You have probably slogged day and night to put together a website that is attractive and has loads of useful information. Where a combination of two is concerned, your website may even be the best. However, without a way to easily access information and products or services on your site, web users have little use for it.

How can you possibly understand what makes your site a 10/10 on usability? Find out from these following tips:

1. Design along Structure and Update Frequency – If you have decided to post content on your site fairly often, a blog-style design would probably be better for your website. However, if you are not planning to post anything too often, a static design should suffice.
2. Note Logo and Menu Placement – The logo should ideally be placed on the top-left and the menu below it, or on the right. It’s convention, users expect it and therefore there is little need to get creative. Additionally, the logo should be clickable and always redirect to your home page. Also, unless you are an instantly recognizable brand, always have your name, logo or tagline at the top.
3. Note Search Placement – If you are including a search bar, make sure it’s on the upper right or upper left corner of the page and has the word ‘search’ in-form.
4. Allow Easy Locate – An easy-to-find contact page is imperative to your site. A contact link can either be included in the footer or the top menu, or the sidebar. Also, help pages like FAQ, Support, and/or Documentation should be easy to find and placed in the footer.
5. Don’t Clutter – The menu should have the most important pages of your site. Assuming you have done your keyword research, you will probably have separate pages targeting different keywords. You can choose the most important pages as perhaps the top 3 competitive keywords pages. The idea is to have few choices in the menu to avoid an indecisive user who will bounce out than click on all the links.
6. Show State-changes – You don’t want to confuse your user and have him click on the same links over and over again. Set different appearances for hover and clicks to reinforce click-ability.
7. Practice Form Field Highlight – A form-field should be highlighted when a user clicks on it. A highlight lets the user know that’s where the text needs to be entered.
8. Have Noticeable Link Colors – Links should stand out in a ways so it’s pretty obvious that the text is clickable. Blue is the usual link color but you can experiment with other colors primarily depending on the background color of the menu. Also, always have the underline below a link text. Once again, it’s convention and expected. Just do it.
9. Include Easy-to-follow Forms – Grouping forms makes them easier for users to follow. First and last name can be grouped together to appear in one line, as can city, state or province. Also, using titles makes it easier for the user to know what each form is for.
10. Breakdown – Adding text like ‘Step 1 of 5’ helps the user know how far he is into completing the form. Users hate it when you ask them to fill up pages of information, typically sign-up forms, survey forms and order forms. You don’t want your user to leave midway without completing the form, do you?
11. Welcome Window Shoppers – First-time visitors may come back to your site if they find information they are looking for, quickly and easily. Show the product price and description right away. Those who intend to buy your product will come back later to buy.
12. Keep Animation/Graphics at bay – so they do not hinder navigation. Make the use of your content easy to users and not a guessing game where they keep looking for ways to click on menu items.
13. Say NO to Splash – Unless your website focuses on or promotes only one product, like a movie or game, do not use full-size Splash pages. Visitors will expect a website. Give them a website, albeit with promotion content on the home page, so your visitors know how to act, and can act by choice.
14. Use Images – Pages and pages of information is tiring. Use images to convey an idea where you can.
15. Arrange Text – with headlines, sub-headlines, bold texts, highlights, bulleted lists, and segments to increase readability. Avoid underlines, as they are most likely to be mistaken for links text.
16. Have your own Domain – It shows the user that you are a professional and that your site is authentic.
17. Make Permalinks Short – as they fit into places easily and makes easier for people to share urls.
18. Maintain Consistency – This is just so important for your site! While experimentation is good, it’s sometime best to stay with conventions. Introduce as little change as possible in the general structure and interface of your site and the colors you use, especially link colors.

Usability is everything to your website. Aesthetics and information will only take you so far in this competitive market, but without usability catching up on the way, there is little chance your website will carve a niche for itself.