How Friendly is Your Website?

You may love your website (or rather be in denial about the thousands you put into it 8 years ago), but is it really user friendly? Do people visit your site and want to hang out? Or buy? Here’s a recap of what I learned from an Entrepreneur.com article that can help you figure it out.

Your company website should be visually appealing, easy to navigate, and provide clear messaging that helps visitors know what they can expect from your site. And with the cost of website design coming down (as well as those DIY tools I introduced you to a few months ago), there’s no reason your website can’t compete with the big dogs.

Questions to Ask Yourself

Visual

• Is my site visually appealing?
• Do I have relevant and clear  photos to illustrate the page’s message?
• Do the visuals work together or against one another?

Messaging

• Is it clear who we are and what we do in the messaging?
• Do we provide clear calls to action?
• Is the web copy written to my audience?
• Do we use appropriate keywords in the copy?

Navigation

• How easy is it for someone to get from page to page?
• Can we simplify processes like checking out during a purchase?
• Do all the pages load quickly?

One quick way to get the answers to these questions from an unbiased viewer is by asking friends, family, employees or customers to answer them for you. They may see things (like typos and dead links) that you just can’t see anymore. Or conduct usability tests. Entrepreneur.com recommends:

• Loop11
• Usabilla
• Userfly
• UserTesting
• UserZoom

And don’t be stagnant with your site! It’s a good idea to freshen it up a few times a year, with new images and copy. Major redesigns can be done more infrequently or as need arises.