I’ve been a big advocate of making web sites as simple and easy to use as possible. No Flash, no trendy navigation bars, no nothing that requires even a tiny bit of browsing skills.
And here’s why. Of the top searches for week ending March 13 2005 “Yahoo”, “MSN” and “Google” are in the top 18 searches.
My information is that one of the top searches done on Yahoo! is “Yahoo”.
That’s right…….web users go to Yahoo! and search for “Yahoo” – they’re looking for the very site they’re already on.
I’ve Seen Something Similar
I saw something similar a few years back. We did some usability tests that found that when asked to visit the web site www.tailored.com.au for example, a big % of people would go to a search engine and type in www.tailored.com.au – not realizing what the address bar is for.
Just because you and your web designer know how things work on the web, doesn’t necessarily mean your visitor does. So make things as easy as possible for everyone.
Cheers
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