The biggest battle on the web is getting qualified visitors that are interested in what you are selling or what you have to say. To win the war you have to retain those visitors and try to get them to buy or use your service. The most effective way to retain your visitors is to have a site that’s usable, easy to navigate and has content that is readable. A sites functionality and concept should be easy to pick up and should interact with the visitors in a way in which they would expect.

Tips:

1. Conventional Designs – Before getting out your easel and running out the the shops to get the latest version of flash, consider that visitors have a nailed down mental model of how a website should look, ensure that your navigation is clear and is either at the left or the top. Big flashy websites often suffer with usability issues and have a high bounce rate to show for it.
2. Fast Response time - A slow site response time can often be due to the design or use of high quality pictures when not needed. Re-size you images to the size you require, don’t use code to re-size them for you, also think about using typography rather than images for navigation etc. Other popular reasons for slow response times are bulky JavaScript/map scripts or apps that send referral data to external sites. Ensure that any code that is activated on page load is as efficient as it can be.
3. Simplicity in your content – If you are writing about a complex subject break it up, think about using bullet points. Ensure that links embedded in your content are obvious, think about your target market. If you are expecting senior web users use larger link text and consider putting products above the fold. Stay away if possible from heavy language, readability is the key we aren’t all Wordsworth you know!
4. Don’t Stifle the user – Interrupting the flow of a user looking around your site is a huge no no, when trying to lower your bounce rate. Pop up adds should be avoided at all costs as well as the use of Flash and Pdfs unless expected. This section also can be linked to slow response times, we are so used to broadband these days anything longer than a few seconds will give users flashback to the days of 56k web browsing.
5. Cross browser compatibility - I don’t suggest that you get every browser ever created and test that you site looks and feels how it should. But i sustainably suggest that you check the site looks how you want it to on Safari, Firefox and IE , checking the site is multiple resolutions as you go.

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