Guide
your visitor through your site
Have you ever been frustrated at a Web site?
Have you sat there with a goal, trying to work your way through the site, trying to accomplish what you came there for, but not able to? And clicked away in frustration? Of course you have. Because so many poor sites exist.
Your Web site shouldn't be one of the poor ones. And you can help your site visitors accomplish their goals with content that works for them.
Think of your Web site in terms of how a visitor wants to use it, not how you want them to use it. Ask yourself what people want to eventually do when they land at the home page. Where do they want to go next? With what goal?
Give
your home page doors
That means if you have more than one audience,
then you should offer more than one door in, even if they end up in the
same place later. A recruiting company will have two types of people go to
their home page: employers wanting to hire, and employees wanting to get
hired. So the home page needs two doors in, guiding users to the content
relevant to them. Either type of visitor could go to the About page, the
Contact page or the Services page later, but first they want reassurance
that they'll find information specific to their own needs.
OK, they're in. Now what? Depending on how complicated your site and their search, they'll want to progress through the site. Picture a path that your visitor will follow. And make it easy for them to find the way with words in the form of germane content (talking their talk), directions (calls to action) and signage (the words on buttons or callouts).
Meet
your goals too
This isn't only about the visitor's experience, by
the way. You can use this "path" to gently guide the visitor in the
direction you want them to go. If you want them to go straight from the
Home page to the Products page, you can make that the obvious choice, not
Contact or About or Case Studies. But also be sensitive to what they want
to do. You have to find the balance. It might be they want to start at
Case Studies, and will be frustrated if it's difficult to find that
link.
Until next month,
Sharon
