Sounds fun, doesn’t it?
I’m not a violent person, but I have a lot of fun destroying things. So what are we sledgehammering on websites and how will it fix them?
We’re knocking out walls…
All of those really annoying dead-end walls I keep running into.
What Is A Dead-End Page?
Any page that I get to the bottom of that doesn’t give me anywhere to go next. The harder it is to get from one page to another, the less likely I am to stay on the site.
I don’t want to scroll up to the top of the page and use the very clever navigation bar to find somewhere else to go, I just want to go there. I’m at the bottom of the page now. Give me some direction.
If I just ran nose first into a dead end, I’m going to be upset.
Be More Like Wal-Mart
Here’s the brilliance of the Wal-Mart layout- there are only 4 walls and no dead-ends. Everything is laid out in front of you with signs and surroundings letting you know what section you’re in.
Unfortunately for me, tearing out website’s walls really isn’t as fun as hammering out walls… but that’s good news for website owners. Much less hassle and much less dust.
The fix is as simple as hanging some signs. On Wordpress, it’s as easy as installing a related posts plug-in, which links to similar content. Other types of sites have to add some interesting links manually… still easier than destroying the pages.
And for goodness sakes, if the site is selling something, it has to give the customer a chance to buy it by linking to it at the end of related content pages. It’s a commonly overlooked but critical step.
It’s one of the little things that makes the sites better for the search engines, better for your bottom line, but most of all, better for the visitors.
