When you set out to build a website, you increase the odds of achieving your goals if you include some crucial elements. These elements work in concert with each other. They support one another. We wanted to round them out and briefly explain their place in relation to good website usability.
Learn them, improve them and ensure your website is a huge success. Ignore them at your own peril.
Website Navigation
Website visitors are in a hurry. If they feel that the navigation system is confusing, misplaced, vague, or invisible they quickly navigate away and never return. High bounce rate signals low usability.
For example, instead of calling Products, Services or using generic phrases like What we do, Who We Are it’s always better to call out actual products and services. In this case, it could be Mowing, UX Design, Brand Communication, and so on.
If you have too many items to fit in the navigation menu, make logical groups using techniques like card-sorting.
Different people navigate differently. Some start from the homepage. Some start from the about page. Some arrive from a blog article. Some prefer using the search feature.
Provide many ways to make accessing the contents easy.
Ultimately, that’s the goal of a good navigation system.
Website Design & Layout
Website is one place where snap judgments galore.
When browsing a website for the first time, users are constantly looking for cues that the website has what they came looking for.
It’s the job of the website designer or strategist to ensure the visitor that they’re in the right place… and make them continue browsing.
If we don’t provide them that assurance — through written content, visuals, and tone of voice — they bounce to a different website in a jiffy.
The website design itself plays a huge role in establishing credibility of your business, making a visitor stay on the website and take the action you want them to.
Responsive Design
Is it news to you that visits from mobile phones have already overtaken desktop visits globally (52% vs 45%)?
In India, it is 73% vs 26.5%. For some business websites, we have seen mobile visits to be as high as 95%.
That’s why at Rillusion, we always take a mobile-first approach. Our designs are mobile-responsive towards all types of devices and screen sizes, right from the get-go. Increasingly, the internet will be accessible on larger devices like tablets and TVs. It’s better to get ready for such a shift.
Content Writing
Content (a.k.a copywriting) is a cornerstone aspect of great website usability. Good content stops the reader in their tracks, gives them hope, makes the offer credible and creates the opportunity to change their lives. And it’s easy to miss all the above with careless, uninspiring writing. Creating relevant content using SEO analysis is how your business attracts strangers from even the farthest corners of the globe who are eager to do business with you.
Call to Action
If all a website visitor does is to land on your website, consume the rich variety of content that you’ve carefully assembled and exits without leaving a trace, it only means that you’ve lost a wonderful opportunity.
What should you do instead?
After you ensure they’ve benefited from the visit, make them move one step closer to your business. Ask them to download a free guide, get your online course, subscribe to your newsletter, ask for a demo, leave their contact information, write a comment, apply for a review copy, and so on. This is how you develop new prospects and customers.
Make the call to action buttons clear, visible, and aesthetically pleasing.
Testimonials, Case Studies, Etc.
You can say the truest facts about your business, and they can still sound unbelievable. But if the same facts are uttered through the voice of actual users or customers of your offering, they instantly become authentic.
Case studies, success stories, and testimonials powerfully build credibility for your business. Place them strategically in product or service pages, pricing page, contact page — particularly near call to action buttons.
If you’re making a huge claim, take the help of a credibility builder like a testimonial.
An Opt-in Offer
An opt-in offer is a free email course, newsletter, ebook, downloadable PDF docs — or something such. You offer it in exchange for your prospects’ contact information — generally email address. When someone takes up your offer, it means that they’ve moved one step closer to doing business with you and have become a prospect (or lead). You can warm them up further through subsequent email (drip) campaigns.
Story-telling
Humans bond through well-told stories. Master storytellers are excellent at persuasion. When you employ solid storytelling arcs in your about page and offering pages, your business becomes a magnet of an eager audience. You can incorporate emotional storytelling secrets in all aspects of your business communication and experience great benefits.
FAQ Section
Customers have all sorts of questions before making the purchase. It’s your responsibility to anticipate them and address them in the best possible way. This is where a FAQs section becomes handy. Gather all the customers that your customers ask before buying your product or service. Organize them neatly by topic, product, use case or other applicable categories. Since the FAQ page naturally gets filled with keywords, it brings the added benefit of offering great SEO value.
Contact Information
You probably won’t miss this. Displaying a proper mailing address, email address and phone will indicate that you are a real business. It brings confidence to a prospective user. It will set you apart from sketchy businesses that are scattered all over the internet. Including a physical address will also help your website rank in local searches.
Conclusion
No matter what the size of your website is, you’ll be better off if you incorporate all the ten elements discussed above. Every website hoping to touch another user, customer, or person should have an opt-in offer. It should have a pleasing website design. Answer the questions of website visitors. Be persuasive with stories. Mention the contact info clearly. Support your offerings using testimonials. And make it easy to engage with the business. If you do this, the success of your website is inevitable.
