Your website should be a guided tour for your users, not a journey without a map.
You want your users to have an easy and effective journey that allows them access to information quickly. If they are unable to find what your business offers, how you can be contacted or other key points of interest, then no matter the design or loading speed it won’t result in desired outcomes. Ensure all links, pages and calls-to-action on the website make for a smooth experience so customers get what they need with ease!
So how do you fix that when you redesign?
Part of it is proper content hierarchies and how they play into user experience.
Content hierarchy involves the strategic placement of content on your site to create a particular user journey with the least amount of friction.
It’s providing the right amount of information, not an indiscriminate dump of every detail about your product or service.
It’s making sure your intended calls-to-action are in targeted locations.
It’s about thinking through the user’s experience. What do they need? When do they need it? How can we make those things simple and easy at every step?
Tips for making your website easier to navigate
Navigation Bar
They don’t call it a navigation bar for nothing. This should be the first element of your website that you look at with a critical eye. Afterall, you can’t expect to be considered a good website without a good navigation bar.
For starters, you’ll want to make sure that you choose the right categories for the navigation bar. As a retailer, make sure you separate your product groups properly and don’t have too many first tier categories.
Breadcrumbs
Leaving a trail of “breadcrumbs” on your website can make it easier for shoppers to find their way around. It’s like creating an interactive map that shows them where they are and how to return back – all while giving customers a birdseye view into what each category holds!
As your customers navigate through the site, breadcrumbs light their way to other products in a certain category. Whether they’re arriving via an ad campaign or social media share, visitors who come for one product may just stay around and discover more of what you have to offer!
Breadcrumbs can have an impact on your SEO as well as your ad campaigns. If users end up clicking around to other pages on your site, this reduces your page’s bounce rate, which signals to Google that your ad/product page/blog article was relevant to the user who clicked on it. This can lead to higher rankings for your keywords and lowered costs for your ad campaigns.
Three click rule
A user should be able to find any bit of information within 3 mouse clicks. With a good navigation bar (that includes a mega menu and search function), this shouldn’t be a problem.
Even if you don’t hold true to this rule very strictly, the concept is good to keep in mind. There’s nothing worse than a potential customer getting frustrated and leaving your site because they couldn’t find what they were looking for due to poor site structure.
Consistency
Customers enjoy a consistent experience when browsing through websites. Having the same look and feel on each page helps them quickly move from one section to another, or back again with ease.
Not only do shoppers want consistency on one website, but they like it across the internet as well. Though it’s nice to try to be innovative with your website, some things should be “standardised” when it comes to online shop website design.
For example, icons like the shopping basket and links to the homepage from the company logo are pretty much standard across the internet.
Contact us today about helping you build a new, fully responsive website.
If you have a project that you’d like to discuss with us, then get in touch today for an informal chat with a member of our team. We’re on hand to help you and your business grow online.