Take
your Glasses Off!
Common
Sense Notes to Make Your Site Easier to Read
What
am I talking about? Well, you may have heard me or someone else
use the
word 'usability'.
Now, this covers a range of areas from helping people with visual
impairment
use your site to having panels of guests testing your website when
purchasing
items or finding products and services.
In fact it's a huge subject.
But let's just concentrate on some Quick 'n Easy
stuff.
For example, if your HTML font is smaller than size '2' then some
people
will struggle with it. (In fact they won't struggle - they'll just
bugger
off and go somewhere else)
The problem is that lots of designers try and make sites look
'cool' but
very often all it does is make your website harder to read.
Which means YOU WILL LOSE SALES. PERIOD.
A simple test I do when I'm asked to review a site is literally to
take
my glasses off.
If I can't easily see what I'm looking for - the
site
has failed.
A lot
of
sites have small fonts or grey fonts on a white background. Again
to look
cool. And again it's a pain in the backside if you can't see
well.
It's not just blind people.
It's people that might be old, or tired, or haven't got their
glasses
on or their contacts in or they could just be plain hung over.
And believe me, when I'm hung over, looking at a poncy website
that makes
my head spin to get the material I need won't be on my list of
sites to
re-visit.
Ok -
if you're
Disney or if you're a graphic designer and your website has to be
seen
to be slick and cool and whatever then you might want to do show
off.
But definitely not if you're anything like me and just want to get
more
business.
For example, I get loads of people telling me how 'basic' my
website looks.
For someone that's been making websites and working with the
internet
since 1997 I know it could 'look' a lot better.
But - I know my site statistics and I know it works. I'm on the
homepage
of Google world wide for my choice of key phrases and it converts
at almost
20%.
So, my 'basic' and naff site is staying put.
I used to have all that fancy stuff and it didn't work and so I
know better.
Because I want a site that works more than a site
that
looks 'trendy'.
Motorway signs don't look 'trendy' but they bloody well
work!
Pretty websites don't sell. Good content, easy navigation &
strong
calls to action do.
I *strongly* suggest you trust me on this.
In general, your potential customers couldn't give a monkey's
about what
your site looks like - they just want to know what you can do for
them
- and get the information that they're looking for as fast as
possible.
You
can address
other usability issues if you want - such as offering the ability
to change
font size or colour for visually impaired people.(Contact me if
you want
more info)
But what I'm trying to say here is just keep your content simple
and straightforward.
I suggest you don't try and show off - it rarely works.
Concentrate your time instead on getting more decent content
because your
time will be well spent.
10
quick Tips for making your website easier to read and
use:
1 - Make the navigation simple - along the
top
or left hand side of your website.
2 - Use a sensible sized font throughout. Use black on white.
3 -
Have a search box if your website is big - and put the search box
at the
TOP of the site where it can quickly be found.
4 - Use underlines for links. Or at least make
them look
like links.
5 - Put your important stuff at the top of the site(above
the
'fold').
6 -
Put your
contact details at the top - on every page. Not
really
usability but a very good idea and it makes a bigger difference
than you'd
think.
7 -
Don't
disable the "Back" button. Sooooo
annoying!
8 - Break Long text into short paragraphs and
text -
like this email!
9 - Use short column widths - again like in this
email!
10 - Have a Site Map.(Great for SEO
too)
Why not learn how to get the most out of your website and make
more money?
(I'm offering a f-r-e-e month's trial to our training system)
- Checkout http://www.mklink.com/freetrial/
to get More Tips & Advice.
'till next time,
Mike
Knight. MKLINK Internet
Marketing
Tips
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