Web In A Shell

You maybe having a great looking blog but if you do not maintain it well enough it could well slip up on its success factor. Here are a couple of mistakes you need to avoid if you want your blog to really reach out to the audience.

Not including a biography
Most business blogs will typically have an ‘about us’ included in their site. However, if yours is more of a personal blog then there is no need to have such a section. But you still need to have a section that talks about yourself. The Internet has so much scope for anonymity that many users are skeptical when they see a blog without any author biography. Most visitors to your blog will definitely want to know more about you, your experience in the domain you are writing about etc. Not having a biography therefore can reduce your chances at getting more visitors into the blog.

Not having headlines
This is another common mistake that many blog owners do. They write pages after pages of text without including relevant headers along with it. Often your blog’s content headline can get you listed on search engine results and therefore it deserves the due amount of importance. Many blogs which are of a personal nature tend to use ambiguous and vague headings which are not as per the context of the subject. This might seem like a cool thing to do but it does not get you too many readers at the end. Readers do not have the time to go through the entire text to grasp its meaning. Having relevant and effective headings improves readability and page rankings to a large extent.

Using ambiguous links
Many blogs use anchor texts for their hyperlinks which are totally out of sync with the content. If you are leading your visitor to a particular section of your blog you need to mention what the section is about in the link. People hate to visit links which do not tell them where they are headed. They will just abandon your link and your blog – for good. Try using concise and relevant anchor text that describes the targeted page’s content well enough.

Highly detailed categories
Categories are meant to provide a broad based view of your products or listings. Many blogs make the mistake of making these categories too detailed. Doing so then makes the listings of categories too lengthy. Instead of doing that follow the structured approach of highlighting only the main product categories and using sub links to help users get to sub-categories.

Not sticking with the theme
Your blog has sustained the interest of readers simply because it deals with a particular theme and subject matter. If you start deviating from it on a regular basis and write on miscellaneous topics it will surely take away from your popularity. Try and write on as many related topics as you can about the central theme of your blog’s content.

When it comes to your website you want it to be a user-friendly, interactive experience. That is why usability on your web 2.0 site is so important. It could be the defining factor between a sale made and a sale lost. Here we discuss some useful ways in which you can test the usability on your web 2.0 site effectively.

Focal point  
First and foremost you will need to assess which aspect of your site you wish to test the usability on. For example if it is the design and layout of the site then the approach will be totally different from testing on interactivity. If it is the design and structure you wish to test the usability on your web 2.0 site on then you need to concentrate on colors used, layout of web pages, presence of site map, whether important aspects have been highlighted or not etc.

Clear structure  
The next aspect you need to focus on is whether the site has a clear and minimalist design or not. Today Web 2.0 strategies on web design clearly state that a well designed site needs to have a central structure and layout with minimal distractions. Thus when you are testing for usability on your web 2.0 site you need to assess if the web pages have been designed keeping the central theme in mind or not. Otherwise your user could easily get distracted from the central topic of your website.

Do not clutter the home page
Your home page is your ticket to page ranking on popular search engines. Search engines do not recognize flash or other fancy software. Instead they only recognize plain and simple text. Many websites clutter their landing page with unnecessary information and flashy images. Doing so just takes away from the central message you want to get across to the user. Therefore while you are assessing the usability on your web 2.0 site make sure to keep the home page clean and easy to understand.

Getting the message across
This aspect of usability on your web 2.0 site will depend a lot on what type of website you have. If you have an information portal like a Wiki site for example, then the focus should be on providing information rather than any commercial promotions. On the other hand, if you are selling a particular range of products on your website then usability will focus on coaxing the customer to purchase. In order to get the sales rolling you need aspects like call to action, highlighting the important discounts or promotions happening and generally listing out products with thumbnail images for better readability.

Get other people’s opinion
You may think your website is the best in the world but it always helps to get a third person’s perspective on things. Hence make sure to ask your friends to test the usability on your web 2.0 site. Let them provide their fair and honest opinion of the site and take their criticism constructively. This way you will be able to optimize and improve on your site much better.