Is Your Website User Hostile?

You always like to think that your website, email messages, text messages, or other online marketing is “user friendly.” But have you gone through your process? That’s all well and good that it's intuitive to you, you designed it. Have you had others test it out? This is a lesson I thought might be helpful to share. Some years ago had the misfortune to go through the poorly designed process of a community college's website.

  You'd think they would have a well designed and structured site as this is an institution that is teaching the next wave of marketers, graphic designers, etc. Sadly, that's not the case.  

The financial aid office sent a letter saying they needed me to fill out a form to request information… In the letter, I was given the instruction to use the link for financial aid to get to the form.  

When I went to the website, it was shocking and frustrating. The link for a much sought department is obscurely buried in text. There is no link in either the top or side navigation bars.  

The form I was directed to download was not in any link on the financial aid page or accessed from any page linked there. I know because I was on a mission to find that wretched form but came up empty handed! Too bad it was an impossible mission. (I could have handled mission impossible ;-))  

When I went to the office in person, I found that they were aware there was no link and the form has not been posted to their page. The young man went on to say “We thought it would have been up by now.”  

That's a terrible impression for an organization to give to its customers. You realize that, but take a look at your own business and website.

• Does your site frustrate people who go there for information?
• Are you getting feedback or are your former customers just leaving for your competition?
• Do you rely on a “web person” outside of your business to post material on your site?
• If you had to put a campaign up on your site tomorrow, could you do it?

Would you like to have a greater level of flexibility and control over your business?  

My clients have that ability, flexibility, and control over their websites. You can have that too. Take the first step and contact me. Say “I want more flexibility and control over my website and business.” And I will personally help you make that happen.

Do you want a website that converts visitors to customers?