Our blog

People navigate the web in different ways. Some may be accustomed to typing out the full URL of a desired site, while others may navigate entirely via Google at this point. Similarly, on websites, some people may be more comfortable using drop-down menus; others may scan sidebars for clues as to where their desired products are located. Still others are drawn automatically to the search bar, no matter where it’s located.

Customers are going to come to your website in many different mindsets, from many different angles, and it’s important that you’re ready to direct them regardless. One way to do this is to ensure you have multiple access points to important areas of your website.

What does this mean?

Imagine a customer is interested in seeing your bestsellers. Creating a bestsellers category is a no-brainer. But take this thought process one step further: how is your customer going to get to the bestsellers page?

Consider the following concepts as you make that decision:

1. Your customer may not ‘see’ what you think is obvious – what you assume is a logical thought process (“bestsellers? Obviously on the homepage!”) may not be so to others.
2. Your customer shouldn’t HAVE to think – you are there to make the process as easy and as simple as possible for them, rather than them adapting to whatever web design was easiest for you.
3. Above all, don’t make your customer click 800 times to get to your goal! The more needless steps you insert between the home page and end goal, the greater the chance that customers will drop out before they complete the goal, whether it’s a purchase, filling out a ‘contact us’ form, downloading a white paper, etc.

What to do

One basic step you can take is to make important links visible and accessible from many different pages and areas on those pages.

Make your calls to action accessible (and not just from one location). Go a step beyond having your logo (linked to the homepage) on every page, and make it so that customers can find what they’re looking for without having to put too much thought into it.  

Do you know what the most popular pages on your site are, whether product category or service offering? Make it easy to find them by pulling them into the content section of your website. You can see below that Target does an excellent job of this. They showcase the top five sections of their site in the main content portion of their website, even though you can see most of those topics in the main navigation.

Has your customer scrolled all the way to the bottom of a long list of products? Consider putting links of interest in the footer (“New Arrivals,” “Bestsellers,” “Sales”), so they don’t have to scroll all the way back to the top to search anew. Maybe they’re looking for customer service: make sure information is available! Phone numbers, email addresses, links to contact forms…all of these can be easily incorporated into a footer or into a page header.

The easier products or important information are to find and explore, the easier it is to get users to take action. Why not give yourself an advantage from the start?

Like what you see? Check us out on Facebook, twitter, or Pinterest!