Usability is a measure of how easy it is for a user to find information they are looking for, or to complete a task like buying something from a website. It is ease of use, and can include customer or user satisfaction.
It is extremely important to Internet marketing success for three main reasons:
- You’ll make money and actually get something from your search engine traffic if your usability is good.
- Almost all off-site Internet marketing will be enhanced if the quality of the website is increased. Usability will increase visitor satisfaction, which in turn increases traffic, which then increases your link opportunities (getting people to link to you) which enhances traffic and search engine rankings, which enhance traffic also.
- Search engines are slowly factoring usability into their rankings.
For example, one past client had a website with no additional product information, they just had an ‘off the shelf’ shopping cart. It ranks with targeted traffic, but it has hundreds of targeted visitors and NO sales! Traffic does no good without usability.
The most important step in ensuring the usability of your site is having people use it after it is designed and check for what people like, what they use, and what they don’t. You can never totally predict what customers will do, but by testing your site and avoiding some common errors, you can increase the usability of your website, which in turn increases your traffic and conversion ratio.
One way to get usability information tips is to visit competitor websites and identify what you liked about the site and what was annoying. Tell friends, family and colleagues to do the same, and consider their complaints and compliments as they navigate your site. Another is to actually conduct a test, either on your website, or on another: like this:
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Still another is to analyze the traffic you get using Google Analytics:
http://www.realtown.com/Israel/groups/socialmediamarketing/view/20909
If you're still looking for a good team to take your project to the next level, the authors of the 2010 Rothman Guide to Building Successful Websites are available for free, no obligation, creative consultations that you will not forget! Call 1-866-945-1113 or e-mail your contact info to info@socialmediasystems.