Is Your Site an Online Obstacle Course?

To be successful, a small business web site should lead visitors toward taking action – whether it’s purchasing a product, signing up for a newsletter, or clicking on a specific link – the site should provide a clear pathway for visitors to accomplish a goal. But sometimes, moving your visitors toward that action is harder than it has to be because of hurdles (however unintentional) that can block their path. To keep your visitors following the intended path to action, make sure your site isn’t an online obstacle course.

Natural Scan Patterns

The goal of your web pages is of course to give visitors the information they are seeking, but at the same time, the page must also be attractive and inviting. Using images is a great way to add interest to a page, but be careful. Images can sometimes get in the way of a visitor’s natural scan pattern and distract them from accomplishing the action you want them to take.

Notice Me

Users are so accustomed to skipping over display ads that they can sometimes skip right over an image on your web page – even if that image contains important information. This means that if you have a critical page element, like a call to action or conversion trigger, don’t bury it in an image. Instead, put it at the end of the user’s natural scanning pattern and make it stand out.

Image Placement

The placement of images on the page is also an important consideration. Page elements or content that is buried under the fold (content that a user has to scroll down to see) runs the risk of being outside the user’s natural flow and may be missed altogether. If your call to action is at the very end of your page, move it higher or make sure it is at least repeated somewhere in the top half of the page or in the navigation system.

Obstacle Free

The same is true for video and other page elements that could potentially interrupt the flow of information that leads users to the desired action. Provide visitors with a direct route that follows established scanning patterns, and avoid adding barriers that could distract them from taking action or accomplishing their goals on your site. Your business has something unique to offer, so make sure your visitors have an obstacle-free path to finding it.