SEO, relevant content and website structure, play an important role in determining how well your website ranks on Google. A user knows that the higher ranked your website on Google the more popular the website. Although SEO and content are extremely important in helping your website get to where it needs to be in search engines there is another important factor that is sometimes overlooked – the website architecture/structure.
It may be the case that your website is directing high numbers of visitors to the site from search engines, but the overall website may be getting low interaction. This could mean that your website is lacking a user-friendly experience. So, what is a user-friendly experience? Here at IMS Marketing, we believe a website should be able to answer yes to the following questions:
- Is it fast?
- Is it responsive?
- Is it easy to navigate around?
- Can you clearly get from one area to the next in 3 steps at most?
- Is it full of “link juice” (internal and external links)?
- Is it aesthetically pleasing?
When designing a website and thinking about its functionality, the main objective should be to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty by providing an environment that is useful, simple and memorable. IMS Marketing has put together a few points that are important to master when moulding the structure of your website.
Give them what they want
In the fast-paced generation we now live in, everything is done at the click of a button. We use search engines to give us what we want in an instant – type what you want, click, get the result. This is also what a user needs from your website. They want the information they need instantly.
This is so important when it comes to your website SEO, content and structure. When competing against the vast amount of websites all fighting for the first page on Google, you must make sure your page content is relevant to your page titles.
Get to the bones of it
You can’t build your house without a blueprint. The same goes for your website. An organised and well thought out structure needs to be in place before the web design process begins. Creating a sitemap in advance is a great way to make sure your site is crawlable, both by search engines and by users.
The websites with a good site map tend to rank higher on Google. Think about the user’s journey on your website from beginning to end. Think about the importance of creating internal links in your website to make it easier for the user to navigate around the site. If your website is rich with internal links and has a complete sitemap, Google will reward you.
Easy on the eye
This may be something that might not seem important, but it does have an effect on the user’s opinion more than you think. The visitors don’t think about the gears that work behind the website, as this is not something visible to them, but when a website visually looks good they will be impressed and it creates a sense of professionalism.
Also, a good point to remember is, when it looks good on desktop it needs to be the same on mobile. Develop your website with a mobile-first approach before making any drastic design decisions.
Put the pedal to the metal
This is something that probably frustrates a user more than any other factor. A slow website can be extremely frustrating and can have a huge effect on your website’s bounce rate. All the bells and whistles attached to your website can have a serious effect on the speed of your website. Make sure to manage your plugins realistically so that this does not affect the responsiveness of your website.
Be diligent about your website themes, these can carry a lot of baggage. Make sure to optimise images for the web. An image heavy website needs to be optimised properly so the speed is not affected.
For more information about of website development services, please contact us on 091 739 450