ENSURING YOUR WEBSITE WORKS SMARTER
WHAT IS A SMARTER WEBSITE?
A smarter website is a website that employs techniques that engage its users. A smarter website
believes in web standards and a smarter website believes in usability. Read on to understand how to make your website work smarter and harder.
USABILITY - WHY IS IT IMPORTANT
The era of the internet where anyone can put a website together, upload it onto the internet
while creating a successful website is disappearing.
As the web progresses and new features are introduced, and the more that we become accustomed to how websites and search engines work, the
more impatient that we eventually become. A small percentage of people may still look beyond the first page of search results but as email spam
and irrelevant search results clutter our working day the less forgiving that we become and the more frustrated we get with bad web design.
Usability is one of the main key factors in keeping people interested
when browsing through a website. The recommended
number of words per page for usability and to provide enough content for search engines is between 300 and 500 words. A great analogy
coined by Jared Spool is that the homepage of a website is like a hotel lobby.
When visitors arrive at a hotel the lobby must represent the hotel favourably, it should be attractive,
spacious and welcoming. The lobby should make it easy for visitors to find the reception desk, find the lifts, and find out
any important information at a glance. Ultimately though, the hotel will be judged on the quality of its rooms.
A website's homepage should work in the same way, the homepage is ultimately what the site vistors pass through
to get to the rooms, in this case the content within the site. The homepage should be inviting and welcoming, it should be well designed
and it should communicate clearly the purpose of the site.
The content within a site should be easily accessible and engaging. Websites live and die due to the quality
of the content contained within them. The homepage however should be easily accessible from any of the pages within the site.
WEB STANDARDS
Web standards are important for a number of reasons. They make it easier for search engines to find and index
site content and it helps to ensure that no matter what the web browser site visitors use they see identical or almost identical
versions of the site. Read more about browser usage statistics in our effective web design articles.
OPTIMISATION
A smarter website doesn't get lost among the billions of other websites, smarter websites are
optimised to ensure that they have the best chance of reaching there intended target audience. Websites are an investment
and to succeed they require continual time and effort to ensure that they are always relevant.
BUSINESS PROCESSES
A smarter website should be more than just text and images, it should have a purpose and the website should
streamline tasks. For instance, if an e-commerce site sells goods but doesn't have a warehouse, each order
will need to be sent from the wholesaler. If the site takes over 30 orders a day the admin can become exhaustive. These
types of websites can automatically email the order details or interface directly with the wholesalers systems to have the orders dispatched,
even if the orders must first come to the company for packing before they are sent to the customer.
If the company is a solicitors dealing with mortgages then the case managers can be freed up by directing users
through a secure portal on the website. The portal can be set up to show when the mortgage will complete and the stages that
the mortgage application has left to complete. This can dramatically reduce the number of phone calls that a case manager
has to deal with, the less time that the case manager's spend on the phone the more they can accomplish and the higher the productivity
of the solicitors staff.
If you feel that your website is not performing to the best of its abilities try our website MOT service alternatively please contact us
via our electronic contact form or by telephone on 08456 43 92 43. For a free no obligation quote please complete our web design quote form.