6 Best Practices for Website Usability 

Your website is your online marketing hub. It is your greatest tool for turning visitors into customers. Having an aesthetically pleasing website is important. However, design without functionality is useless.  A websites infrastructure is an important piece for creating a personalized and rich user experience. Below are 6 best practices for optimizing the usability of your website.

1. In-site Search: In-site search is an important component of on-site usability. It helps visitors find the information they are looking for more efficiently.  Site search must be able to improve the visitor's experience in your site; otherwise it does more harm than good.  A few things to remember: Make sure this is easy to find in the top right-hand corner of your web page.  Search should be forgiving of misspellings when searching, and not case sensitive.
   
   
   
2. Link Your Headers and Logos:  No brainer right? Many sites that lack this component. Linking the logo or headers gives users the quick option to get back to the homepage easily. In case your image or logo is inside an image tag, remember to wrap it with a link tag. 
   
   
   
3. Monitor Competitors: Always be mindful of what your competitive edge is, and how you may fall short when compared to competitor sites. Sometimes mimicry is the greatest form of flattery.
   
   
   
4. Break Up Content and Use Text Formatting: Users tend to fixate longer on bulleted lists and text formatting such as bolding and italics.  This can help gain the attention of users as well as help speed up reading by breaking down content into specific parts and highlighting the important keywords and information.  Break up long articles into sections so that users can easily skim through the content.  Use bullet points to break up paragraph & highlight content.
   
   
   
5. Custom 404 Page:  No matter how well you build your website, you can't stop someone from typing a wrong URL. You need to be prepared for those users who can't seem to locate the content they are searching for.  A custom 404 page is your chance to turn a negative user experience into a positive one. A custom 404 page should explain clearly that the page they are looking for is not there.  It should also remind users to check the URL they typed for typos. It should also link to important pages such as your homepage.
   
   
   
6. Data Driven Design:  Having a website design that aligns what users are looking for and clear calls to action is imperative to site conversions. Use advanced analytics such as click tracking and heat-mapping to understand which content is performing best. This data will help you optimize the conversion path and funnels.  Using these tools you can see what is most engaging to users and what they spend the most time interacting with.