For a business, there isn’t anything more important than the website when it comes to online marketing. It’s the focal point of your business’ online presence and your success rides on its ability to deliver to visitors a great experience. Follow these 10 website usability tips to ensure that your business’ site is doing exactly that.

1) Make sure that visitors understand immediately what you do. Many companies make the mistake of assuming that their site visitors already know what they are offering. Not necessarily. Visitors need to be able to understand what your company does within seconds of landing on your site. Let them know they’ve come to the right place right off the bat.

2) Keep the distractions to a minimum. Think about your main calls to action and ensure that they are front and center. Keep things focused on what you want your visitors to do. Don’t deter them with other, less important content.

3) Make your content easy to digest. Large chunks of copy can be overwhelming. Use headings, bolding, bullet points etc… to break up the copy and help visitors easily identify important points and main ideas. Font size, spacing, colour and contrast are important too. Ensure that your information is presented in a way that is easy to scan and digest.

4) Keep your forms as clean as possible. When creating your website forms, keep them as simple as you can. Remove any information that isn’t absolutely essential. Long, detailed forms can be a deterrent.

5) Be quick. joomla cpanel web hosting with long load times quickly lose visitors. Ensure that your site is speedy, avoiding flash or cumbersome plugins. You could check out services like www.yottaa.com

6) Monitor your website visitors. Learn about what your visitors are doing on your site. Find out where they drop off, where they click and what catches their eye. Use this data to further improve your website.

7) Don’t be afraid to test. A/B or multivariate tests are a great way to test different parts of your website – whether it’s copy, design, layout, images etc… You may think that you know exactly what your target market wants and prefers – but only by testing can you know for sure.

8) Talk to your customers in their language. Convoluted copy that is full of jargon, is vague or comes across as too stuffy or professional does not make for a good experience. Your copy should have a conversational tone that is easy to digest and resonates with your target audience.

9) Don’t hide content. Don’t force your site visitors to spend time hunting around your website to find what they need. Many of them simply won’t bother. Your top information should be accessible by just a click or two from anywhere in your site. Your navigation should be clear and consistent throughout. Navigation that disappears or changes on inside pages is confusing and frustrating.

10) Have contact information front and center. Buried contact information sends the message that you don’t want to be contacted and forces the visitor to do extra legwork. Your contact details should be accessible from each and every page.

Internet marketing success depends on a great website. And a great website depends on its usability.

You probably dislike the cleanings as much as I do. I hate getting the plaque scraped off my teeth and it usually hurts and I always feel like I’m not doing enough to keep my teeth clean.

For years, I’ve been struggling to find a good dentistry ever since my childhood dentist in my hometown (1500 miles away).

I think I’ve finally found one. After two bakersfields dentist who kept telling me I needed thousands of dollars worth of work done to my teeth, this guy says, “Wait and see. Everything’s fine right now.” Plus, he said I have beautiful teeth, something I’ve never gotten before.

After a cleaning, I feel awesome. My mouth is germ-free (as much as it can be) and I don’t want to eat anything afterwards for fear I’ll ruin it. My teeth shine and I feel good.

This was the first expert who told me things I’ve never been told before. He told me the importance of a soft bristled toothbrush and recommended an electric one. ”Well, I’ve looked into electric ones but I don’t want to drop $100 on one,” I said. The hygenist gal recommended a $30 (Oral B Vitality) that works great she said.

So, since I didn’t have the kiddos with me, I ran to Wal-Mart and purchased one. I also got 3 electric toothbrushes for my kiddos (on sale for $6!) who have been complaining relentlessly about brushing their teeth so I thought a new gadget would work wonders. Something for them to play with.

I will never go back to a normal toothbrush. It feels like my whole tooth is getting cleaned. It’s gentle on my teeth and gums and I actually brush longer because it’s so smooth. I only wish I would have discovered this sooner.

My kids also think they are the coolest things. My oldest actually brushes her teeth twice a day now!

I just wish someone had taken the time before to share this information with me. I’m not that old but I did seem to grow up in the dark ages and my mother was horrible at teaching me stuff like this.

So, I’m sharing this with you all (kind of like the IPod thing) so you’re not as backwards as I am. I don’t keep up with the trends very much and if no one tells you, how else will you know?