Planning, Developing, and Promoting Successful Small Business Websites

Table of Contents

It is very important to understand how visitors use a website. There are some general working theories about how users behave when navigating and using a site. One of the most generally accepted theories is that users are often in a hurry. This sense of urgency when surfing the Internet causes users to react to websites in a few different ways. The most notable behaviors are user “satisficing” and user scanning.

“Satisficing” is settling for a decision because there are no consequences and time does not permit further research. Users will not always make the best choice they will generally make the easiest one. There is no need for most users to consider all the options available when navigating a website when there is no penalty for being wrong. Users will guess because it is fun and saves time. This trend will probably continue to develop as more people subscribe to higher speed Internet connections. The best solution to this behavior is placing small amounts of options on a page and leading users through a site as best as possible by understanding which decisions they should make and helping them to do so through streamlined, intuitive design.

Website visitors scan pages because they are in a hurry. People have been learning to scan for years now by doing the same with newspapers, magazines, and books. Scanning a site gets a user to the information they are looking for more quickly than if they were to decipher the meaning of each word. There is no need for most users to read everything on a page, and they are more likely to be motivated by their desire to save time (Swackhammer, 2003). Knowing that users are not likely to read everything on a page, it is important to break up information according to their habits. Some ways to keep user attention on important information include: using bulleted lists, using bold and italic fonts and writing short, narrow paragraphs. Long paragraphs tend to lose user’s attention and they will only skim the words not paying attention to the meaning. Wide paragraphs will cause a reader to lose their place when scanning and become frustrated. Highlighting the most important information and separating it for better user comprehension is an important technique in creating a successful website.

Appendices
(All in a single document) Appendix 1-1: Overture Search Term
Research Tool

Appendix 1-2: Wordtracker Search Query Research Tool

Appendix 1-3: Google Sets Website Theme Research Tool

Appendix 1-4: Reach/ Acquire/ Convert/ Retain

Chart Appendix 2-5: Zehnder’s of Frankenmuth Information Architecture Flowchart

Appendix 2-6: Search Engine Themes Pyramid Information Architecture Example

Appendix 2-7: Webpage Download Time by File Size Chart

Appendix 2-8: Expected Locations for Common E-commerce Elements

Appendix 2-9: Website Usability Checklist

Appendix 2-10: Text Vs.Code Ratio/ Content Near the Top of Souce Code Examples

Appendix 3-11: Overture Bid Price Tool

Appendix 3-12: Webalizer Website Visitor Tracking Tool

Appendix 3-13: AW STATS Website Visitor Tracking Tool Appendix

3-14: Clicktracks Website Statistics
Analysis Tool

References
Author Notes

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Planning, Developing, and Promoting Successful Small Business Websites Table of Contents

Planning, Developing, and Promoting a Successful Small Business Website

Website Design for Small Business Page 28

User Satisficing on Website

Planning, Developing, and Promoting Successful Small Business Websites

Table of Contents

Website Design for Small Business
Page 28