Snog Marry or Avoid?

My first post Ive decided not to bore you with all the usual About me crap and what im hoping to write about and stuff. Short and simple Im going to write (not very well grammar nazi’s beware) about things that I find interesting and has value. The plan is not to have a wishy washy blog that just commentates on industry politics or other people in the industry. Nuts and bolts replaceable stuff is what I want to go for, with no doubt the odd off topic post. Anyways I’ll create an about me page at some point for those who want to know a little more about me

So lately usability has been my biggest turn on, massively overlooked I feel by some web masters that have been hit by penguin. Attacking your link profile is just part of the challenge, accounting for the lost business is the more pressing real world issue. Regaining your traffic is going to be a long drawn out process so squeeze every thing you can out of your visitors. A good SEO goes beyond rankings and visitors and looks at gaining the client more business (design, usability,content,blind testing,ppc optimisation), with the best looking through the whole process from visitor to customer, industrialising and smoothing out processes as they go.

Usability and design I find is always a quick and very powerful way of increasing business over a short space of time. So why are usability and design changes so exciting?

1. A/B testing – Simply put you can make a change and monitor it to see if it has had a positive or negative effect on business.
2. Instant results – Unlike organic SEO changes, results are instant you can make just one small change to your site and increase conversion today.
3. Customer physcology - Getting into the head of your potential customer like one of the great method actors Is always a useful exercise and can highlight weak points in your site e.g no reviews on a product or ability to compare (Exit Rate Uppers).
4. Find turn offs – Its surprising how many you’ll actually find. while you feel like a fool for not spotting them before you can be secure in the knowledge that now you see them and can fix them. My fav turn off is a captcha especially on mobile sites! (just incase you were wondering ).

I have created a usability tool for you to try on your site, Hope you find some annoyances and increase conversion.  P.S Thanks for all the comments shares and retweets