Optimizing for Visitors not Search Engines

By Michael Medeiros
Posted Monday, July 26, 2004

Most people feel that optimizing is to target the search engines alone. In my opinion, this is not the only case. Optimization requires a balance of traffic enhancements and a user friendly atmosphere that provides clear navigation. Most will agree it would be much better to have people accept offerings from a Site, rather than masses of people who do nothing. Here are some general tips and thought to make pages user-friendly.

Focus on the Offerings

Is something being offered? Make it clear for people to see what is being offered. Give an eye catching call to action for your offers. For example, if you’re a Real Estate Agent offering, “Free CMA’s,” make it clear for people to see the offer. Use font styles or colors to give the offers prominence over the rest of the text. Give links to offers a focal point on the page. This can be done by centering the offers or putting them on top of menus.

Keep your pages concise. Many search engine optimization programs and professionals suggest keeping your pages under 750 words. In my opinion, this is good for visitor optimization as well. Focus your page on the topic at hand. As in the example above, if someone clicks a link that reads, “Free CMA,” the next page should be about free CMA’s. Don’t waste valuable space describing a CMA. Give a concise explanation, and then a call to action.

Keep your pages fast

In addition to pages loading fast, they should be fast at delivering information. Consider why people are surfing the Internet. In my opinion, the internet is used for finding and retrieving information. Because of this, pages need to be concise. If I follow a link that says, “Available widgets,” that’s what I want to see on the next page, front and center. I want to find the information I am looking for quickly and easily.

Don’t overcrowd the sub-pages. While your front page is bound to have a variety of topics and links, your sub-pages should be concise. I often come across pages that focus on several topics. In my opinion this is a bad technique. Make two pages instead of one page with two topics. This helps establish fast information retrieval.

Use Headings for clear navigation

Headings are recognized by the search engines and they provide clear navigation. Using headings will give pages an outline format. This allows people who browse your pages to quickly find the information that is relevant to their needs.

Heading tags in HTML start with H1 and range through H6. In my opinion, you should only have one H1 tag on a page. This tag should describe the overall premise of the entire page. If there are multiple subheadings, use H2 tags. If there are additional subheadings, use the H3 tags and so forth. You can also use text bolding to call attention. Try to scatter your keywords throughout the headings so search engines will know what the page focuses on, but keep it user-friendly.

Using colors

Make it easy for people to read the text on the Webpage. Designers often get the urge to make their websites appear unique. Uniqueness is good, but hard to read text is bad. I strongly urge the use of colors to make different aspects of a page stand out. However, you should ensure that there is enough contrast to make the text standout. Pages that are hard to read or pages that have hidden text, loose credibility. This gives the impression of deception and is overall frustrating. Unless your site uses an overwhelming amount of Audio, make sure people can read the page.

Making your pages user friendly has many significant benefits. Your pages should achieve their goal with a limited amount of traffic. Surfers are more likely to bookmark the site. This will establish a user base and generate a larger audience as time progresses. Most importantly, other webmasters are more likely to put links to your Website.

About The Author
Michael Medeiros is the owner of Mjmls.com. Mjmls offers free advertising for the United States.
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