Why this is important
The user experience on your website is a critical component of helping visitors feel comfortable, know the “lay of the land,” and making it easy for them to understand what to do next (without twisting their arm).

Your website navigation may not be the first thing a visitor looks at when they land on your site, but it is a critical component to their user experience. It’s almost like Google Maps, helping lead visitors to the destination they want to arrive at. Hence, it needs to be clear, easy to understand, and distraction free.

Thanks for visiting, Cuppa SEO Web Design.

I hope this video helps you create a better user experience on your website!

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On November 21, 2019, my book, A Holistic Guide to Online Marketing, was published.

I’d like to take a moment to express my gratitude to the Universe, my wife and kids, as well as Eric Olive (editor), Jon Wuebben (coach), Kathy Watson (editor), Robert Rubin (formatter), and Hannah Sandvold (graphic designer) for their expertise through this long, and often-times grueling process.

One of the best decisions I made early on was to gather a team of professionals to support the creation of the book — so all I had to do was write it!

What the Book is About

The book provides a global view of online marketing — looking at your website, blog and social media efforts as a whole.

In Part 1, three major disciplines are discussed and defined: SEO, user experience and conversion — providing a solid understanding of what each of these methodologies are, and why they’re important. 

In Parts 2 through 4, we dive into a practical approach on how to APPLY each of these methodologies to your website, blog and social media efforts, respectively. Chock-full of actionable steps on how to assess your website, blog and social media — the book can help new and savvy marketers make meaningful improvements to their online marketing efforts.

You can check out the book on Amazon.

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Penguins.

This was kind of a big deal because my wife and I have been Penguin fans for years. So, I thought it might be cool to get a set of sheets and pillowcases for our home, but …

… although the pillowcase was prominently featured on the cover — no page number was given. This is one of the most pervasive problems I’ve found in the world of catalogs, and it’s just a plain bad user experience (UX).

What is the reasoning behind not making it super easy for a potential customer to find what what you’ve presented to them on the cover? Maybe it’s so they’ll peruse the entire catalog and buy more, or maybe it’s just an oversight. Who knows

What I do know is, regardless of the reasoning, it’s still a bad UX. In my case I went from being excited to make a purchase (the reason for the catalog’s existence in the first place) to being mildly annoyed that this company was providing a bad experience.

So, instead of spending money, I decided to write this blog post about it.

What this has to do with web design …

Whether it’s a catalog, or a website, it’s got to be easy for people to find what they want! They should never have to dig around searching, hoping they stumble upon what they’re looking for. This is true whether you have a handful of products/services, or thousands of products like J. Crew does.

J. Crew has taken an immense amount of product and made it easy to drill down to exactly what you want.

Here’s J. Crew’s mega navigation: lots to choose from, yet precisely organized for ease of use …

And here’s what it looks like once you choose a category to peruse. The left-hand navigation on this page makes it easy to make choices that further sharpen results — all at a glance.

Now, imagine if J. Crew had taken the standpoint of the catalog cover with no page numbers. You’d have to scroll through ALL 341 items of their Shirt category to find what you’re looking for.

When it comes do web design, remember to make the user experience customer centric!

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That said, have you ever walked up to a door and pushed (or pulled) — and the door didn’t budge? I’m guessing yes. This poor user experience is the result of a poorly designed door.

The reason I bring this up is the other day I was entering a building after an appointment and I encountered some really good doors!

Before we go any further, let’s quickly define user experience so we’re all on the same page …

User experience is the positive, negative or neutral experience you have online or in the real world (what I like to call the analog world). It’s as simple as that!

From the instant I looked at them, I could tell these doors were well designed because I didn’t have to think about how to use them.

To enter the building, the vertical bars made it clear that the door needed to be pulled to be opened …

To leave the building, the horizontal bars clearly communicated they were to be pushed …

Now, this may not seem like a big deal, but if both sides of the door had ONLY horizontal bars or ONLY vertical bars, then the clarity of how to use the door is lost.

