Idea of the week – Is my website working for me??
Published on 6 Jun 2007 at 5:11 pm.
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Wednesdays Idea of the week – Is my website working for me!
Alrighty, last week I talked about getting a website. This week I am going to talk about the usability of your site and the tracking of useage.
Websites are a great tool, or a unopened envelope – just waiting to be read!
Everytime that your website is viewed it can be tracked via a stats counter (much like at the good ol stampede entrance clickers!). This is very handy to determine if your site is getting out to the world wide web. Are you being placed on to search engines? Do you have the right key words that people are looking for to get to your site. Key words are basic words that define your site and words that people will use to get to your site. When placing key words in your site for engines to pick up you need to sit down and think of the ways people will look you up. Think of ZedBiz for example, they are a Internet Marketing Company, people will be looking for Internet, Marketing, Advertising, Branding, Website, Affiliate Marketing, Calgary, Coaching, E-Commerce, Domain ect. You really need to get into your visitors head, what do they want?
Next, how easy is your website to get around in? Are your titles in a standard area (top border, left side border)? Being in a standard placement is not necessarily the only way, just the easiest for the user. If you are breaking the mold (good for you!) then your job is harder. Now you need to make sure that your vision is what your viewers vision will be, will they see what you see? Its harder but definitely do able!
Do your links all work? Do you have a date – very handy seems small but it is one of those things that make your site user friendly. What about your colors, are they vibrant, easy to read?? How about the font – is it too big, too small, too funky???
Now, there are programs offered to “map” your website and its usability, there is also companies that will provide this service for you. What happens is your website is shown to a group of people that are in your target audience (hopefully you already know this!). They then have a specific spec sheet that they will use to go over the items discussed earlier, as well as extras to determine just how easy your site is. Is it to wordy? Are you link crazy (one link after another to finally get where you are trying to go!). Personally, I think this is an invaluable tool to use, one that every website should go through at least once in its lifespan, ideally you would like to do this possibly every few years to go with the changing times (not to mention to keep up with the changing links!).
Alright so that’s it for today, next week I will be interviewing a senior manager from Enmax power that attended last nights session with Tana Goertz : The Art of being Unforgettable, the TV show’s Apprentice candidate!
Until then, Happy Business
TracyÂ
