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How to Prevent Your Customers From Getting Lost…

Author: Tanya Beaudoin   |   August 29th, 2012

Imagine if instead of a front door to your business you had a    labyrinth. That’s what it felt like when I tried to access my bank online.

Are you doing the same with your website? How to Maximize Your Website's Web DesignRecently I needed to find nearby locations of a bank branch, which shall remain nameless to protect the guilty! When I visited their website I scanned the page looking for “Locations” or “Branches” but I couldn’t find what I needed.

Eventually, I did find the information but it took a lot of searching and it soured my relationship with the bank. The bank website was very difficult to navigate and if I could have chosen another bank, I surely would have.

Having poor website navigation is the same as having a labyrinth at the entrance of your business. When you do this, your customers get lost before they even find your products and services!

I know it can be fun to come up with clever names for your website navigation, but what makes sense as navigation to you may not make sense to everyone. It’s better to keep your navigation concise and purposeful.

Usability expert, Stephen Krug, says it best in the title of his book – “Don’t Make Me Think!” Keep things simple and obvious. Your website visitors shouldn’t need a decoder ring to decipher your website to find the products, services or information they are after.

One of the most measurable symptoms of poor navigation and content structure is high bounce rates. That means your website visitors leave your site quickly because they cannot find what they came looking for.

Clear, user friendly, navigation is critical to your website success.

Hiring a professional to help you design your website is the best way to ensure your website navigation is user friendly. When designers talk about navigation, they not only mean the actual names of your links, but the way your website content is structured and grouped together.

While there are no “official” protocols on website navigation, a professional web designer will understand the unwritten rules on navigation naming conventions, content structure and navigation positioning. An effective navigation will improve customer satisfaction and your bottom line?

Are you ready to remove the road blocks preventing your customers from buying from you?

Find out how >> 


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