Day 6 of Living Media's 11 Tips to Make Your Website a Success

Your website is your shop window and used effectively it can be a real asset to your company, business or organisation. But if used badly it can be an embarrassing nuisance hanging around your neck and weighing your company down.

At Living Media Liverpool, we want to help make your website something that you can be proud of. Today we look at how keeping all your content on a few pages means you'll keep your customers coming back to your site.

Limit the number of clicks!

Nothing annoys visitors to your site more than when they’re reading something and they have to go onto another page to find out more. Ok, it gets you more hits but it’s a cynical way of doing it. People appreciate having all the information they need to hand, without having to go through page after page of website content.

I guess what I'm trying to say here, is if you have a website with a shop attached then it's a good idea to make sure that everything is organised so that it all appears on one page. Nobody likes to have to go looking for information. It's a well known fact that if visitors can't find what they're looking for in 3 clicks, then they'll give up and look somewhere else.

This is something that we at Living Media take very seriously, and the websites we produce are all designed with this in mind. Take this site we built for Liverpool florist, Fishlock's Flowers. The initial homepage tells you everything you need to know about Fishlocks, and with one click you can find what you're looking for in the left-hand shop column.

Here's another example of our work, which shows the importance of having good website navigation. Fire Products Limited, sells high quality fire safety products at great value prices. Again, the initial homepage tells you everything you need to know, and within one click you have access to everything you need.

Think of your online shop, like any other shop. If customers walked into a high street store and had to walk through room after room of products then they'd soon get fed up and walk out.

Don't be afraid to limit the number of pages you use! At the end of the day, you're making it more convenient for the customer, and they'll appreciate it!

Tags: website navigation, webpage navigation, website advice, website design, website tips