Sell More with a User-Friendly Web Site

By Leva Duell
Posted Thursday, October 7, 2004

Follow these tips to make your web site user friendly and increase sales.

Make it easy for prospective buyers to find what they are looking for.

Easy navigation is essential to keeping prospective buyers at your site. Provide plenty of links on your home page, giving visitors an overview of your web site's content and choices. Provide links to your home page and main sections (such as your order form, contact page, products, and articles) on every page. Visitors may not visit your pages in the sequence you would like them to. Provide a site map (table of contents) if your site has more than twenty pages. Make sure all links are working.

Make your web pages easy to read.

An easy-to-read, professionally-designed web site can maximize your sales. Use color and spacing to make your web pages easy to read. Dark text on a light background is easy to read. A hint of color softens the screen. Avoid text on dark and busy backgrounds. Break up your sales copy into short, easy-to-read sections and use subheadings to highlight benefits. Split up long pages into several pages.

Keep pages short.

Visitors should be able to see the important information, especially on your home page, without scrolling down. Studies show that more than half of the web surfers never scroll down past the first screen of information, so provide your benefits, site description, and USP at the top of the page.

Make it easy to contact you.

Provide your phone number, email address, and URL (web address) on every page. This will make it easier for people to go back to your web site.

Speed up your web site.

Your web site's speed has a significant impact on user loyalty. A slow web site will cost you sales. Visitors won't wait more than10 seconds for your web pages to load. Make your home page fast loading to keep visitors at your site.

A user-friendly site will sell more. Make your web site user friendly to keep visitors at your site, read your sales materials and buy from you.

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