1. Does Your Website Have an Effective Design & Layout

Many website owners are unclear on what “effective web design” really means. While a visually appealing website is important – it is equally important that elements on the page be designed with the intended goal of your website in mind. Here are a few areas to consider:

1. Professional Clean Design
2. Ease of Use
3. Clear Concise Navigation
4. Free of Defects & Errors
5. Appropriate Use of Images & Animations
6. Consistency of Design Elements

2. Content is King (You’ve heard it a thousand times)

Anytime you read an article about how to improve your website, the idea of having effective content arises (well it should). It is absolutely essential that your content be written for your intended audience. Additionally, the content needs to clearly and concisely tell your visitor what you NEED them to do next. To accomplish this task most effectively you’ll need to think about the following:

1. Whose the authority in your industry?
2. Consistent, Steady & Fresh Content (Consider Blogging!)
3. Clear Concise Messaging
4. Is your content Social Ready? Hum…

3. Can Your Target Audience Find You on the Web?

The first question to ask yourself is “Are you being found on the web” – Just how many visitors are you receiving each daily, weekly, monthly or yearly to your website. It’s imperative to have a clear marketing strategy to drive traffic to your website. Some of the key areas you need to consider are:

1. Inbound Links
2. On Page SEO techniques & strategies
3. Site Structure
   1. Meta Tags (Title & Description)
   2. XML Sitemaps (For Search Engines)
   3. Broken Links (How about those 301 Redirects)

4. You Have Visitors! GREAT! – Now where are the conversions?

This step can sometimes be the most baffling part of the process. You’re watching your analytics and you know for sure people are visiting your site. Well why the heck are they converting?? More questions to ask yourself and topics to think about:

1. Just where and what is my “Call To Action”?
2. Now what is that thing again – Ah “Above the Fold”
3. What long term value can I offer my visitors
   1. Newsletters
   2. E-Books
   3. Consistent Tips
4. I have a website – Why in the world do I need a landing page too?

The 4 steps outlined above are a foundational building block of what’s needed to generate more traffic and thus leads to your website. There’s so much to cover that a breakdown of these steps will be presented in 5 series, this being the first. Watch out for Part 2 – Coming Soon!

1) Help people find things easily

Your navigation system has to be on point. Do not force your visitors to go on an Easter egg hunt to find what they are looking for. Your main navigation should be clear to the visitor the minute they land on your site. Additionally, make sure that the content under each menu item is in line with the label of the menu item. For example, if you have a services tab for an accounting firm, don’t have contact on that page talking about disciplining your children. While that sounds ridiculous, believe it or not people actually do it. Make it as easy and concise as possible for your visitors to get what they want on demand.

2) Where am I?

Don’t make things so complicated that people don’t know where they are on your website. Using some sort of breadcrumb system is very helpful especially if you have a larger site. At the very least, label each page clearly so that the visitor can quickly identify where they are within your site. Going back to the navigational system, make sure your visitor can easily get back to where they came from without searching all over the place. Label, Label, Label and then label again.

3) Scrolling Forever!!!

Make sure your design size is inline with what the average user has in terms of screen resolution. The worst thing in the world is scrolling forever to see the content of a website. Again, make things easier for your visitor. According the w3shools.com, as of January 2009, 57% of web users have a screen resolution greater than 1028×768. That’s a pretty high number. Only 4% still use a screen resolution of 800×600.  So with this information in mind, you should design the size of your website to suit the majority of users. This decreases your chances of people leaving your site because of the dreadful horizontal scrolling.

4) Entry Pages

Entry pages, better known as splash pages serve as somewhat of a welcome page for your visitors. You will usually have a brief message, nice image or even flash presentation to great your visitors. While it’s been known to be a deterrent for web visitors and they may very well leave your site, these types of pages could serve a good purpose. That’s the key, serve a good purpose. If you opt to use an entry page, make sure that it offers some sort of value to your custom. For example, if you are an artist and want to use an entry page to showcase your work, then that might serve a good purpose. Otherwise, if you have an information only website and the user has to take an additional step by clicking on something to get to the meat of your website, then an entry page doesn’t serve a purpose at all.

5) Advertisements

Once again, this is an element of a website that can serve a useful purpose to your visitors. However, content is key. You should use banner ads and advertisements sparingly throughout your site. After, people won’t click on your link just to buy stuff from other people. They visit your site to find answers to a problem they are facing. Also, make sure if you are going to use advertisements and banner ads on your site, that they are relevant to your content. Most people won’t click on an ad about dog food if they are reading your site to learn how to fish.