What this has to do with web design …

Well, a lot, actually.

When someone arrives on your website, you want things to be as clear and easy to understand as possible. Is it easy to find your products or services? How about ways to get in touch? Do you have one or two calls-to-action on your homepage, or do you have dozens like this one?

If you’re interested in geeky stuff like this, check out The Design of Everyday Things, by Don Norman. It’s chock-full of examples of products that have positive and negative user experiences.

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You can connect with them on an emotional level.

Here are a few ways to do that …

First Impressions

Once a user clicks on your website, you have between three and five seconds to show them what you’re all about in order to keep them there. If you don’t demonstrate that you have what they’re looking for in that time, they’ll move on to the next site. This is called the blink test. In order to pass it, you have to make a good first impression.

If your website is too busy, if it inundates the user with too much at once, or if it’s slow to load, that can elicit a negative user experience — and a negative emotional response — creating a bad first impression. Instead, focus on a few key images that are visually appealing, and give an idea of what your brand is like. You might even include an introductory video to let people know how you can help them. Whether it’s a a video, or text on the page, keep the focus on the VISITOR and their pain points. In other words, talk about benefits, benefits, benefits … At first glance, this advice may seem simple, but it’s often not followed. But a good user experience goes a long way in creating a positive emotional connection.

Oh, and by the way, stock photos will rarely engage with visitors emotionally. So if you have the budget, invest in original photography that places the website visitor front and center.

Usability

Aesthetics are great, but just as important in web design is how easy your site is to navigate. Is it clear and intuitive? Will it help the user go where they need to and find what they’re looking for? In other words, are next steps obvious?

A single menu across the top of each page of your site can go a long way in adding clarity.

In this age of instant gratification, a user will gain a certain amount of satisfaction, and even pleasure, from a website that makes it easy for them to see where they need to go, do what they came to do, and accomplish their overall goals quickly!

There are all sorts of ways to elicit an emotional response with your website, and different things work for different brands. So how do you know what your audience will like? Ask them. Do some research and determine what works for them, and what designs and layouts best evoke the emotional response you’re going for. Then use that data to create a website that will connect with your audience quickly and keep them using your site for a long time to come.

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Does online marketing leave you scratching your head?

If so, then join me at DreamBank on Sept. 10 for a workshop that will help you gain an understanding of SEO, user experience and conversion — and how to apply these methodologies to your website, blog and social media.

The workshop will be interactive, and chock-full of usable strategies!

Sign Up Now

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When I arrived on the site, I was instantly greeted by a pop-up (shown to the right) that asked me for my email address. In fact, it basically demanded my email address before I could shop the site.

What?

I’ve seen this before, and I’m sure I will see it again, and it’s a big mistake in the world of web design.

Yes, acquiring visitor emails to grow a company’s email list is a pretty simple, standard conversion strategy. But the way this company has implemented this strategy here carries a hefty cost because …

When a company is so blinded by a particular strategy, in this case attaining “new member” emails, they’re forgetting a couple of cornerstone concepts:

1. They were so focused on their conversion strategy that they forgot about their main goal — SELLING.
This company in business to sell product — first and foremost — not accrue email addresses. Having a nice email list can help with long-term relationship building and potential sales, but by restricting access to the site unless a visitor forks over personal information makes it impossible for visitors to shop without making a commitment of some kind — which is bad for business (and for the user experience, as we’ll soon see).

Why not let me shop and then have me sign up to become a member when I’m ready to complete the transaction? Attaining my email at the purchasing stage makes a lot more sense, doesn’t it? After I’ve had a chance to peruse the site, see what kinds of products you have, and place some in my cart? In this case, becoming a member and sharing my email feels a lot more natural.

2. They forgot about providing the very best user experience possible.
The second problem here is this conversion methodology — disallowing me from shopping the site unless I hand over personal information — is a poor user experience for the visitor. User experience is the positive, negative or neutral experience a visitor has online, or in the analog world for that matter. And when a visitor arrives, and is immediately faced with a brick wall to entering the site — it’s not going to make anyone feel comfortable or welcome, and it’s certainly not going to build trust.

