If your dealership has an online presence in the form of a
brochure or catalogue style website or you are thinking
about publishing one, then you need to be aware of a crucial
aspect of web design that is commonly overlooked. Site
usability is perhaps the most important aspect of web
design. It is the driving factor that will ensure that your
visitors return to your "brochure" style website repeatedly
and make purchases while they are there. Listed below are
nine crucial yet common mistakes regarding website
usability. If these mistakes have been made during the
design of your site, they should be fairly simple to
eliminate and will increase your website's appeal and your
bottom line.
1. No knowledge of your targeted online
market
If your up-sources include radio/television
advertising, newspaper ads and direct mail campaigns, but
your salespeople consistently write "walk-in" in the
up-source block of your sales log because it's easier than
asking the up how they heard about your promotion or
dealership, you have no accurate data on which to base
future ad campaigns. Web logs and/or web stats are excellent
tools for determining crucial information such as which
keywords your visitors used on a search engine and for what
purpose they arrived at your website. However; web stats are
only logged after a visitor has landed on your home page. If
you had nothing to do with a visitors arrival and you have
no idea how, why or what drove them to your website, then it
is impossible to accurately assess your web stats. It will
also be difficult to determine what type of web layout and
usability design will best suit your targeted market.
2. Not providing your visitors with what they
are searching for, immediately
A site visitor represents potential business.
Visitors are looking for information. They will continue to
navigate your site only if they get what they want as they
navigate. Provide only relevant information on your homepage
that is specific to the needs of your targeted market.
3. Not informing a visitor about your
business, immediately
Websites are often crammed with information,
but in no specific order or layout. This makes it difficult
to figure out what the site, (much less the business), is
all about! Visitors should be able to tell what your
business is about within five seconds of landing on your
homepage. You can achieve this by providing relevant, simple
and well dispersed information on the homepage and all
sub-pages. The navigation bar which contains links entitled
'about us' or 'what we do' can take visitors to more
detailed information, (sub-pages), about your business
should they decide to explore further, but they will never
go that far if the home page is confusing, cluttered and
unorganized.
4. No site-wide navigation
Site-wide links are important in any website,
especially brochure or catalogue style sites. They allow for
easy navigation to all pages within the site and reduce the
amount of time required to navigate your site. Visitors have
instant access to what they are looking for from any page.
These links also allow the search engine robots to cache
your pages much more efficiently and accurately. A great
place for site-wide links is at the bottom of each page.
Example:
|Home|Why Hire Us|Online Store|Contact
Us|Credentials|Biography| About Us|Links|
5. No sitemap
A sitemap is one mark of a well designed
website. Sitemaps provide a skeletal view of an entire site
on a single webpage and include links to every page within
the site. Site maps are specifically designed to provide
site information; however, they provide visitors with yet
one more way to efficiently navigate your site.
6. Pages take too long to load
The browser button used most often by web
surfers is the "BACK" button. If your homepage takes forever
to load, visitors will click it! Typical solutions for
slow-loading web pages: Remove unnecessary graphics, java
applets, flash movies or ad banners Don't use tables
improperly, (i.e. placing the entire page within the borders
of a single table) Don't place too much information on one
page. No more than 50-60KB if you expect potential customers
who utilize dial-up. Don't use gimmick or inferior hosting
services with low bandwidth resulting in slow data transfer
Don't use cluttered or improper .html code. An excellent
freeware .html validation program is available at -
http://www.htmlvalidator.com
7. Too much content/poor readability
"Readability" in web design includes factors
that are related to text as well as graphics and how well
the two work together. "Poor readability" can persuade
visitors to leave your site in a hurry. Poor readability
usually occurs due to the use of:
Undersized fonts
Improper headings
Repeated run-on sentences
Poor choices of font vs. graphics
colors/color combinations
Repeated "seamed" background images
A "seamed" background image is usually caused
by an image that is the wrong size for a specific
resolution. If your monitor is set at 1024 x 768 resolution,
then a background image used by a web designer who's monitor
is set at 800 x 600 resolution would be too small to fill
the background of your maximized browser window. The image
would automatically be duplicated by your browser to
"fill-in-the-gaps". This results in "seams" that, depending
on the image itself can be extremely annoying to the
visitor. A tiny .gif image consisting of two contrasting
colors positioned horizontally or vertically can utilize the
same "seaming" effect in a positive way to produce an
excellent web background and small file size.
An example of this effect can be observed
real-time at -
http://www.hurstcg.com
Tips to improve readability - Make use of
proper font size. Generally a font size of 10pt to 12pt will
ensure easy reading (once again, targeted market is
important here because, for example; a site targeting
primarily senior citizens would need to utilize a larger
font size) Make use of proper font types and use only one
font type through-out the site. Verdana or Arial fonts are
best for online reading Avoid using long and run-on
sentences. Break your long sentences into shorter, more
interesting statements Avoid the use of static, repeating or
seamed background images Utilize proper headings and provide
strategic links Keep your content free flowing and make your
point by providing properly placed bullets and tag lines
Shorten your paragraphs into two or three sentences each
8. Not testing your site before publishing
Testing or "de-bugging" your site before
publishing it on a web server is very important. You should
test for site load times, accuracy of navigation,
readability, content placement, browser compatibility etc.
Have others "proof read" the site for you to
assist in the elimination of errors.
Test to see if your site is compatible with
all major web browsers
Test all navigation and hyper-links for
accuracy
Test for readability errors
Test for *spelling mistakes and *grammatical
errors
Test the site load times
9. Not checking the web server log data/web
stats consistently
The server log is crucial to the ongoing
improvement of your site's usability factor and unique
visitor value factor, not to mention your online sales.
The web log can provide you with information
such as:
The most often utilized keywords that drive
traffic to your site
Website downtimes and their technical causes
Pages most visited and why Pages least
visited and why
Common exit pages and why
Through the proper utilization of the web log
you can determine exactly what needs to be "tweeked" to
ensure that visitors navigate your site long enough, steer
visitors toward specific pages and even gather email
addresses and other information from your visitors.
10. Not providing the name and contact
information for the owner of the site To some this may not
completely fit into the usability category. However; I have
friends who have repeatedly invested in online marketing and
pay-per-click campaigns to boost their unique visitor
traffic and conversion rates. Weeks or months go by and they
can't determine why their numbers are so erratic. Then
someone notices that the site owner information is
incomplete or missing all together. Once corrected the web
stats miraculously become legible and can be used to
accurately adjust the site for maximum conversion. Visitors
want to know who they are doing business with and that they
can actually contact a real person should the need ever
arise. The Bottom Line Ensuring that your e-business website
is user friendly before publishing it will pay off for you
in the long run. Good usability design will also reduce the
risk of throwing away precious advertising dollars. Your
site could offer the first legitimate and proven alternative
to gasoline, (for .20 cents per gallon). If the site is
confusing and difficult to navigate and visitors can't find
the information they want quickly, they will click their
"BACK" button before they ever discover your product.
*NOTE - You may have noticed an occasional text error or
"typo" in the above article. They were deliberately and
strategically placed. We realize that some people enjoy
locating and pointing out such errors and we strive to keep
our readers happy!
J.C. Hurst is the Internet Marketing Director for The
Ziegler Corporations, Inc. You may contact J.C. at
1.800.726.0510
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