2019 Standards for Website Usibility
The standards of modern website constantly evolve. Every year, you’ll see some changes here and there. And for a business owner, it is important to have an idea regarding website usibility. Keep in mind that it’s possible to lose your traffic or potential customers because your website doesn’t meet these standards. Keeping up with these standards isn’t just all about aesthetics. It is also about efficiency and user experience.
Homepage Should Be Catchy
The first thing that you have to remember is that visitors are most likely going to land on your homepage first. It means that if they don’t like what they see, you can expect a high bounce rate coming from your site. A good homepage is a balance between text and visuals. It means that you can use videos and images, but be sure that you also use texts. This will help provide information plus help the website in terms of ranking.
Now, for your website’s homepage, it should contain links to the different parts of your website. Also, it is important for the homepage to contain a voice that represents your company. Do you plan on using a professional voice? Or maybe, you want a more casual tone to make your customers feel comfortable about the products and the services that you are offering them?
Vertical Scrolling
According to research, you should stay away from horizontal scrolling. Horizontal scrolling prevents easy reading and can be annoying for the person using your site. Instead, what you want is to make use of full-width web design. For some one-page web designs, you will notice that the user just keeps on scrolling vertically to explore the content and the other sections of the website.
Useful Content
For the past years already, Google has prioritized content when it comes to ranking websites. The goal is to provide visitors with the information that they are looking for. And by now, if you have your own website, you should provide content that is necessary for your audience. Meeting this expectation could go a long way. Try producing long and well-researched content and see the difference that it makes to your website’s performance.
Consider the use of headlines
Next, you also want to consider the use of headlines when it comes to your content. This makes it easier for your visitors to have a better understanding of what you offer. You can segment the thought process and make it easier for them to absorb what you are saying in your content.
Consistency in font appearance
You can make use of different sizes of fonts in your content. For the minimum size, stick to size 12 at least. However, you should be consistent when it comes to the type of font you are using and the color that you use. As a rule of thumb, the font should also be easy to read for your visitors.
Fast Loading Time
Another important criterion that modern websites need to meet is fast loading time. You can’t expect visitors to be patient when it comes to visiting your website. According to some studies, if your website isn’t loading in the next 3 seconds, you already lost half of your traffic.
How do you ensure that the website loads fast? First, you have to consider checking the code. Next, it is also important to evaluate the size of the images that you’ve used on your website. And of course, you should also take a closer look at the elements that you are using especially on mobile. This is the main reason why some web owners opt to take out some elements in their mobile web design. The purpose is to make the website load faster. However, in some instances, you want to switch to a better hosting service.
Secured
If you are going to sell products and services, the last thing that you want to happen is for your customer’s information to be compromised. Be sure to keep the website secured. It means that you need to have an SSL certificate. Though this is costly, it is still a good deal. In fact, Google is already ranking secured websites better than those that don’t have an SSL certificate.
Easy Navigation
It is also important that the visitors of your website can easily go to different pages without any problem. When it comes to planning your site’s navigation, you will need to make sure that you use the right titles for each page. Also, you can have a diagram in order to have the right placement of each page whether it becomes the main page or a subpage.
For mobile use, there are some instances when some opt to have a hamburger menu. It makes it easier for the user to navigate from one page to the next especially when using a small screen such as a smartphone.
Website usibility standard is changing every year. If you want to increase your traffic, reduce your bounce rate, or even get more customers, these are some standards that you need to keep up with.
