Why You Need a User-Friendly Website
In web marketing, a useless website can be successful, and an excellent website can be a waste of time. That’s a paradox, but it’s true. Internet viewers have been trained by the top rated sites in the world to look for professional quality pages. Anything less than the standard in web design is instantly perceived as amateur, difficult to read, and probably written by someone who doesn’t even understand the subject matter.
Yes, today’s professional website should be easy to navigate, expertly designed and a “painless” experience that will not try the patience of viewers. Not only will human beings be put off by a poorly designed page, but even search engines like Yahoo and Google will discriminate against websites that are flooded with ads, or that feature fancy graphics and animation instead of relevant text. Quality web design is simply a matter of web page optimization.
Over at Daily Blog Tips, author Steven Snell focuses on four characteristics of user-friendly websites. They include: page load speed, accessibility, navigation and informative content. Indeed, very few users will patiently wait for a website that loads heavy graphics or thousands of text characters on the first page. Internet users desire simplicity, and if the site is effectively designed, they will click through to the various pages. Users also want to be able to easily discern how to navigate through the site.
Links and tabs should be clear and not too complicated to work. Last but not least, webmasters must include the most relevant content at the front of the page. It’s not enough to have great content on page 30. You must provide the user exactly what he/she wants in record time! Designers should also be careful with mismatching colors or colors that strain a viewer’s eyes. Cheap looking graphics (as opposed to quality photography and logos) are also a no-go in the modern age.
Why do you need a user-friendly, professional site? In short, because you usually only get one chance with your randomly visiting website customer. If the customer leaves in frustration he or she will likely never return. You have been associated with negative emotions, and a bad shopping experience. You’re only hope at that point is to completely redesign your site and hope the user forgets your name!
Take your audience into consideration. Build a site for them, not for yourself or for your associates. Web marketing is about targeted advertising, and so it’s all about pleasing your customer.
