You’ve proudly created your website and kept it updated. Still, your counter doesn’t show very many visits, nor do you seem to get much feedback from your visitors. Puzzled, you submit to more and more search engines and join a few link exchanges.

The reason may not be in your advertising. It may be in the level of user-friendliness of your site. Sure, you may get compliments of your site from family and friends, but is your site functional, and is it pleasant to view? This is an important question, which should be high on the list of your priorities. In this article I’m going to share some tips and tricks that will help you improve the design of your site and make it more user-friendly, hopefully spurring your counter number higher as well!

Functionality

Some studies state that a website whose main portion fits on one monitor view is preferred by visitors. This way they can see almost all content without extensive scrolling. So, check that your site design is tight enough, with no loose space between text, images and links. You do need some spacing, so that your content is easily readable, but for example leaving several line breaks between portions serves no purpose. Tightening your site design also includes getting rid of every image and word that is not absolutely necessary. It will shorten page loading times, too.

Links should be checked at least monthly. Sites with broken links don’t appear very professional or trustworthy, and may appear not up-to-date to visitors. Check especially pages that aren’t linked from your main page, such as information pop-ups. It is much easier to forget to maintain those pages, yet if they are linked from a popular page, count on your visitors seeing them. If you are a business, check pages that are displayed to your customer after (and during) processing the payment. It is surprising how often you find broken links and outdated information in completing checkout at an online merchant.

Your pages should be networked intelligently. Try to be consistent and follow one scheme. If you decide not to crosslink your pages (that is, link individual sections to each other), maintaining links will be easier, but visitors will always need to come to the main page to visit another section of the site. If you crosslink, do it systematically. Don’t just link a few pages to each other, but insert crosslinks on all pages.

Frames are a design element that some hate with a passion and some love with a passion. If you use frames, always remember to make your links open in a new window, so that the visitor won’t be trapped inside your frames.