How can I make my website easy to use and encourage customers to buy?

In today’s technological world your website is often the first port of call for potential customers...

A website should be interesting, easy to use, engaging and – if you are selling online – it should also be secure and reassuring.

Making your website attractive to customers

The key components to a website that’s easy to use are; presentation, navigation and content.  As a starting point, take a look at some websites that you like the look of and try to understand how they address each of these issues.

Presentation

The overall look and feel of your website is vital to its success. Basics, such as ensuring it maintains corporation’s brand identity, should always be covered and the following tips may be of use too:

• Stick to one or two typefaces that are common to most computers (eg Times New Roman, Arial)
• Try not to use too many colours
• Use simple, easy to download images
• Ensure the site is compatible with most computers and browsers
• Ask others – customers, friends, family, etc – for their opinion.

 

Navigation

The way customers find their way around your site also makes a big difference. Always make sure that it’s clear and simple to find information. A web designer can help you and you will want to consider certain navigation tools:

• Navigation panels – these are found at the top or left-hand-side of a web page and direct customers to various areas.  Whether in the form of text or graphics, these should appear in the same place on every page

• Location indicator devices (or breadcrumbs) – these show whereabouts a customer is in a site, often in conjunction with a navigation panel 

• Links - to take the customer back to the homepage, the top of a page or to other pages within your site

• Site maps – these show the layout of the site with links to specific areas 

• A search facility – these use keywords and are particularly useful on larger sites.

You should divide the site into key areas such as “Home”; “About us”; “Products & Services”; “Frequently asked questions (FAQs)” etc.  As a rule of thumb, your customer should never have to click more than three times from the homepage to reach their required page – this is known as the “three click rule”.

Creating content for your site

Customers should want to visit your site again and again and this can be achieved through carefully creating content that is appropriate and interesting to them. You should go through certain stages when designing and writing your site.

Planning: Brainstorm and get ideas down on paper. Always keep the customer in mind when writing and try to write in the second person (“you”) rather than the first (“I” or “we”) where possible.

Drafting: Be fluent and use clear, simple English.  Read what you’ve written out loud and edit it down to fewer words wherever possible. Make sure that you finish with a call to action clearly stating what you want the customer to do – “buy now” or “contact us” for example.

Reviewing: Leave a couple of days before you read through so that you are fresh. Check it for spelling and grammar errors and ask somebody else to have a read through to make sure it all makes sense.

Redrafting: Incorporate all comments that you’ve gathered and rewrite it.  If you have the time, wait another couple of days before you give it a final “polish”.

General writing tips

People read things on screen differently to how they do with something printed, so your writing will need to be concise and easy to understand. If you don’t feel that your grasp of English is good enough, using a professional copywriter may be a wise choice. The following tips may be of use if writing your own content:

• Readers will scan headlines and keywords before stopping when something captures their imagination. Make your headlines and captions eye-catching and imaginative 

• On your homepage, explain clearly and concisely what your business does and why a visitor to your site might find it of interest

• When explaining your products and services, write to the knowledge-level of your audience and don’t get too technical or use acronyms. Use illustrations to make your products more tangible

• Include customer case studies or testimonials to highlight your successes where possible

• Keep sentences and paragraphs short. Make sure each page is not too long and break them up where possible

• Use bullet points where you want to summarise key points

• Keep text justified to the left, as centred copy is more difficult to read

• Avoid setting all the text in capitals

• Avoid using coloured text except when drawing attention to a hyperlink

• Always ensure that the customer can contact you and not just through online methods – telephones and post still have their uses.
  
  

Generating trust with online buyers

If you run an online store, it’s a necessity to gain the trust of your customers through delivering privacy, security and reliability.  As they won’t have a physical, human presence to deal with, you will have to reassure them that you’re a trustworthy supplier. To help give this impression, the following policies may help:

• Be open and honest about your business and state clearly your policies on security and privacy

• Ensure there are channels where a customer can contact a person if necessary 

• Make sure encryption protocols are used on the site when asking for personal information.  Check out the Data Protection Act for more information on how to comply with storage and usage of customer information

• All card transactions should be carried out through secure software: a padlock icon will appear in the bottom-right hand corner of the customer’s web browser 

• Get your site validated by a trusted body if appropriate 

• Invest in software to protect yourself and your customers from hackers.

Whether you plan to sell online or not, investing some time in creating a good website can reap rewards for your business.