Usability is the ease of use and learnability of a human-made object. When it comes to websites, the term user friendly means website users can quickly and easily learn how to navigate and use the web page – which is, of course, ideal.
When it comes to creating a simple and intuitive user friendly website, there are a few basic rules you can reference to help get you started:
- Create Easy-to-Follow Navigation – Creating a user friendly website starts with creating quality navigation. Plan out your site with a site map that’s as simple and as intuitive as possible. Make sure to give each page a short and descriptive name, and double check that subpages relate to their main navigation option.
- Don’t Go Design Crazy – Website users are used to seeing the logo and name of a company on the top left of a page. They also instinctively go to either the top or the left to find a navigation menu. While you do need a professional, attractive design, don’t change so much that your customers can’t find where to click next.
- Quality, Easy to Scan Content – People rarely read everything on a page, so creating descriptive headers helps users scan for the exact information they are looking for. Plus, adding headers that include keywords is great way to help improve SEO results!
Remember: too much of anything is not a good thing, including content; don’t keyword stuff and go overboard and fill your entire site with text.
- Make Sure It’s Speedy – If websites take too long to load, users will simply hit the back button and look for another site. You should avoid adding large video or flash files, especially to your homepage. If your website doesn’t load within 6 seconds, you should take additional steps, such as compressing images and reducing the number of redirects, to speed up your website.
- Think Mobile – Many internet users now access the internet even when they’re on-the-go. Ideally your website should function smoothly on computers as well as mobile devices, including tablets and phones of various sizes.
When your website is both attractive and easy to use, customers are more likely to stick around longer and read more about what you can do for them.
Although there are many free platforms on which you can create a website, it can be difficult for business owners to find the time necessary to both create and manage an attractive, user-friendly, fully functional website that also ranks well in search engine results.
At eMarketing Concepts, we can work with you to discover what website design and content will work best for your business. We’ve built hundreds of websites for satisfied customers across all industries, and all websites we build are designed to be attractive, simple, intuitive and overall as user friendly as possible.
If you need help designing and/or optimizing your website to both be user friendly and rank well in search engine results, look no further than eMarketing Concepts.