Partner Article

Businesses Need To Optimise Their Websites

According to a recent survey, many businesses need to spend more time and money optimising their websites for users.

The 2011 DemandBase National Marketing and Sales Study found that many businesses fail to use user data and analytics to improve their website?s usability. Which is a shame, because the same study also found that 23% of sales leads came from corporate websites ? far more than email marketing (14%), online advertising (7%) and social media (3%).

Chris Golec, DemandBase?s CEO, said that: ?While businesses are investing heavily in their sites, the study shows that they are then ignoring the very audience they worked so hard to attract.?

These findings suggest that many business SEO strategies are working at pulling web users to the site, but those same sites are failing when it comes to design and usability issues. So what can businesses do to better optimise their websites for users?

Make sure that the website design is user friendly

People like websites that feel welcoming and are easy to navigate. When a user arrives at your website they should be in no doubt as to where they should click to carry out a specific action. This means clearly marked buttons, un-distracting backgrounds and an uncluttered homepage.

Consider the length of pieces of content

Getting the right amount of textual content on a web page is a tricky balancing act. Too little and the page will be light on value and information, but too much can be equally perturbing and off-putting to casual visitors. Generally speaking 200-400 words is a good length for many pieces of web content. It?s also worth remembering that many people dislike reading on bright back-lit screen for extended periods of time.

Use clear headers and subheaders

This could be considered as both a design and an SEO issue. Using keywords within clearly defined titles and subheaders can provide a boost for your site?s SEO, but more importantly it will help your users to make sense of your content and find exactly what they are looking for. Many people scan read web content rather than read it from start to finish, and this is very difficult if the text is not in short, concise paragraphs and broken up by subheaders.

Are you optimised? Or is your content letting you down? Talk to your SEO Agency for more details.

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