If you want your website to be attractive to website visitors, it must be user-friendly; but what is user-friendly, anyway?
To answer that question, let me go back in time for just a moment. User-friendly became a popular term back in the '90's when using a personal computer was not so friendly (and laptops were not even heard of). Back in those days in order to install software, you would need anywhere from a few to over twenty floppy disks to complete the installation. It was time consuming and instructions could be confusing. As companies developed software that was easier for the common man to install, software manufactures would advertise their software products as user-friendly.
Now, back to today and what user-friendly means in regard to your website and for your website visitor.
For the website visitor, user-friendly means fast and easy access to information.
Page Speed - "Fast"
- How fast a page loads is very important to the website visitor. Remember, they are looking for fast and easy.
- Pages that take too long to load will drive a website visitor away no matter how much effort, style or valuable information you have included. This is especially true with regard to the homepage.
- If you are planning to include audio or video content on a page within your website, be sure it does not take more than a few seconds to load or you may lose a potential lead by using these media formats.
Navigation - "Easy"
- A website visitor wants to be able to find the information they are looking for fast and easy.
- How your website is designed can drive them away or cause them to stay.
- Make sure that your website visitor can find what they want easily and get there quickly with just a click.
- Keep it simple by using navigation bars.
Information
- This is the reason a website visitor clicked on your site in the first place - they want information.
- Give them what they are looking for - information. A free MLS search should be on every website; but remember they can find homes for sale on an array of websites.
- Give them more. Website visitors are also looking for information about a community. They can find links to other websites on their own. Give them information about your community in your own words.
- Quality and original content will increase your chances of making a website visitor a future client.
The guidelines are simple, but then, great things usually are. And, although these guidelines are simplistic, they are not as easily implemented. It takes time and effort to build a quality site, especially when it comes to content.
Content is the information you present to the website visitor. You must think of the content you place on your site in the same terms as a listing presentation. The moment a website visitor clicks on your website link, they have just entered your front door. Although the website visitor will choose what links they click, how it is presented is up to you.
The virtual world of the Internet is a bits and bytes world. You don't have long to make a good impression. A good way to impress a visitor is to be user-friendly.
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