Back to basics: organizing your website content

Despite developing wonderful content for our website, so many of us forget one of the finishing touches: organization. A relevant article or blog post may be useless if the intended readers never see it — or if they leave the site before finding what they need. Content organization is key for driving web traffic and sales. For a small business (or any other business, for that matter), a website’s goal is to convert visitors into customers. To help your site educate, market, and sell, pay close attention to structure and organization.

Priorities, please:
Why?
1) your visitors find the information you want them to find
2) you help them find information they want to find

How to prioritize:

1) Determine your top 2 goals for the site (i.e. sales or brand awareness). 2) Next, make your critical information visible with strategic placement on your webpage. Don’t be afraid to highlight or “feature” the content you want to stand out; put it front & center on the home page if that’s your only goal (as long as it’s interesting, attractive, or helpful).

For example, If you’re trying to sell a product, make sure the “shop” page is clear, the products are well-organized, and it’s evident what you’re offering. If you want to publicize an event, try placing a graphic on the homepage with allrelevant details.

Make it easy to find!
Nothing is more frustrating than when a visitor has to dig for information. Google and search engines allow people to get the information from other websites. “Bounce rate” is the percentage of your initial visitors who “bounce” (move) away to a different site, rather than stay on your website. You want a low “bounce rate”… so don’t give potential customers a reason to leave! Internet users are impatient — they want everything to be accessible, and quick! Do your business a favor by making your site easy to use.

Never neglect the navigation bar.
It’s how we move through sites; without it, browsing would be much more difficult. Think about how you want users to browse your site (i.e. what is important? what should they see first? what are they looking for?) and organize your navigation bar accordingly. Identify the logical categories/groups for your content and order them in a manner that works for you AND the customer.

Key take-aways:
- develop a method to the madness
- organize for the visitor
- think logically and practically