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Here are some web design tips.

Make it clear who you are

It may be obvious to you, but your site needs to spell out to visitors what it's about. You'd be surprised how many sites seem to make the assumption that visitors will know what the website is about and be familiar with the company's services. Make sure your home page states clearly who you are, what you do and what you've got to offer.

Fulfil your visitors' expectations

Another simple way to make your site more visitor friendly is to make sure it reflects what people are expecting to find when they reach the site, whether through a search engine, a print ad, road sign, or a link from another site. You can do this by first asking customers what they would like to see on your website, what information they would want to know, and even how you can improve the site after it's been online for a while.

Put things where people expect to find them

Familiarity is a big part of usability. Research has shown that people expect site features to be in a certain place on the page. They look for a heading displaying the title of the site at the top, the navigation links down the left hand column or across the top, and the small print (i.e. terms of use, privacy) along the bottom.

Minimise the clickstream

More than 83% of Internet users are likely to leave a website if they feel they can't find what they're looking for within one or two clicks. Usually, people visit a website and then quickly scan the page for a word or phrase that they're looking for. They'll often miss what they're looking for it isn't listed on the main page or if it's hidden within a pull-down menu.

Have an About Us and Contact Us page

Credibility is fast becoming a key usability issue. If people are going to become your customer and trust you with their insurance needs, they want to be sure there is someone accountable and available. We've all come across web sites that don't even have an address, let alone a telephone number. That's why it's essential to have an About Us and a Contact Us page, and to give them a choice of contact options, including a phone number, an email address, or mailing address.

Increase your download speeds

Studies have shown that the average web site visitor will wait no more than 7 seconds for a page to download. So instead of tedious bandwidth-hungry graphics, make your site as lean and nimble as possible. By stripping out the superfluous code, which is often created by do-it-yourself web design software, your site can be faster to load, even during peak traffic times, such as immediately after an advertising campaign. Anything you can do to make your site faster and more accessible, will help ensure your availability.

Be search engine friendly

Search engine optimisation can make a site more visitor friendly as a natural by product of the process because it focuses on making sites more appropriate to visitors' search queries. In addition, a site map, breadcrumb links, and descriptive text links (rather than just 'click here') are search engine friendly features which also enhance the visitor experience. Meta tags and title tags are also important, but content is king for search engines.

Know your weaknesses

Websites are easy to update, unlike printed brochures, and there's no reason why a website's layout can't be revisited and revised so that it's as effective as possible. It's important to trust experts, but it also helps to get regular feedback from average visitors. You don't need to do large focus-group testing, just simply ask a handful of people what they thought about your website -- specifically if they were able to find what they were looking for and if they would like to see anything that isn't already available.

Create escape hatches

It's important to have good navigation from the homepage, but you also need to give visitors the opportunity to return to the homepage from sub-pages of the website. Every page should have a clearly marked link back to the home page. Not everyone will access your website from your homepage, often search engines direct people to sub-pages of websites.


Please contact us with any questions that you may have.