Small Business, Usability, Website Design

Using Usability Design To Improve Your Overall Business

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More and more businesses are recognizing the value of having a website with a usable design. They understand that by focusing on the needs of their visitors and then building a site to best match those needs they will gain a big return on their website investment.

By improving the usability design of your website you will gain a better return on your investment than any other business action can produce.

A recent study showed an increase in Key Performance Indicators of over 83% by just correcting small usability problems.

Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox, January 22, 2008:

The good news is focusing on the visitor isn’t all that difficult. Jakob Nielsen (a forefather of website usability) has shown that just by trying to improve your site’s usability design you can double your site conversions.

Other increases that have been shown by improving the usability of your site are:

  • 150% increase of traffic
  • 161% increase in visitor performance
  • 202% increase in usage of targeted features

I realize that these findings are from some of the largest sites on the internet. It is also important to note that there are other factors that can all affect your companies returns. However, no matter how large or small your website or what your business is you will see an increase in your conversions.

By adhering to usability and design best practices your results will follow a similar pattern.

Here are some real client examples:

  1. I have one client who within months of launching their new website were completely booked with new clients through the year.
  2. Another client is averaging one new website inquiry per week from their new site. The site is also currently the number three link on the first page of Google for one of their key search terms.
  3. Finally all my clients have seen an increase in traffic. Overall traffic was up over 43% for all of 2008.

These are just a couple of examples of how designing a usable site will have a positive impact on your ROI. The upside for your business is huge. Focusing on creating a usable website isn’t just for the big guys — it’s for you.