Web Site Usability

Website Design and Usability

Websites should be easy to use, but many aren’t. It’s kind of surprising since there are so many out there. You’d think everyone could agree on what looks good and adapt a good model to make it work for you.

Internet marketing for small businesses means succeeding despite setbacks. Not every initiative will work out, but a website should gradually get better.

The good news is that a website that is easy on users often can support search engine rankings as well. Search engines follow links, just like people. If you make it clear where a person should click, then a search engine will follow suit.

Don’t overwhelm a page with tons of links. Organize the website by topics or categories and let the user decide where to go. You can encourage their visit with special Calls to Action (banners and such). Search engines will go where you lead them as well.

A good tip for users and search engines is sub-navigation. If you cluster some links in an infobox to a special section of the website, people will appreciate the way you packaged some links. And search engines may reward you as well. It seems to help with search engine rankings when links are grouped together.

You can’t show everything at once. Too often, websites are packed with too much information – too many products, too many offers, too many navigation items. Be sensible. Look around at other websites and take advantage of what you see others doing well.

Internet marketing for small businesses can be successful when you carefully plan your website and make adjustments if you’ve found that you’ve gone down the wrong path. For example, use CSS to control your website, including fonts. If you set up your fonts on one CSS file, you can change your mind later and update all of your fonts from one place (rather than go back to every page).