Discretion Designs UX - user experience for your business

Websites are only as successful as their visitors believe they are.

So how do you find out who your real visitors are, how they found you, and if your site really is of benefit to them?

First, let’s find out who they are.  If you host with us we can provide you with all of these statistics, however if you host with someone else there are various products out there that allow you to track your visitors, what they look at, where they go, when they leave, and so on.  The most highly recommended is Google Analytics – a free and very interactive program.

Once you determine who is visiting your site it’s crucial to know how they found you.  Did they search for you?  If so, which terms did they enter?  Did they come from another site?  If so, which one?  These statistics help you determine if your site is relevant to the sites linking to it and if you should be linking back thereby encouraging more visits.

Finally, is your site of benefit to your visitors?  Look at which page they are leaving on, issue a survey and ask them what they like about your site, what you can do better, and what they want more of – then follow through for happy visitors.

Who aren’t your visitors?

As important as it is to know who your visitors really are – it’s just as important to know who they aren’t.

Design for the actual end user.

• Unless your site is an intranet – your employees probably aren’t your visitors.
• Your CEO and Board are very likely not regular visitors.
• Your family are likely not regular visitors to your business’ site.
• You aren’t a regular visitor.  Think about it – when was the last time you went to your own business website – and really explored?

• Posted on Monday, February 9th, 2009
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