How User-friendly is your site?

Successful websites have learnt the art of meeting their customers needs in the most helpful and user-friendly way.

The mantra is not just about providing information but to provide the information keeping in mind the potential customer’s requirements.

I was looking to upgrade my water purifier, and I visited a lot of websites and found out about the latest on water purifying techniques (RO process).I got a lot of information on several sites, and when I was ready to buy, I visited the site that was providing what I wanted. There was a link very well-placed at the top of the home page called “Buy”, I clicked on the link which brought me to a page with all the water purifying products, so far so good. I clicked on the model I was interested in and that took me to another page with detailed specifications. Pretty good, but where is the “Get your water purifier” link? I kept searching….I scrolled to the end of the page, I searched the entire site, the only thing I could find were toll free numbers, and when I called those numbers, the numbers were busy…it was quite frustrating.

Why did they not have an online buying option?

Or, why did they not feel the need to at least mention something about placing orders, I just kept searching for the link and could not find it. For businesses that sell through dealers, at least there should be some information on how to get the product.

Many websites probably do everything right but falter at the most important step:

Converting visitors into customers.

Providing useful content and online buying options are no longer additional functionalities that a website needs to have, these are essential functions that a website must possess, a must have, if you may, in order to be at par with the competition, and especially if you are in the business of selling products.

Websites should focus on what it is that their customer wants, instead of providing information just for the sake of it. For instance, instead of creating lengthy pages with detailed specifications, the detailed part can be linked to a pdf or separated out in another page with a link from the product page so that the information is accessible to visitors who wish to get more information on the products, and for visitors who do not want the additional information, they do not have to scroll till the end of the page to realize that the page only has specifications and does not lead to any other action (buying the product).There should be call to actions so that visitors can move around the website easily and can be guided into taking the desired action.

While working on the website layout it is important to involve content optimizers and internet marketers so that the website has the features that cater to the target population without compromising on the usability of the website.

Answering this question: – Why does my business exist?
Will ensure that most website owners will do what it takes to achieve their objective.