WordPress is now the top content management system on the Internet – not just for bloggers but for eCommerce sites, small businesses, and everything in between. But with the hundreds of wordpress themes, plugins, and configurations, it’s easy to loose sight of a few basic principles that will help you ensure your website is effective. Effective websites not only look good, but they help convert browsers into taking action. Here are a few tips to help you do just that.
(photo: juanpol)
Organize your Menu
The biggest problem with most websites is that you can’t find anything. You can’t have a jumbled menu, throw everything onto your homepage, and hope for the best. All that will bring you is a bunch of web traffic that turns around and leaves because they can’t figure out what you’re offering. I like to consider this problem similar to a well-structured grocery store:
- Am I overwhelmed when I walk in, or am I guided naturally onto a path?
- Is it easy to find out where everything is, and how to get there?
- If I’m looking for something specific, is it where I would expect to normally find it?
You don’t have to be selling cans of tomato soup for the analogy to ring true. An easy check is to ask someone new to your site to sit down and try to find something while you watch. Try not to cringe.
Where’s Your Call to Action
Another simple mistake is that businesses fail to ask for the sale. (This is a real world problem as well – so don’t feel bad if you’re shy about this.) If you’ve got a sales page that describes your product, do you ask them to call you for more information, or a BUY NOW button if that’s appropriate? How about on your about page, do you encourage them to move on and explore some more?
Never leave a visitor lingering. Always close with a call to action.
Fancy Doesn’t Mean Effective
Last but not least: graphics design. I think that in today’s web-orientated world, you need a site that looks professional and first class, and graphics design plays a big part in that. Many sites that I see go far overboard, with sidebars packed with widgets and headers stuffed with “flashtastic” effects that don’t actually add to the user experience – they distract from it. Remember, you only have seconds to convince your user that you have the knowledge and information they are seeking. They will not wait for your 15 minute movie to load, they don’t want hundreds of options, and they don’t need spinning or flashing effects to get your attention.
Keep it simple. Keep it professional. That’s all you need to be effective.
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