Do this and you’ll have EVERYONE browsing your website

I am afraid to admit to this living in the 21st century but we have a serious epidemic of ‘bad websites’ on the web. Over the past year, I have come across hundreds of websites that I could not stay on for more than a minute. Why? This is because these websites had bad graphics, terrible content and it was too difficult to find the information I was looking for.
What baffles me is we have such great resources and tools out there (some of them are even free!) yet I can still find 10 websites in one day that not only look horrible but are so hard to browse.
The sad part is that we have yet to learn how important having an excellent website is - not just good but EXCELLENT. We need to start realizing that in this day and age, if you don’t have an excellent website, don’t expect your business to grow or even sustain itself for that matter. As someone who has worked with a few organizations that had to revamp their website, I learned a lot about what it takes to create (and maintain) a excellent one. And the key lesson I learned is that your website is the most powerful tool of your business, profession or organization.
So what do you have to ‘do’ to get your website visitors to stay on your site and explore what you have to offer? Make the user experience a top priority behind the strategy of your website.
Here are three key points to consider that will help you make your website user experience the most remarkable yet!
1. Design
“If you think good design is expensive, you should look at the cost of bad design.” –Ralf Speth
Heard of the saying “don’t judge a book by its cover?” Well the reason why we even came up with that saying in the first place is because indeed we as visual creatures do judge everything by its cover. Not to say that it’s right - but it happens! So what are you going to do about it? Make sure you have a beautifully designed website.
As I mentioned, we have multiple tools out there for you to use and even a lot of creative artistic people who can provide you with advice! Therefore it is possible to make sure that your website is appealing to the eye, you just have to sketch out some concepts and go from there.
That being said… I know what you are thinking and I am going to make sure I address it right now.
When it comes to designing a website, here are some common statements that I hear people making…. and to these I respond:
“I don’t have money to hire a developer.”
Guess what! You don’t have to hire a developer! Thankfully we have amazing products out there that allow you to be in control and create your own website, i.e. PageCloud. With a little creativity, you can drag and drop your website to perfection.
“I don’t know how to use Adobe Photoshop…”
You don’t need to use Adobe Photoshop to create a graphic! Take a look at tools such as Canva or even Picktochart - these allow you to create banners, posters, logos, info-graphics and so on with very easy user interfaces that help you along the way. No layers needed!
“What is the point? We have clients already.”
Yes, you do. But you know… someone can steal them from you! You should always strive to be ahead of the competition if you want to last. Right now, you have the advantage of already having an audience, so don’t force those people to find something better once it comes along!
“We paid a fortune for a contractor to develop it, so it’s already a great design!”
Sorry but just because you hired a contractor, it doesn’t mean that they did a great job. I will say that from experience I worked with two developers that had no idea about marketing or user experience. Although they were amazing at coding and graphics, they didn’t approach their work through the eyes of a marketer or UX designer. Make sure you do you homework before you spend any money… like I said there are many tools out there that don’t require you to spend a fortune.
2. Ease of Use
“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” –Steve Jobs
Now that we have the design of your website covered, it’s time to make sure your website is easy to use! The moment someone enters your homepage to the moment they leave, that person can either enjoy staying on your website and keep coming back or leave and never dare to come back.
The user experience of your website is everything. Don’t make the user dig for nor overwhelm them with information. Don’t have a template from the early 90's making your company/organization and your product look ancient. Oh, and please don’t have so many ads on the website that the visitors don’t know what you sell! All in all, make sure that you have a few people from the outside browse your website and give you feedback on how easy or hard it is to navigate along your site.
3. Content
“The easiest way to turn off your community members is to broadcast the same message across multiple channels. Instead, determine the kind of content that interests the members of your community in a way that is useful to them.”
― Joe Pulizzi
Last but not least - something can be pretty to look at but if it doesn’t provide you value then it’s easy to get bored with it very quickly. Content on a website is everything. On and on we hear about how content provides value to your audience and how it creates loyalty among your followers. You know you have an excellent product, service or cause to share with the world so make sure they know it!
In closing, I’d like to finish off by saying that websites are the foundation of your business, brand or organization. In this digital age, there is no room for mediocrity. Let’s make this internet world a beautiful one - there is no excuse for a bad website.
So please do me a favor, if you haven’t really put effort into your website… take a few hours this week with a team of marketers and/or creative minds and brainstorm on how you can make it better based on these three points!!
