It really isn’t about you. It’s about your prospects, customers and clients.The UXD, or “User Experience Design”, in web terminology, is less a matter of aesthetic preference, and more so the intuitiveness of an overall interface. In sales terms, it is the process of developing online relationships.
The user experience (UX) begins with how a person feels about using a product, a service, a system, your website, Aha! User experience is, well, experiential. It includes a person’s perceptions of practicality, ease of use, efficiency, intuitiveness. Yet, user experience is dynamic because its common practices change as does technology (web browsers, devices, etc.).
Most of all, your user experience began even before the user knew who you were – well before he or she reached your organization’s website.
Why? Because the user experience began with a search – user-initiated search behavior.
Therefore, it’s only natural that development of your site begin with:
1. A thorough understanding of user-initiated search behavior and keyword research to reach “Page 1” of the search result (above your online competitors)
2. Driving relevant, qualified click-through traffic to your site
3. Keeping your treasured, qualified visitors engaged long enough to begin the conversion process
4. And finally, converting a remaining percentage to take an action: place an order, request info, sign up for a newsletter, download a white paper
Let’s bring it back down for a moment and focus on just one small area – navigation. Studies on user behavior have shown that the right side of a website is the least effective placement for navigation, so we suggest keeping all “navigation titles” in the left column or all across the top. For ecommerce sites, horizontal navigation at the top of a site is typically used for broad product categories, company info and contact, while vertical navigation on the left is commonly used to categorize products in a line or product lines themselves – with drop-across menus, or “fly-outs”, that list sub-categories. On the homepage, all of this is in an effort to get your prospect to the exact product they’re looking for in as few clicks as humanly possible.
As it applies to search engine optimization (SEO), our primary concern is that actual navigation titles be “search relevant.” That is to say are based on user behavior and experience. Users don’t search for singular words. Three is the average number of words used in Google searches. Therefore, using singular words like “print”, “web”, “horse”, “car” as your navigation titles, doesn’t give the search engines much to work with to help you make a connection. Think about it for a moment. That’s a big disconnect.
Singular terms are vague, severely impact your ability to increase PR (page rank) and, above all, fail to connect you with relevant site traffic. Using longer tail keywords in your navigation is a best practice for both SEO and UX. That’s about it for today’s lesson. Here’s your take away – If you want terrific traffic, you’ve got to provide a great experience.
