When you’re new to the notion of a user friendly website it is vital that you understand just how many different things there are to think about. You can get as fancy and complex as you like and use advanced methods such as Taguchi multivariate testing. It is much better, though, to start with something simple and small and work up to the more complicated ideas you want to try. This is the method that teaches you what you need to know so that you can go learn it. If you do this, it means starting at the very beginning and making only those changes that are the easiest.
Remember that people landing on your home page want to know very fast what you have for them. If you have what they’re looking for, then that’s great and your copy needs to make them want to read more. Niche sites will usually have more meaty content pages while other service type pages will have less with a focus on features and benefits. What ever kind of site you have, you want users to get to their destinations in ideally once click. Three clicks is pushing it, and there’s really no reason to make people click three times to navigate from the home page.
We’ve all heard stories about some sites that do well and they’re not all the pretty to look at. The point here is to find something that works without spending weeks stressing about it. Take a look at the top sites in your niche and see how they get it done. It is your overall process which is your marketing and sales funnels that need your focus. There are far more critical concerns on your site than how great it looks to the eye.
Don’t be shy about getting right to the heart of the matter with what your primary offer is right on your home page. You can also make use of your side bars for this as well such as a nice banner or a link. By default, most themes will make all the side bars the same on various pages, and that’s not always a good idea. It is often overlooked to do simple split testing so you can discover what works the best. High visibility locations are the way to go with these offers, and you can also change them from time to time. Never discount the power of having a site that is pleasing to look at plus it’s easy to use. You’ll be tracking what your visitors are doing, and you should see the difference if you do things properly. So there’s more to success than a user friendly site but it’s a great start.