Chicago Marketing Firms: When designing Web Navigations...Simple is Smart

Chicago Marketing Firms

We all recognize the web page in this posting. It's Apple. It's the iPhone. We're on the iPhone navigation button. Easy right? That's what you want. Simplicity.

Choice are a wonderful thing in website navigation, but having too many options on your menu can lead to confusion and a frustrated customer, or worse, a lost sale. Often, business owners are stuck in the mindset that giving customers lots of options is a good thing, but there is such a thing as giving too much!

When you go to the salon, you don't get a menu of hairstyles to choose from, your stylist works out what you like and what works best for your face shape, hair type, etc. If you were to go to that same stylist and she gave you a 30 minute survey to complete before she started cutting, you'd probably walk out right? Again...right.

This is the same concept in web design. You need to choose FOR your customers what will work best for YOUR company and the services/products you offer. You don't have to put every type of product in your navigation. Keep it simple, because more than likely, your customer base is web savvy enough to navigate a website.

Example: You're selling rings online. You've got diamond rings, gold rings, rings with gems in them, rings for men, etc. You wouldn't put all of these options in one menu bar! You have a simple 'Rings' button that your customer can then follow to find the type of rings they want through either a drop down, or a form that narrows choices on the other side of that button.

The bottom line: think broadly about your services and products, and bring this ideas to the table with your web designer and they'll be able to tell you which option will be the best for your market and type of website. Most web designers will have enough experience, especially if you use a Marketing Firm with Web Design services, that they can use effective sales and marketing techniques to help your customers make decisions.

Here are some ways your website might be confusing your visitors:
Poor Navigation

Your customer as to figure out where to go on the website and most likely ends up going elsewhere.

Too many choices

There may be no clear choice or too many choices without a clear indication of which one is the page they want to visit.

Way too much copy

We didn't like reading essays in high school and nobody likes to do it today either. Keep your web copy between 400 and 1000 words per page so your customers aren't getting fed up with trying to find the information they want.

Requiring Registration before purchase

Internet users hate this. Have an option to check out as a guest on your website. The less hoops a person has to jump through, the more likely they are to finish the transaction.

Are you guilty of any of these web crimes? If so, contact Integraphix today for a FREE Consultation on how we can improve your website traffic and boost your sales.

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Integraphix, the top Web Design Company in the Chicago land area.
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