What this company is doing breaks a cardinal rule … they’re making it all about themselves and their goals, instead of focusing on their visitors’ needs. Essentially, there’s an initial ask of each and every first-time visitor — a demand for something — without offering anything tangible in return. Visitors can only assume that if they sign up they’ll start receiving potentially unwanted emails from this company — and they don’t even know what’s for sale on the site!

As you can see, when it comes to website conversion, it’s important for an organization to understand what their top goals are, and how they can best connect with their customers and potential customers to attain those goals in an ethical way.

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Eliminating distraction is part of the essentialism philosophy. The less distraction we experience, the better chance we have of focusing on what’s really important.

In order to eliminate distraction, we must first identify what’s essential and what’s non-essential. Then, we then have to cut out the non-essential distractions.

According to Greg McKeown, author of Essentialism, “the Latin root of the word decision — cis or cid — literally means to cut … Since, ultimately, having fewer options actually makes a decision ‘easier on the eye and the brain,’ we must summon the discipline to get rid of options or activities that may be good, or even really good, but that get in the way.”

This is true in life, and on your website.

Contemplating the art of cutting out distraction made me think of the user experience (UX). Specifically, making things “easier on the eye and brain” is a cornerstone of the UX philosophy. Good UX makes it so a website visitor doesn’t have to think because we’ve removed the distraction.

If you’ve ever been on a website that had three navigations, half-a-dozen calls-to-action, and a slide show, you know what I mean.

I’m talking about something like this …

Think about the user experience on your website. Do you have opportunity to “get rid of options or activities that may be good, or even really good, but that get in the way?” Do you have more than 1-3 calls-to-action muddying the user experience? How about a slide show, or multiple navigations?

These are only a few of the ways distraction can creep into your website. But if you take a look, and talk with your team about what’s really essential, you’ll be able to cut out the distraction and improve the UX of your website.

As you may have guessed, this strategy has a way of improving your website conversion, as well.

Need help with the UX and conversion strategies on your website?
Feel free to contact Cuppa SEO anytime to schedule your complimentary consultation.

For more tips and insights from Cuppa SEO …

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Slideshows are a commonplace strategy for  sharing more information through a series of sliding imagery/offers on a homepage.

We’ve all seen them. Each slide sits front and center for a few seconds, and then it’s gone.

Avoid this strategy on your website, as it’s bad for conversion.

Website conversion is a strategy that takes a website visitor from where they are, to where you want them to go.

When we offer too many options for where we want to lead people, it causes them to think. And although thinking is usually a good thing, we want to avoid unnecessary brain work on our website because it can easily lower the user experience. And when the user experience is damaged, conversion can often be a casualty.

To avoid bombarding visitors with offers, you can ask yourself one simple question: what are the top one or two things we want a website visitor to do?

This is not always easy to answer, especially if you sell a lot of products or services.

If this is the case, it’s good to employ the 80/20 rule. What 20% of your products or services account for 80% of your business? if you’ve got a lot of services/products, then identify the top performing product or services categories, instead.

Write them down.

Essentially, the goal is to pare down your top products/services to 2 or 3, and then create a strategy to present them on your homepage in a way that avoids slideshows.

This is not always easy, but it’s been proven that providing less options, in a clear and easy to digest way, helps improve conversion rates. And that means more people buying product, or scheduling a consultation to discuss your services.

Think of it this way.  Which is easier to digest and remember?

1. My name is Joey and I run a web design firm
   OR …
2. My name is Joey Donovan Guido, and I’m originally from New York. I have two kids, a cat, and a beautiful wife. I run a web design firm that specializes in SEO, UX, conversion and Adwords, and I’ve been blogging for over 10 years. I like Apple products and mid-century modern design.

As you can see, the more information presented, the more difficult it is to retain, and the less clear my message becomes.

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