The Chatterbox

Usability and Selling on the Web

Today let us start to explore the concept of how the Usability of any web site has a direct correlation to how well that site converts Visitors into Customers.

Note that when I talk about Usability, my definition has nothing to do with the Accessibility Standards for handicapped users. People often get them confused since many writers interchange the terms as if they are the same thing. They're not!

Usability is simply the ease with which average surfer can navigate a site to find what they're looking for.

Now, first is Usability the Holy Grail and the only thing that has an effect on conversions? Certainly not. The graphical appearance of your site still has to be clean and visually pleasing. The words on the pages, or your Copy, must still speak to your target market in a way that will encourage them to perform the actions you want them to take.

Usability is however a large part of the equation, and one that is often overlooked. Good usability will work hand-in-hand with your Design, Navigation and Copy to convert many more visitors into customers. Which of course leads to more dollars in your pocket.

I fall into the camp that says Usability should dictate that a web site should be Intuitive to your target users. In other words they shouldn't have to read every single word and actually think about what to do next. Instead, it should be a natural progression.

If you could be a fly on the wall watching as people surf through your site you would probably see many of them having to actually think about what to do next.

If they do, you've failed the most important Usability test.

Since I'm going to assume you know who your target market is and have written engaging copy for your site, you should be able to incorporate sufficient usability into your site where your visitors can get from Point A (initially entering your site) to Point Z (where they convert from being a visitor to a customer) without ever having to think. When, not if, you get to this point you will have captured the Holy Grail of web marketing.

If we were all rich we could hire a usability expert to test our sites and offer suggestions so that they performed flawlessly. They would have a number of users who fit our target market visit our site and give us feedback on areas that we need to improve.

Very, very few have this luxury. I certainly don't.

That's the bad news.

The good news is that it is quite possible, even easy, to conduct your own usability study. The key is getting people to tell you what they really think, instead of being too nice so that they don't hurt your feelings.

In the coming days (weeks? months? LOL) I'll be delving into the details of how I approach the subject of Usability, including tips and tricks(?) you can use to improve your site and its conversion to sale ratio. There really are no tricks. As with most things relating to marketing via the web, it's all simple common sense.

But by the same token, it is also something that the vast majority of webmasters either completely ignore or could certainly do a much better job of.