Five Steps to an Intuitive Website
By: Thomas Young, MBA
A Website becomes intuitive by effortlessly giving the user what they want. If you have done your homework and you have a solid Web strategy in place, then the user gets what they want and you get what you want. This then leads to benefits for the user and financial gains from the Website. This is easier said then done. Here are five major steps to develop an intuitive Website.
1. Market Research
Don’t go it alone. It is very important that you get user feedback either through usability testing or surveys. Otherwise, it is guess work and very difficult to make a site intuitive without knowing what users want. The best way to determine that is to ask the user. Also, conduct a thorough review of your competitor’s Website and determine what they do best.
2. Defined Web Strategy and Internet Marketing Plan
What do you want users to do on the Website? What pages do you want them to visit and why? Your Website can serve three major strategies, branding, lead generation or direct sales. Determine a strategy that works best and avoid making the Website an online brochure.
3. Key Design Elements
This is the heart and soul of what makes a Website intuitive. Using your market research data and focusing on your strategy will lead to an intuitive Website only if it is designed properly. Here are a few key areas to develop in your site design plan.
Does the home page make it clear what your business is all about? What you do and why you are better should be understood from the home page. Use tag lines that sum it all up.
The navigation should be easy to use and consistent on each page. Avoid multiple navigation systems as much as possible.
Content should be given special attention because this is what will bring visitors to your Website and keep them there. Check the following content areas:
- Adequate price and service information
- List purchase information
- The content must improve the quality of life or help the user do their job better
- Content must be brief, to the point and scannable
- Updates to the Website must be evident
Graphics and photos spice up your Website pages and make it easy to look at and read.
- Contrasting colors and graphics are easy on the eyes
- Photography enhances the visit
- Captions on the photos draw in the user
- Consistent fonts make it easy to read
Finally, interactive features such as forms and carts are a must along with contact information on every page along with locations listed. User testing helps figure out if you are on track in these areas.
4. Internet Marketing
Internet marketing brings users to the Website. This process also has to be intuitive so that search engines drive traffic and conversions can happen. Do these things:
Research the keywords people use to find your Website.
Develop a search engine strategy and make use of optimization and paid listings. Review Google.com and Yahoo.com for how this works.
Capture email addresses from your home page and send them a value-added newsletter, like this one.
Set up a value-added Blog. Check out www.IntuitiveBlog.com to see how we have done it.
5. Reviewing Statistics
Website statistics will inform you if your Website continues to be intuitive. Look for traffic patterns in the following:
Unique visitors
Referrers (where your visitors come from)
Search engine data
Page activity
Dig deeper into our Website to learn more about these five strategies and you are on your way to an intuitive Website.
Thomas Young is CEO of Intuitive Websites, LLC and an Internet marketing consultant based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. You can reach him at 719-481-4040 or tom@intuitivewebsites.com.
Five Steps to an Intuitive Website - To learn more about this author, visit Thomas Young's Website.
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