Does your site encourage visitors to stick around?
If not, that’s not only losing you customers – it’s also potentially damaging your SEO (search engine optimization).
The user’s experience has always been an important part of SEO … but it’s becoming ever more important. After all, Google (and other search engines) want to serve up content that suits the user’s needs. The RankBrain algorithm, for instance, uses AI to understand the intention behind a user’s search, so that Google can serve up the most relevant results.
Good usability is easier for visitors to do what they want to do (e.g. find and purchase a product) … improving your bottom line, and potentially giving your SEO a very handy boost.
Here are five key usability principles to follow as you develop your digital marketing strategy:
1: Don’t Make Me Think
5 Usability Principles That Make Visitors Stick (and Boost Your SEO)
Steve Krug is a leading usability expert who has consulted for Apple and Bloomberg. His first law of usability is “Don’t Make Me Think” (which is also the title of his book). It’s not “nothing important should ever be more than two clicks away” or “speak the user’s language” or “be consistent”. It’s much more fundamental than that.
Many of your visitors will be preoccupied. They’re not fully focused on your site: they’re thinking about what to cook for dinner, or about the next task on their to-do list. You need to make it really easy for them to take the action they want to take: don’t make them hunt through a menu or sidebar to find the relevant link.
Did you know?
The brain represents just 2% of a person’s total body weight, but it accounts for 20% of the body’s energy use. Having to think too much definitely takes a toll!
Key takeaway:
Test your website to ensure it’s delivering a great user experience. Don’t make assumptions based on what the 'average user' might want: there is no such thing.
2: The Grunt Test
If you showed your website to a caveman, would they be able to “grunt” what your site is all about just from the homepage?
There’s a quick test for this, developed by Donald Miller, the founder of StoryBrand. It takes less than a minute and involves just three questions.
First, show your website to someone (who’s never seen it before) for five seconds, then close your laptop.
Then, ask them these three questions:
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