Redesign tips for higher ROI

Does Jakob Nielsen’s preaching about all kinds of top 10 web design mistakes wear you out? Well, here’s something a bit more refreshing: Mr. Nielsen’s tips for 10 redesign steps that will boost your ROI.

No extreme makeover
You’ll be glad to know that these tips don’t require you to redesign your entire site. Instead they offer some tactics that you can implement at your own pace.

And you don’t have to buy into it all. This is simply a list of site design strategies that are proven to improve usability and return on investment.

Some of the tips are very basic, but I find it is useful to have a list of reminders:

Informative product pages: The product information has to be detailed to answer all of the questions potential customers bring to your site. But remember that this information must be written in a way that makes sense to people who aren’t experts in your field.

Better website search: According to Nielsen, users increasingly depend on search as a primary interface to the Web. Among other things, this means that you have to fix your content so that it’s searchable. For example, you have to write meaningful page titles that describe what’s on a page. Otherwise, your visitors won’t know what they’ll get when they click on search results. And much will be achieved by writing in your users’ vocabulary.

Simplified text: Jakob Nielsen has found that website usability can be doubled by rewriting the text according to his guidelines for online content. Better writing is one of the most important improvements you can make to your site. But it’s not a one-time fix. Everyone who is allowed to write for your site needs to be introduced to the guidelines. Alternatively, you could consider hiring an editor.

See all Jakob Nielsen’s 10 High-Profit Redesign Priorities

You might also be interested in “Usability & SEO – Two Wins for the Price of One” from Search Engine Roundtable.