‘Better’ practices for website design

Web pages are the second interface between your business and your customers. Whether you are wholesale or retail, there are some “better” practices you should keep in mind for the development of web pages. Remember, the ultimate goal is to help customers find the information they’re seeking. If they can’t find it easily and quickly, you will lose their attention and could lose a customer. (See Figures 1 - 3.)
 

Keep text clear and legible. People don’t have time to read a lot of text. This means that browsing or scanning is the most likely way they will try to find what they are looking for.

Make your page easy to scan and use key words to identify categories and other pertinent information. Headings help a lot. How do you create the lists or otherwise abbreviate long text? Headings can most certainly help. Color Spot does this in their product catalog. (http://colorspot.com/?cat=3).

Make content concise. Many people don’t want to comb through a lot of text. Bullet points, short lists, bolding essential words or information will help them find their target. Altman Plants effectively accomplishes this using a banner placed over an image of their business. (http://www.altmanplants.com/).

Use numbers where possible (10 not ten). Bay City does this nicely in their shipping instructions. (www.baycityflower.com/retailers/shipping.html).

Keep things short and legible and gain an objective assessment of your site. How easy is it really to read your website? There is a helpful readability tool (http://read-able.com/) that can give you an indication of how easy it is to “read” through your text. Try it on a few pages. Our MSU website has the readability of a 10th grader, meaning that it should be easily understood by 15 to16-year-olds, one of our target audiences. (See Figures 4 and 5.)
 

Facilitate scanning with lots of white space. A clean website is more attractive. Break up those headings with space. Research indicates that larger margins on the page make it easier to read and comprehend what is being presented. Four Star's home page is a great example of this. (http://www.pwfourstar.com/).

Put most important or sought after first, followed by items of lesser importance or sought less frequently. We all get those calls. Information we think is plainly obvious isn’t to web page readers. It’s essential you present a telephone number and physical location (using a map is preferred) on every page because research shows these are the two most often sought pieces of business information. Deneweth’s does this well, especially on their home page. (http://www.deneweths.com/)

Keep links simple, but direct. Rather than posting the url in logn form, use a clickable word or phrase that indicates what the link’s destination is. Make sure the link opens as a new window so you keep the visitor on your page (or have the easy ability to get back to your page without hitting the back button). (See Figures 6 and 7.)
 

Use pictures as the basis for your information; after all, a picture’s worth a thousand words. It takes more seconds to read a genus species than it does to recognize an image of that plant. Use both, but highlight the image and underscore the image with the terminology. Green Circle does a great job with their plant list (http://www.greencirclegrowers.com/seasonal-products).

Make your images flexible in terms of size so that different sized screens (desktop and mobile devices) can see the image. But, be sure the page load speed is relatively fast on several devices. We all get tired of waiting for an image to load. Don’t risk losing a potential visitor/customer with pages that load too slowly.

Be timely in a number of ways. Migrate your website to be mobile-ready. Many customers, both wholesale and retail, do a lot of business from their smartphones. Having your site, even if it is just the key pieces, mobile ready will permit them to find the information they want when they aren’t in front of their desktop or laptop computer.

Smith Gardens (http://www.smithgardens.com/) does this well. Even its video showing how the business operates is mobile ready. Use Google analytics and see what folks are finding. This will help you prioritize pages and see what they want. Use telephone calls to see what they cannot find. Delete outdated and non-essential content.

After no telephone number and no physical address (especially for retailers), having old information turns off customers very fast.

Work with your provider to remove holiday and seasonal content at midnight of the end of that season or holiday. Keep posted hours current and images in keeping with the sales season. Old content makes you and your business look old.

Bridget Behe is a frequent contributor to Greenhouse Management and a professor in the department of horticulture at Michigan State University. You can write Bridget at behe@msu.edu.