Reduce “User Friction” on Your HomePage

User friction is defined as a psychological resistance to an aspect of a website which results in confusion, aggravation and/or weariness on the part of the user. It can throw a seriously large wrench in gears of the conversion process online.

Of course it’s impossible to create a web page free of friction, but you can take steps to reduce user friction. Let’s examine a few ways you can ease the mind’s of your users.

User Friction Reduction Strategies 1:
Make Your Search Box Easy to Find

The search box is one of the first things that users look for on a new web page. That’s because the search box is familiar to most users as a way to quickly find what they’re looking for. Creating a good navigation scheme is actually harder than most people think, but putting your search box where its easily seen isn’t.

Don’t frustrate your visitors when you don’t have to. Put the search box higher up on the page, with a fair amount of white space around it so its very visible on the page.

Another search related friction issue is site seaches that don’t take common misspellings and synonmys into account when configuring results. Make it easy for users to find the information they’re looking for with a fully operable site search incapable of a returning a ‘0 results found’ page.

User Friction Reduction Strategies 1:
Minimize Page Load Time

This one is a no brainer too web developers that understand users like an instant reaction when they click through a page. Long gone are the early days when users would put up with page that takes a minute or two to load.

Just like broken links and 404 pages, a long page load time frustrates users, decreases their confidence in your website and allows them the time to bounce to another site.

Are You Putting Your Keywords Where They Matter Most?

Rule #1: Always Put Your Primary Keyword in the Title (or H1)

It’s the biggest factor used by search engines and readers alike to determine what your content is all about. It makes perfect sense. The title of the page is what grabs the attention of readers when they do a search on the web. It’s a virtual book cover.

Make it easy for others (including the search engines) to figure what your article/page/website is all about. I’m not advocating stuffing every keyword into the title. Just focus it around your highest priority keyword or phrase. (For example, ‘keywords’ was the priority keyword for this post.)

In addition, it is wise to put your priority keyword as close to the beginning of the title as possible. A good rule of thumb is to work you keyword in by the fifth word. (See above.)

Using Keywords in the Subtitle

The second most important place to put your keywords is in the sub-titles (H2s and H3s). Again, search engines are reading more and more like humans every day, and as was pointed out in an earlier post, people typically scan the pages before they read.

Sub-titles are what the eyes scan for as they move down the page, so you’ll want to include your secondary keywords or phrase in addition to the primary one here.

One More Keyword Search Tip

Beyond the titles and sub-titles, placing keywords in the first and last sentences of an article can also be beneficial in helping them rank well in search engines.

Is Bing Really a New Type of Search?

There’s no question that the look of Bing is decidedly different than Google’s. While the look is important in the quest to cut in on Google’s market share, what about the usability of Bing?

Enough time has passed to allow for true analysis of this new thing called Bing. If trends hold steady then Bing just may give Google a run for its money, as its already cornered 10.7% of the search market for a 22% month over month growth rate.

Bing vs. Google Search

Bing was smart to call itself a “decision engine” not a search engine. As far as traditional search results go, Bing doesn’t really offer anything different than what you’d find using Google. That said, there are a few cool features that allow you to get more out of those results.

Preview Window – This little diddy of a tool helps you decide if you’ve really found what you’re looking for by giving you more information on the page in addition to the meta description. Just hover over the orange circle to the right of each result.

Wiki Enhanced View – This feature is an option with Wikipedia results. If you click the Enhanced View link below the Wiki search result you can bring up the Wiki info without leaving Bing.

The search functionality is good, however, it’s Bing’s extra features that separates it from the competition and lends to it’s labeling as a “decision engine”.

Bing Features

Below are a few features that also add value to Bing and are worth checking out.

l Bing Cashback Program

l Twitter Infused Search

l Travel Tools

l Search by Image

Are You Taking Advantage of the NetworkedBlogs App?

If you have a blog and a Facebook account, whether it be a profile or page, then you should look into the NetworkedBlogs Facebook App if you haven’t already.

Adding your blog is fairly simple. Just go to networkedblogs.com click ‘Add Your Blog’ and you’re on your way.

Helpful Tips for Installing and Using NetworkedBlogs

After putting in the blog information you’ll be asked to verify the blog. You have two options for doing this; you can take the longer method and have friends verify it, or you can use the quicker, more technical method of adding a snippet of code to your blog. If you want to display the facebook widget on your blog use the code method.

The widget comes in really handy, allowing your blog readers to follow your blog on Facebook with the click of a button.

Get your friends to follow your blog. Once you have 11 followers NetworkedBlogs will automatically feed your blog to your Facebook profile page.

Blogtactics.com put together a very useful video that walks you through the steps of registering your blog with NetworkedBlogs.