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Sites that are designed to sell products and/or services
must go the extra mile to enhance the visitor’s engagement with the website.
Shopping cart abandonment (shoppers abandoning their carts before deciding to
pay for the “items” they’ve added to their cart) can result in a
significant loss in potential sales. But much of that can be reduced when the
shopping process is streamlined and geared for shopper satisfaction.

The selling process–from initial interest to the very last
checkout page–must be able to grab shopper’s attention and proceed to drive
them through to the finalization of the sale. But even after the sell, you must
deal with customer service issues in order to keep the sale finalized. Good
customer service will bring your purchasers back for another and another and
another. Here are fourteen general usability guidelines that will enhance your
shoppers overall experience on your site.

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Since creating a website that is “user friendly”
is often difficult and time consuming, I thought it would be fun to explore a
few ways to create a dissatisfying user experience on your website. Unlike the
dozens upon dozens of things that go into creating a website that provides a
positive visitor experience, one that creates an atmosphere of trust and is
likely to improve conversion rates, creating a dissatisfying experience can be
done fairly easily in just a few steps.

In fact, while I’m sure there are just as many things that
can derail a visitor on a website, there is no need to implement more than a
few.  We have found that any one of the four
things listed below will do the trick!

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Trust is a key usability issue when it comes to running a
successful online business. Most people automatically view web businesses with
a bias against them compared to their brick and mortar counterparts. Your ability
to convince your visitors that yours is a trustworthy business is one of the
key components to getting visitors to convert into customers.

Creating a website that conveys trust can be tricky. There
are rarely any answers that are always “right” for every visitor.
There are, however, several factors that have universal appeal to the weary
shopper.

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Last February, I had a diabolical plan to become a household
name in the SEO community. Here I was, a guy who has been in SEO for almost ten
years and remained a relative unknown. Sure, I made a few friends here and
there and have been slowly building my reputation, but who would of thought 12
months ago that I would be able to snag an interview with one of the biggest
names in the SEO. And that’s not me interviewing the big name, mind you…
that’s the big name interviewing me!

(cue tongue in cheek here…) Here we are, nearly twelve
months later and I can hardly believe that yes, ladies and gentlemen, I have
become a “name”. Ok, so maybe I’m not Jennifer Laycock. Or Rand
Fishkin. Or Jill Whalen. Or Aaron Wall. Or Andy Beal. Or Brian Clark. Or… OK,
you get the point. I have not become that
much of a household name, but still I bet many of you hadn’t heard of me 12
months ago!

So here, for your reading pleasure, is a historical record
of one of the greatest,
all time, 12-month-long link baiting campaigns:

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Since the “purchase” is the ultimate conversion, it is
imperative that you remove as many obstacles from the customer’s
research-to-buy cycle as possible. Providing your visitors the key ingredients
in their shopping experience creates a smooth and worry-free transaction
process. The easier it is to shop and buy the more customers will overcome the
natural hesitations that many feel before they commit by hitting the final
“complete order” button.

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Think of all the ways that companies use branding to build
awareness of themselves or to promote their social awareness and customer
service values. A few things come to mind such as greeters at the entrance of your  my favorite store, go-green awareness issues,
charity drives that “give back” to the community for every purchase
made, TV screens playing music videos or news as you wait in line, and the list
goes on.

None of these things lead directly to conversions but they
do lead to higher company awareness and the good old fashioned fuzzy-feelings
we get when we know that that we are valued as a customer. Most times we are
probably not even be aware of these things on a conscious level. But the effect
shows as we have a tendency to patron these companies more frequently than the
other alternatives.

Continue Reading

Since creating a website that is “user friendly”
is often difficult and time consuming, I thought it would be fun to explore a
few ways to create a dissatisfying user experience on your website. Unlike the
dozens upon dozens of things that go into creating a website that provides a
positive visitor experience, one that creates an atmosphere of trust and is
likely to improve conversion rates, creating a dissatisfying experience can be
done fairly easily in just a few steps.

In fact, while I’m sure there are just as many things that
can derail a visitor on a website, there is no need to implement more than a
few.We have found that any one of the four
things listed below will do the trick!

Continue Reading

Not every site needs a site map, they can certainly be a
good idea. Site maps provide a dual purpose: They provide search engine spiders
easy access to all of your site pages and they provide site visitors easy
access to all of your site pages. The difference is that search engines and
visitors access your site map differently and therefore there are different
methods that need to be applied to creating site map(s) that are friendly for
both engines and search spiders.

Small sites typically don’t need a site map so long as all
pages are linked in the main navigation. Once you get into main and
sub-navigation menu’s then site maps are helpful in allowing search engines and
visitors to quickly find anything they are looking for within just a couple of
clicks. A single site map can be used for both purposes or multiple site maps
can be created. Here we’ll address creating site maps for spiders and humans
separately.

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How engaged a customer is with your website will determine
whether they can be persuaded to buy, comment, download or submit their
information for you to follow up on. Customer engagement goes beyond just
getting the customer’s attention, you must keep their attention. This can be
done by providing your visitors near immediate gratification.

To do that you have to first know who your audience is, know
what they seek and then also know their purpose for being on your site. Knowing
all this then lets you work toward meeting the needs of your target audience.
But it also means taking things a step further and building a relationship with
them. The ability to build a relationship with your visitors can be crucial to
driving them through the persuasion process. Relationship building starts the
moment the visitor hits the website.

Continue Reading

Not every site needs a site map, they can certainly be a
good idea. Site maps provide a dual purpose: They provide search engine spiders
easy access to all of your site pages and they provide site visitors easy
access to all of your site pages. The difference is that search engines and
visitors access your site map differently and therefore there are different
methods that need to be applied to creating site map(s) that are friendly for
both engines and search spiders.

Small sites typically don’t need a site map so long as all
pages are linked in the main navigation. Once you get into main and
sub-navigation menu’s then site maps are helpful in allowing search engines and
visitors to quickly find anything they are looking for within just a couple of
clicks. A single site map can be used for both purposes or multiple site maps
can be created. Here we’ll address creating site maps for spiders and humans
separately.

Continue Reading

Your website’s privacy information and security settings can
be significant hurdles when it comes to gaining trust with your visitors.
Establishing trust is paramount to enticing visitors to make that final
commitment, whether that be making a purchase, choosing to provide their info,
or simply making initial contact with you.

Your job is to make sure your visitors feel confident that
their information is kept safe and will not be used for nefarious means, or
anything other than what they fully expect. While providing assurances are
nice, those assurances only go so far as what actually happens. Be sure that
your small print reinforces what your visitors already expect to find in
regards to how their information is used.

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Sites that require users to log in to access certain
information and/or purchase products add an additional layer of potential
complication to the usability process. To avoid potential visitor confusion and
the possibility for errors, it is important that any login process requires
little or no thought on the part of the site visitor.

Once logged in, you must be sure that visitors are able to
find the information they want and expect to find. My Account pages need to
provide visitors with access and ability to view and change personal
information, as necessary.

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The other day I received an email from a client noting that
some of his Yahoo rankings have slipped as of late. They are still ranking
strong on Google as well as MSN and heck, many of their Yahoo rankings are
still very strong. But there was, in fact, some slippage and the client was
concerned.

Well, first we know that there is more
to web marketing than top rankings. In fact rankings are just a
small piece of the bigger web marketing pie. I know that and you know that, but
for whatever reason, we all still have to deal with clients that refuse to
accept that. But that’s a story for another post.

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