Revenue Journal®

Your website is a building with many rooms, and each room has a door. Each door has a sign on it, supposedly identifying what's behind the door.

Let's assume a visitor in your building is looking for the restroom. He's in a hurry. But some self-important people have been naming the rooms in your building. As your visitor attempts to find the restroom, he whizzes right past a door labeled "Executive Corporate Relief Center.

"If the door had simply said "restroom," your visitor would have gone right in.

Customers have consistently told me that if a website link name isn't clear, they won't take the time to investigate. They only click the links that have obvious names, such as "products," "about us," "support," and so on. If they encounter a site where the navigation isn't clear, they bounce right back to their search engine results and keep looking elsewhere.

Usability tests back this up. In a recent test, we asked users, "What would you expect to find when you clicked on this link?" The only link that "failed" this test--where the user was unable to identify what was behind the link - was one that had been inserted into the website for political reasons. The link name was the name of a program that top execs were particularly fond of. Fully 100% of the users were unable to answer the question, even though the company had been "pushing" this particular program to those same users for years.

Why doesn't every site use plain-language, obvious links? Because the executives approving website designs - from the small business owner to top execs in large companies - want their site to be important, exciting, and unique.

Ironically, those same executives will achieve their goal, if they stop messing around with link titles and start approving plain-language titles. Customers will find exactly what they're looking for, which is important because it leads to higher sales. Customers will be excited that their experience was so effortless, so they'll come back again and will tell others about the site. And, because most competitors will still be using self-important link names, the site will be unique.

How do you find out which words to put on the doors? Ask your customers.

Your own customers will tell you how they expect to find information on your website, if you call them on the phone and ask them correctly.

Ask logical open-ended questions For example: "What do you want to do on our website, and how do you want to do it?" "What would you expect the link title to be for the section that contains X?" "What sites are a good example of this?"

Take careful note of their answers. Record the conversation so you can refer to it after you have finished the call. Summarize what they said, placing their verbatim comments into categories, in a written report.

Make sure you interview all types of website users. If you're selling enterprise software, you'd want to interview managers, IT folks, and end users. Interview 10 to 15 people in each group, and you will have enough data to be sure of their preferences. Their suggestions will be surprisingly consistent. Customers will use the exact same phrase to describe a preference or desire, even though they have never spoken to each other.

The data you collect and analyze will make it easy for you to make decisions about what your links should be called and how your content and navigation should be organized. Your correct course will be clear.

If you're a small business owner, your next step is simply to defer to your customers' preferences, and implement the changes.

If you are in charge of upgrading a website for a larger company, you will have a harder time of it. You will need to convince your execs that they will achieve all the importance, excitement, and distinction they desire - if they let you give customers what they want. This will be a battle.

You must arm yourself for the battle with evidence, or you will lose. Once again, your customers can help you. When you are conducting the interviews, ask a simple question: "If we were able to implement all the changes you have suggested, how would that affect your behavior?" You can also ask a "one to ten" question during your interview: "On a scale of one to ten, how much more likely will you be to [buy more products, tell others about our products, etc.]?"

If your execs still insist on calling the restroom a "Corporate Executive Relief Center," conduct some usability tests and present the results. If they still insist that you can't call that link a "restroom," maybe it's time to work for another company.