Google is constantly changing their metrics for ranking sites based on SEO searches. As a business owner, this constantly means you have to keep up with those changes to outrank competitors. Is a site that is SEO (keyword) friendly, and mobile navigability still a top priority? Or, has to make a site easier to manoeuvre, and having faster loading rates more important? Regardless of the industry, your business is in if you want to rank atop the search engines, you need to make your site user-friendly. These are a few ways in which you can do just that, and improve site rank on Google, and other search engines.
1. Limit restrictions
Do you know those annoying popups which require you to input your email before a visitor can actually view your site? Or those annoying banner ads forcing visitors to click a link to move forward? Well, these are things that are restricting your page from being user-friendly and are in fact turning visitors away. Make the site as “limit-free” as possible. Remember, you are dealing with people, not programmers. Make the site as easy to use, navigate, and find content as possible.
2. KISS (keep it simple stupid)
In terms of having to create a username, make sure you make these easy for visitors to create. If they need to include: numbers, letters, symbols, etc, certain people are more likely to avoid creating a username. Also, make using features on the site simple. Allow visitors to “checkout” as a guest, rather than having to create an account when shopping online. Or make it easy for them to save usernames (and passwords if they choose to do so). This limits how much work they have to do when visiting your site, and makes it more likely they are going to visit again in the future.
3. State it upfront
Let’s take a shopping site as an example here. If you sell goods to consumers online but do not ship to certain countries, clearly list this on the main page. Or if you only accept Paypal as a payment form, inform visitors of this on the homepage. It not only limits visitor frustration (who can’t order after having gone through several steps to reach the checkout page) but lets visitors know what is required before they can shop on your site.
Regardless of your niche, industry, or end-customer, user-friendly sites are desired by all site visitors. In order to make your site a little easier to navigate and use, consider including a few of these programming features, when developing your online site for visitors.