For those companies in Orange County that are on the verge of taking their websites live, it may be a thrilling time, or a frightening one. You want to get high engagement levels and sales, but if you’ve neglected some critical aspect of the website design process, then your chances probably aren’t very good. You can ask yourself these questions as you fine-tune your site in preparation for the big day.

Is Your Site Easy to Navigate?

There is no overstating how important this question is, Orange County. If people come to your site and they are at a loss trying to figure out how to use it, then you’ve failed in the most fundamental way. The navigation menu has to be easy to locate and use. It’s the way that visitors browse your site and find whatever they’re looking for, your products and services, your blog, your FAQs. Think simple and intuitive with this aspect of your website design. This isn’t the place to get experimental. The copy should be tight and readable. It should be simple but infused with personality. Focus on the products: this is what it is, and this is how it works. Don’t get redundant or off-topic.

Some Informal Rules

These informal rules of website design can help you as you set up your navigation menu. You should have no more than seven items there. Any more than that might confuse your visitors. Simplicity is better. It should also take a user no more than three clicks to get to where they’re trying to go, including the homepage. Any more than that and the user could be led off-course. Clicking on your logo should always bring the visitor back to your homepage. Your logo should be a way for the user to “start over” if they’re not finding what they want immediately.

You should also avoid drop-down menus. It’s difficult for search engines to crawl them, and users typically move their eyes faster than they move a mouse. Because of that, when the user moves the mouse over to the menu bar, and they are shown too many options, they will likely become frustrated with the experience.

Orange County businesses that find the most success inevitably are the ones with the best website design. Before you launch your site, go through it and make sure that everything is working as it should be and that you haven’t neglected any of the aspects that we mentioned here.