BlueBand Media is a digital communications agency. What does that mean? and “oh, we already have an agency and they have a digital division” – this is a common response we hear as we approach new prospects. I want to take a few minutes and talk about usability and why “know to code websites” is very different from “creating a digital communication for your website”.

Call us today to find out if your site passes the usability test.
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A website built using usability best practices will result in lower exit rates, lower bounce rates, longer visits, and more conversions. I know this sounds obvious, but it’s surprising to see how many websites don’t follow this mantra.

There are several must haves when it comes to meeting usability best practices:

1. Whose site is this and what does this company do?
1. The first thing you want to do is have your company name, logo and tag line set apart, in a visible spot because you want the visitor to immediately know what site they’re on.
2. Many sites use flash animation in a prominent billboard area of the home page to deliver messaging along with supportive imagery to define what the company does and for whom. The flash is used to “tell the company’s story”. Combined with a positioning statement, these two tactics immediately tell the visitor what you do, your target market and the benefits of your solution.

2. Navigation: Main nav bar and sub nav bar
1. When it comes to navigation, you don’t want to make the visitor think. That’s why you’ll see many sites with a main navigation for content sections such as About Us, Solutions, etc., along with a sub nav above it for less important, yet frequently used sections such as home, contact us, careers and search.
2. The reason for putting “home” in the sub nav is that you always want the visitor to be able to get back to the home page in one click. That’s why many sites also have the company logo link back to the home page.

3. Quickly establish credibility and trust: This is accomplished via:
1. SEO – if someone’s coming to the site due to a keyword search, the content needs to speak to that term.
2. Awards
3. Customer logos
4. Your positioning statement
5. Recent press releases
6. Upcoming events
7. Professional, up to date, look and feel

4. Lead generation/conversion
1. Promotions and other offers will convert visitors into qualified opportunities. In addition, having offers and calls to action on the home page will lower that page’s exit rate.
2. For example, “See how our solution enabled ABC Company to reduce its energy expenses by X%” with a link to the case study. If it’s a real good case study, make the person register before being able to access it.
3. Here’s another good one – “Learn how we can save you $X per month using our solution. Sign up for a free trial now.”
4. Remember, for maximum conversion, you want these offers to go to a landing page dedicated to the offer.

5. Site search
1. If you have a large site or if you plan to grow your site over time, you should have a search in the sub nav mentioned in 2 above.
2. Best practices says to have the term “site search” or “search” followed by a text box,

6. Log in
1. If your site has an area for visitors to log in, a log in button should be in the sub nav described in 2 above.

7. Text links in the footer
1. Usability best practices dictates that you place text links in a footer at the bottom of the page. This is especially important if your main nav bar uses images or java script because the search engines can’t read those two items. Having text links in the footer ensures that the search engines will still be able to surf and index your site.

8. Quick links –
1. Items that are visited frequently, such as documents within a resource center or specific product pages, should be called out to make it easy for visitors to get to that info.

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