I’m calling you out man!! Be there or be square. No, it’s not a fight. It’s about the square in the logo, and no I don’t want you to be a square. I want your site to be squared, squared away that is.

When I think what makes a quality site, I think of four main things: quality design, great usability and accessibility, clear purpose, and effectiveness. If you have those, you have a square site. Take one away, and you or your visitors are losing out.

Quality Design

The quality of your design is a factor of many things, from color to layout. Skimp on your sites appearance, and watch that bounce rate sky rocket upward. Your site doesn’t have to be full of flash or images to be great though. Simple things, like being consistent in format can have greater value.

Great Usability and Accessibility

If your site is easy to use and figure out based on your input only, good luck. You can’t just go by what people say either. You need to know what they do. Test your site, use real participants, use tried and tested usability concepts, and make sure the largest possible target audience can access it. If it’s just a personal site, invite a few friends over, and conduct some basic usability tests yourself. A well known secret to gaining a larger audience is to cater to them. Another one, is doing it better than your competitors. Here is an easy way to do both at the same time.

Clear Purpose

What is your site about again? Make it clear with an introduction message, and support the idea with your site. Don’t confuse your visitors with miscellaneous items that don’t really need to be there. Kill all those ads if you can! Look at Google’s home page as a great example.

Effectiveness

So how effective is your site? You built it for a reason, right? Are visitors getting out of it what you hoped for? Are you making the sales you imagined, or are your member numbers increasing? If they are not, you may be missing something. Build the rest of your square, and close the deal with a highly effective website. Improving your sites effectiveness is fine tuning the other sides of the square.

That’s it, now BE THERE AND BE SQUARE! Here is an easy way to start: get my Web Usability and Design Analysis.

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