Houston wants great website design, but you can\u2019t make an impact if you don\u2019t put what you know about your audience into action.<\/p>\n
Visitor centricity means knowing what a visitor wants to see. Your ideas of what a website should look like may not be what visitors want. Think of it this way.<\/p>\n
What makes you leave a website quicker than a jack rabbit?<\/p>\n
Popups (but not so much anymore, since the blockers are very effective nowadays). Flashing print in a color clashing with the site\u2019s color scheme? Or more like flashing anything? Overcrowded sites and navigation links that don\u2019t work?<\/p>\n
Optimized for your keyword, but the site doesn\u2019t have anything to do with what you\u2019re looking for?<\/p>\n
Which colors do you gravitate towards? Blues, reds, or plain old black and white?<\/p>\n
Does color really matter?<\/p>\n
Now think about what makes your audience leave.<\/p>\n
People think of website design mostly as visual impact, meaning color and graphics. Color and style are important, but there are many other things going on behind the scenes to entice people to visit, stay a while, and return time and time again.<\/p>\n
When people linger and revisit, your chances of making a sale increase. You have one chance to get it right. You have one opportunity to make an impression.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019ve spent any time surfing, you know that the sites with high visitor count and conversions have one thing in common. They all capture our interest.<\/p>\n
Visitor centric websites have 9 things in common. For starters, they<\/p>\n
Make good on a promise. A visitor clicked on you in the search results for a reason. Whether they want to buy your product online, read the latest news from your company, or find a how-to, they have a purpose for visiting you.<\/p>\n
Are easy to navigate. Navigation should be intuitive. Words used in the top menu and side menus, as well as in the footer should be logical. The visitor should get exactly what he assumes he\u2019s clicking on.<\/p>\n
Provides instant gratification. That\u2019s why most of us use the internet. We want something, and we want it now. Make sure what your visitors want is there.<\/p>\n
Six design elements ensure that you have the first three.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t make visitors think too much. Everything you put on your pages, from nav bars, to photos and graphics, to text should be logical and obvious. Everything on your pages should be relevant to each other. You don\u2019t want to talk about dogs when your site is about cats.<\/p>\n
Have scan-able content. Most people eyeball pages than read read verbatim. This means what a viewer sees should be easy on the eye. Graphics and photos should be appropriately sized and the same goes for text. Not too big, not too small, but just right.<\/p>\n
Scan-able content also means unclutter. Uncluttering is a good use of white space. Don\u2019t try to cram everything on one page, because it is information overload. Break up the important, pertinent information, making it easy for your visitors to find.<\/p>\n
Make sure links aren\u2019t broken. Nothing frustrates a visitor more than clicking on a link and seeing \u201cpage not found\u201d. How many times do you think that a visitor will return, much less share, your information or recommend your company if you can\u2019t make your links work?<\/p>\n
Make sure your contact, whether a form, email address or phone number, is on all your pages.<\/p>\n
Great content means not only the writing, but a good use of keywords. Don\u2019t be misleading with the keywords, otherwise a visitor will leave angry at your trickery.<\/p>\n
Test, test, and test. Invite your current and entice potential customers to visit a prototype before you go live. Ruthlessly ask for feedback on your social media sites. How do you like the color? Were you able to find everything you needed? What did you dislike? What do you want to see? Then adjust.<\/p>\n
Designing a great website isn\u2019t hard if you build your website around visitor needs and anticipate their wants. Simplicity and ease of use are really the tricks keep visitors exploring your pages.<\/p>\n
Why be ordinary?<\/p>\n
Houston\u2019s Directory One can help you be extraordinary with that critical first impression.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Houston wants great website design, but you can\u2019t make an impact if you don\u2019t put what you know about your audience into action. Visitor centricity means knowing what a visitor wants to see. Your ideas of what a website should look like may not be what visitors want. Think of it this way. What makes you leave a website quicker than a jack rabbit? Popups (but not so much anymore, since the blockers are very effective nowadays). Flashing print in a color clashing with the site\u2019s color scheme? Or more like flashing anything? Overcrowded sites and navigation links that don\u2019t work? Optimized for your keyword, but the site doesn\u2019t have anything to do with what you\u2019re looking for? Which colors do you gravitate towards? Blues, reds, or plain old black and white? Does color really matter? Now think about what makes your audience leave. People think of website design mostly as visual impact, meaning color and graphics. Color and style are important, but there are many other things going on behind the scenes to entice people to visit, stay a while, and return time and time again. When people linger and revisit, your chances of making a sale increase. You<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4663,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[495],"tags":[905,903,904,906,907],"class_list":["post-2398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-website-development-design","tag-effective-website-design-tips","tag-user-friendly-website-design","tag-web-design-best-practices","tag-website-design-visualizations","tag-website-ux-design"],"yoast_head":"\n