How to put your web site to work
What’s keeping visitors from seeing your properties? Why aren’t they making enquiries? Why don’t they register for your newsletter?
Web usability guru, Jakob Nielsen, explains:
“Usability is a necessary condition for survival. If a web site is difficult to use, people leave. If the home page fails to clearly state what a company offers, people leave. If users get lost on a web site, they leave. If a web site’s information is hard to read or doesn’t answer users’ key questions, they leave. Note a pattern here? There are plenty of other web sites available; leaving is the first line of defense when users encounter a difficulty.”
Check if your web site passes these ten usability tests, extracted from this 6-part Internet essentials article.
1. What is your web site about?
If a first-time visitor to your web site can’t figure out what your web site is about within 8 seconds, they’ll leave. Within that time, if you haven’t identified the purpose of your site and given them a reason to stay – they’ll leave, probably for good.
2. Intrusive advertising?
People hate adverts, especially pop-ups, pop-unders and all the other variants that intrude into their browsing experience. Every time you display an advert, you show it instead of your main content. Even done well, it’s one more choice for a visitor to make – see your properties, or the advert, or leave.
3. Consistent navigation?
Does your site answer the visitor’s unspoken questions? – Where am I?, Where have I been?, Where can I go?, Where is home? Most visitors, if they are ever in any doubt about these points will solve their uncertainty by leaving.
4. Quality content?
Visitors arrive at your web site in the hope and expectation that you’ll satisfy their desire for information. To keep them interested your content must be up-to-date, relevant, concise and accurate. Second-rate content tells them you don’t care about them, haven’t considered their needs and can’t be relied upon.
5. Multimedia?
Many web sites use animation, music and gadgets because web designers want to have fun experimenting with them. They almost always cost you visitors who flee your site as soon as they encounter such obstacles. Enlist some real users to test your site and give you feedback – because anything that gets between the visitor and your properties must be eliminated.
6. Readable?
Text can be made hard to read by making it small, using poor colour contrast, using strange fonts, weird alignment and inconsistent formatting. The words on your web site act as your 24-hour sales consultant and, if you spend time crafting a message, make sure the formatting doesn’t prevent visitors from reading it.
7. Fast?
Page load times should be kept to a minimum because visitors won’t wait. This applies to every aspect of your web site – all the images, even the way the text is formatted. Make sure your web server responds reliably, promptly and consistently too.
8. Registration required?
Ask your visitors to register for your newsletter or receive email updates, even give them an incentive for doing so. Never insist they register before showing them property details. Until you give them something, or interact with them in some way, they have no reason to trust you with their contact details.
9. Credible?
There are a few pages visitors expect to see, because they’re now considered ‘standard equipment’. If they’re missing, your visitors wonder what else is missing from your company. Make sure you have pages for frequently asked questions, privacy, about us and contact us.
10. Tested?
Web sites look and behave differently when using different computers and browsers. Take the time to test your web site on common computers, browsers and screen resolutions to avoid any nasty surprises.
Summary
The most important part of your entire web site is the first thing a visitor sees. That’s why you need to avoid design errors like banners, adverts, logo animation, mission statements and splash pages. Your web site navigation needs to be clear, unambiguous, and consistent throughout.
Once you’ve finished designing your web site, make a point of constantly testing new things – even if you currently have a web site that is doing well. By tracking your results, you can keep visitors on your site longer, help them find what they’re looking for more quickly, and convert them into prospective clients more reliably.
More hints, tips and examples are contained in this 6-part Internet essentials article.
Praised for its outstanding usability, Kyero.com was voted Best Spanish property portal and Best International property portal in the 2007 CNBC property awards.
Estate agents advertising on Kyero.com save time and money by downloading an exclusive web kit, instantly solving web site usability and marketing issues.
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