Partner Article

Five questions to ask yourself about your website

A website that creates a positive first impression, provides customers with what they?re looking for and takes them fluidly towards making a purchase or enquiring further is what most businesses are looking for. But what can you do to help ensure that your website is up to the task? Here we pose five questions that you may want to ask yourself about the design of your website.

Is it easy to use?

When designing your website it might be tempting to cram in lots of features, graphics and fancy buttons. But in web design, less really is more. Web users should be in no doubt about how to use your site, and a cluttered design can confuse the matter.

Is your design and navigation consistent?

Following on from the previous point, every page of your site should look more or less the same visually, and feature the same colour scheme. There are few things more jarring to a user?s experience than a website with a multiple personality disorder. It?s also important to ensure that the buttons and menus used for navigating from page to page remain the same, once again to avoid confusing and frustrating your potential customers.

How long does it take to load?

Not everyone has an uber-fast Internet connection, so it?s a good idea to test your website on a number of computers with different specs and connection speeds. High resolution pictures, video and other multimedia content may slow user experience down significantly on older machines.

Does every page have something to offer web users?

Each and every page of your site should have a clearly defined purpose that both you and your visitors are under no doubt about. In addition to this, any buttons or internal links should succinctly and accurately describe the relevant content.

Does your design reflect your brand image?

What image are you trying to project for your business? If it?s ?cutting edge? then you should have a modern streamlined design that reflects this. If you want to project more traditional, conservative values (or anything else), your website?s design can also help you to achieve this.

One final question to ask yourself, and perhaps the most important is: ?If I was the customer, would I recommend this page to another web user??

If you are in any doubt or think your website could do with an overhaul, speak to your web design agency today and make your website earn its keep.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Jon Celeste .