The importance of website usability
A common term you’ll hear when working with a website developer is its “usability.” Usability can span a few key elements but essentially is focused on your online visitors and making your site as user-friendly and easy to navigate as possible. Today’s consumers won’t spend more than a minute on your site if it’s slow, hard to navigate, or has design flaws such as pixelated photos, automatic music or videos, or a severely outdated design.
Today’s consumers expect your website to have all the information they need to feel comfortable with their booking. Your website should effortlessly guide them through the buyer’s journey and get them into your online booking engine.
So, how do you meet the needs of today’s consumer when it comes to website usability?
Know your audience – You check guests in and out daily and through these interactions you learn what’s important to them. Use these insights when designing your website to highlight the things you know they’re interested in, perhaps rooms, packages, and activities.
Keep a consistent navigation – Use your navigation widely to direct guests into your rooms or packages pages but make sure your navigation does not change, no matter what page of the website they’re on. Nothing is more frustrating to a user than having content jump around your website and not being able to find what they’re looking for.
Strong and strategically placed calls to action – Calls to action (CTAs) tell your website visitor what to do next. Perhaps it’s looking at your packages or filling out a wedding RFP, either way your CTAs must stand out from the rest of the content and be direct in the action you want them to take. A CTA that blends into the background with the actionable item of, “Request a quote for a stunning wedding at one of Denver’s top-rated hotels” is not going to work.
Emphasize visuals – People’s attention spans continue to shrink so you’ve got very little time to get your online visitor to focus on your site. Luckily, we process images at a much faster rate than text so using visuals to showcase the experience at your property or what each page is about will enhance your visitors’ understanding of the page.
Use a clean design – We know we just said visuals are important but having so many images displayed on a page can cause a photo overload – and a slow load time of your site – making it a jarring experience for your guest. If you want multiple images on your site, use sliders to rotate images or space them out throughout the content. Having whitespace and breaks between images and text helps your visitor make it through the content.
Want to know if you’ve hit the mark? Ask family members or friends to navigate your website to find a room they want to book and book it. If everyone can easily make their way through your site, there’s a pretty good chance your website visitors can too.
Want another way to find out if you've hit the mark? Request one of our free business evaluations and we'll provide expert insight to your site's performance and areas of opportunity.