Is Your Website a Turnoff?

By Mikal E. Belicove|For Entrepreneur magazine|October 1, 2010

The internet continues to evolve and advance, and so do users’ expectations. Every time one of your customers or prospects visits Facebook.com, ESPN.com or any other well-conceived, navigable website, the pressure increases for your company to offer a similarly engaging and easy-to-use site. Fail to deliver the expected user experience and you may lose customers.

Usability testing is the most eye-opening way for your business to avoid a terrible user experience online. Gathering feedback from visitors and evaluating how they experience and react to your website can help you improve the user experience and, ultimately, your bottom line.

Typical factors include:

Messaging: Does your website effectively convey who you are, how you’re different, what you do and why you’re better?

Navigation: How easy is it to navigate your site to perform simple and complex tasks? Can you reduce the number of steps needed to perform each call to action?

Effectiveness of calls to action: Are users doing the things you expect? How long do they take, and how accessible are