Use Plain English on Websites

Ever had comments from your customers that they had trouble finding information on your website? You probably had a look and wondered how they could miss it!

Take another look. The chances are you wrote your website for yourself rather than your customers. The exact words which read well, look professional and reinforce your brand identity to you, may do the exact opposite for your customers.

Ask yourself what the 4 main things visitors to your website will want to do, and include “plain english” text links to these on your homepage. For example:

The #1 thing visitors to my Creative Ideas website want to do is to see other websites which I have designed. I have therefore included a line of text right near top of the page stating View websites designed by Creative Ideas. It is also in bold to make it stand out for people who only scan webpages quickly looking for the important information.

Use short obvious headings on the navigation panel to get people to your main webpages. For example:

The navigation headings on Lupton Lodge Website (see image on left) are very easy to understand. A common mistake is to use brand names instead of an actual product name or category. Customers who are on your website wanting to buy a frying pan with have a lot of trouble finding one if the navigation heading leading to this page says “sizzlypots” (the name of your frying pan range).

Don’t use industry terms or jargon if you want your customers and search engines to understand you.

If you would like me to review your website and suggest ways to improve the homepage and navigation so your customers can find important information and products, send me an email.