How To Maximize Your Site’s Visitor Flow

In order to benefit from having a website, whatever the reason you choose to establish one in the first place, you need to make sure you get people to visit it. Without visitors a website is just an expensive, complicated poster that no one will ever look at.

Your site needs to be visitor-friendly and easy to navigate. You want to lead people through your website. The experience should be easy for them and beneficial for you.

Style Over Substance

The temptation when designing a website to start with how it looks is almost overwhelming and is often where most people go wrong. You want something that fits with your personal style or corporate branding and this forms the starting point for many websites.

You don’t have to search for long to find a whole host of websites that look the absolute business but provide a frustrating experience for the end user. It doesn’t matter how slick your site looks or how in keeping it is with your branding or image, if your visitors aren’t able to use it, it’s doomed from the start.

That’s not to say an attractive website isn’t of use. Having something that’s eye-catching can really enhance your image. However, if what you have doesn’t do the job it’s aimed at doing, it’s likely to do you more harm than good.

Start From The End

If you want to know how to design your site for the best outcome for you and your visitors, start from where you want people to finish or where you think they’ll end up. So, for example, if you’re a blogger and want to build your readership you might want people who visit to ultimately end up adding their email address to your mailing list. If that’s the case, designing your page so the subscription link is clearly visible on the page will help to guide them to where you want them to be, maximizing the benefit of them visiting the site.

On a good website, the route of flow should be obvious.

Many sites are trying to entice their visitors to buy products as a result of their visit. In this case, the end point is clear – a completed purchase. Getting the visitor to that point in the quickest and easiest way will not only be beneficial for you, it’s likely to lead to a more satisfied customer. That’s good for everyone.

Think Past The First Contact

When you’re designing your website, you want to think about the interaction with your visitors. It is a conversation rather than a broadcast. Particularly if you’re looking to secure a sale from your visitors, this might not necessarily happen on their first look at your site.

A tangled web is sticky and difficult to get through.

In these cases, it’s helpful to focus on the ultimate end point rather than the goal for each visit. If you have too many ends in mind, you’ll risk winding up with a tangled web and that’s no help to anyone. Getting people to sign up for your newsletter can ultimately lead to them clicking through and making a purchase or they may make a purchase the first time they visit. Either way, the purchase is the end point you should be aiming for.

Conclusion

Making a visit to your website more rewarding is much easier when you design your flows instead of focusing on how the site looks. Design and visual appeal are important, but not nearly as important as having a site that is usable and easy to navigate.