How well is your website performing? Is it easy to use? You might think your website is intuitive and easy to navigate but do your visitors agree? If you are considering a website redesign, why not ask the people that are using it how they feel you can improve the current layout and content? They will be able to tell you from an objective point of view the areas they feel you can improve on. On the other hand, if you only want to make minor changes, below are a few simple tweaks you can make to improve the overall usability of your website.

Install Analytics software
As discussed in a previous post, analytics software like Goole Analytics will give you an idea of how people interact with your website. The statistics derived from an Analytics package can be used to improve the overall performance of your website. For instance, analytics data will indicate which page has the highest exit rate. How can that page be improved in order to provide visitors with more information and ideally convert them to a lead?

Update your website’s content to include clear calls-to-action
Do visitors know what you want them to do on each page of the website? Even if you have well-optimised copy, make sure clear calls-to-action are included on each page and continuously monitor the website’s conversion rate to determine which pages can be improved.

Newsletter sign-up button
If you have newsletter, make sure the sign-up button is clearly visible – ideally above the fold with a clear call-to-action.

Search function
Can users search your website for the specific information they are looking for? If not, consider adding search capability to your website.

Contact page
Make sure all the information listed on your contact page is up to date. If you have an online contact form make sure it is working and ensure that whoever is responsible for replying to emails from the contact form is doing it promptly.

Maintaining a website requires an investment of time and the most successful websites are the ones that are updated and tweaked on a continuous basis.

I came across this presentation on SlideShare.net and think it gives a good overview of how the data derived from an analytics package (like Google Analytics) can be utilised to increase the return on investment of your website.

Have you used / are you using Analytics to determine how your website can be improved?

When faced with the challenge of developing a new website it is tempting to get the new website’s development and design done and think about Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) later.  By taking SEO in consideration during the initial stages of the development process you can save yourself a lot of time (and money).

The planning process is one of the most important stages in website development.  Pre-determine what type of pages you want on the website and what goals you would like to achieve through each web page.  Once that is done, create a keyword strategy for the website.  After finalising the keyword strategy, allocate keywords to each page before writing the content.  That being said, don’t force keywords into the copy.  Write for your human visitors first and once you are done, go back to see where relevant keywords can be inserted without breaking the flow of the copy.  Remember to include clear calls-to-action in your copy to ensure your visitors know what you want them to do next.

Your website’s structure plays an important role in usability.  By including a site map you will not only help human users to easily find what they are looking for but it will also indicate to search engines how they should index your website.  As a marketing tool a website should show return on investment hence the goal is to ensure that the website has a high conversion rate.  By measuring how visitors interact and engage with the website one can achieve the best possible conversion rate through continuous testing and tweaking.