information is easily accessible online, and if you can’t find it here, you will definitely find it there.  How often do you search for a key-phrase on Google, open pages that seem relevant, and then close them just as quickly until you find just one that provides the information you were looking for?

Finding information is what the Internet is primarily used for.  With billions of website competing against each other for attention, how can your website a) attract visitors, and b) make sure they stay on your site, by finding what they are looking for easily?

Certainly, one way to ensure quality traffic is through search engine optimisation (SEO), but SEO alone is not enough.  A website has to be developed well in order to ensure a rewarding browsing experience for visitors, and good SEO results for the site.

When developing a website, the most important thing to remember is:  don’t make your users think.  Tell them what you want them to do (i.e. “book here” or “request brochure”), and make sure your call-to-action buttons are clearly visible.

Keep in mind that Internet users rarely read content – they are more likely to scan through a page until they find what they are looking for.  Aim to make content clear and easy to read by bolding key-phrases and including links to relevant pages within your own website containing more information.

An additional key factor is a clear and simple navigation system.  Let your users know where they are on the website by using <H> (heading) tags and highlighting the particular page in the navigation pane.  A good idea is to include a search box on your website.  Tracking what users are searching for could give you an indication of what is missing on your website, or what information is not easily findable. It will also reveal what sort of information visitors would like to see.   What you think might be quite logical to find on the website might not be as easy for your visitors to source.  Consider testing the website on real users (even friends!), or make use of Google Analytics, which is a free tool that can help identify problem areas on your website.

Lastly, title and meta tags on each page are vital.  Title tags will not be seen by your visitors, but they contain keywords related to each page on your website and describe the page’s content to search engine spiders.  Meta tags are used by search engines as a search result description for your website, and hence play a big role in attracting visitors to your site

Good website development and design might not be the prettiest things to implement, but easy navigation, combined with high-quality content amongst other things, will ensure return visitors and higher ROI.