Website navigation, usability and accessibility tipsIf users cannot access and move around your website, then it is unlikely that they will complete your ultimate goal of making a purchase or sales enquiry into your business. The website navigation, usability and accessibility tips below are all designed to make your website visitors’ lives as easy as possible. Click each tip to read more detail. |
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Website usability best practice tips |
Keep navigation consistent throughout your website | |
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Provide links to a 'Contact Us' page on your website | |
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Provide links to a 'About Us' page on your website | |
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Employ a really simple navigation system within your website | |
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Indicate the website page that is being currently viewed | |
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Include links to all of your main website areas | |
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Make non-clickable elements clear within your website | |
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Provide clear multilingual options for your website users | |
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Make RSS Feeds available to your website visitors | |
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Provide clear links to any log in area within your website | |
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Always use absolute links within your website | |
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Provide social bookmarking links for your website content | |
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Provide a clear logout link throughout your log in area | |
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Do not use pop-up windows within your website | |
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Avoid opening internal links in a new window or tab | |
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Ensure your website opens all external links in a new window or tab | |
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Make your navigation easy for both expert and novice users | |
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Always use a correct robots.txt file for your website | |
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Declare doctype in the website HTML | |
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Do not use frames within your website | |
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Use alt tags for every image on your website | |
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Ensure that you have a custom 404 error page on your website | |
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Ensure that your pages have a printer friendly option | |
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Underline or make prominent any hyperlinks within your website body text | |
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Add breadcrumbs to your website pages | |
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Ensure that your menu structure and navigation is sensible | |
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Each website page should have a unique, relevant page title | |
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Ensure that each meta description is unique and relevant to your keyword/phrase and landing page | |
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Ensure links within your website have relevant anchor text | |
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Ensure any links to your ecommerce shopping basket are nofollow | |
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Validate CSS for your website | |
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Check your broken links | |
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Allow your website text to be resized | |
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Ensure your website can be browsed on mobiles | |
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Keep your page size less than 50K (8 second load) | |
Website browser best practice tips |
Don't remove users' ability to navigate or remove browser window items | |
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Ensure that you website works correctly in different browsers | |
Website domain and URL tips |
Purchase all available versions of your domain name | |
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Make your website address memorable | |
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Use domains that include relevant keywords | |
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Use email addresses that include your website domain | |
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Use alternate website domain redirects | |
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Use hyphens or underscores for page filenames | |
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Always know your domain age | |
Website links and buttons tips |
Avoid using images as the only link within a Web page | |
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Do not place too many links on one page of your website | |
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Minimise outbound links from your website | |
Website search tips |
Locate your site search in the top-right corner of the page | |
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Ensure that search is not case sensitive | |
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Ensure that your site search is clearly labelled | |
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Include a link to "advanced search" | |
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Ensure that your search engine recognises common misspellings | |
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Show similar products in relevant search results | |
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Provide search result refinement options | |
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Re-iterate the search query on the results page | |
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Display exact matches first and close matches second | |
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Bold or highlight query words in results. | |
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Allow users to increase the number of results shown per page | |
Website sitemap tips |
Keep your site map up to date | |
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Ensure you have a .xml version of your sitemap | |
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Place a link to the site map in your footer | |
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Link to site map from help and 404 pages | |
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Provide an overview paragraph for your sitemap | |
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Ensure your sitemap has a clear hierarchy | |
