Your website should be easy to use from the beginning of (and throughout) the online user experience. Such an experience begins with a google search for your product or service. Let us look at a hypothetical ideal user experience as seen through the eyes of a prospective customer.
Our prospective customer, Sarah, is looking to “reduce energy costs” for her company.
Her first google search result is usable. Why is it usable?
Google for "reduce energy costs"
1.The google search results display the website in the number 1 position, where the majority of google searchers will click
2.The title of the webpage is relevant to her keyword search phrase “reduce energy costs”
3.the title contains precisely 60 characters, allowing the full title to be displayed by google
4.the title mentions the keyphrase at the beginning, with branding at the end; enhancing the google ranking for the keyphrase
5.the description is precisely 147 characters (of the 160 that google will display); avoiding a 160+ character description being broken up with a messy-looking ellipsis (“…”)
6.the description concisely explains the website, allowing Sarah to determine the website purpose before she visits it.
This positive result in her google search is the first encounter Sarah will have with Energy Link’s online user experience. She is likely to already have a satisfactory opinion about Energy Link, because they have taken great care to optimize their website for people and search engine usability.
This is merely the first of the many factors involved in the online user experience. Next time we will explore another factor effecting the usability of our Energy Link website.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
