Expert Agreement
Please read the following Expert agreement:
Use Clear Headlines and Descriptions
A very common website usability mistake that businesses make is not
clearly explaining what their site or specific pages are about. The
reason this mistake is so common is because it’s easy to assume that a
visitor will know this information. However, since visitors may be
coming to the site for the very first time, thinking they’re going to
know what it’s about isn’t something that should be taken for granted.
Not only should the homepage have a very clear headline and description,
but the same thought should be put into all other major pages on a
site.
Provide Guidance
Just as you shouldn’t assume that people will know exactly what your
site has to offer, it’s not a given that they’ll know where to go for
specific information. Good website usability focuses on providing clear
navigation and other helpful instructions for ensuring people are able
to get where they want on a site.
Plan for When Something Goes Wrong
Whether it’s because they come to your site through a broken search
engine link or type the wrong URL, visitors will end up on pages that
don’t exist. In order to prevent that from causing them to leave your
small business website, you need to help them out. In some cases, that
may mean redirecting them to your homepage. And in others, the best
option is to add a few helpful sentences and a search box to your 404
page.
Keep Users Updated
A commonly forgotten aspect of website usability is providing visitors
with updates. For example, if your site is going to be down for
scheduled maintenance, put up an announcement ahead of time, as well as
an explanation while the site is down.