indie_preneur

How many clicks does it take to get to your content?

2.16.2010

By indie_preneur

This is something that just popped into my head the other day, while trying to come up with catchy blog titles. Perhaps that’s not the best way to come up with good posts, but in this case I think it’s valid.

Like the old lollypop saying ‘How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsiepop,’ you need to be very conscious of this idea when creating your web architecture. It’s amazing how many sites have great information that is buried under layers of beauty pages. Not only is this a bad idea in terms of SEO (more on this later), but it’s very, very frustrating for users.

More clicks required = less clicks, less users, less business

I can think of many times when I’ve visited a site and been promised an article or PDF I was interested in only to give up after going three or more steps (crazy!!) to get to it. Often, this process requires a registration form of some kind (another topic for another time), and then a few pages after this, and even (the Pièce de résistance), an email with a link to ANOTHER page.

** Note: I do think if the content is highly valuable, to both the creators and the user, then a SIMPLE (i.e. nothing more required than what is truly needed) registration form is okay, but immediatly afterwards get the user to the content. I understand businesses wanting to qualify leads before giving their content away, but as I’ve often said, a “qualified lead” that never converts, or even acts again, is a wasted lead, or better yet, not a lead.

I’ve also encountered sites that, on the SERPs, show content that I am interested in reading. However, when I click through, I’m taken to a generic page, and if try to find the content, it takes me upwards of two to three more clicks to get to the desired content. And that’s if I ever find it.

I think I’m rather generous in the time and patience I usually have for websites, but I feel this is because I’m in the business, and thus understand the issues many websites face. Unfortunately, 99% of the world probably doesn’t feel the same, and if they don’t get the content, they’ll go elsewhere to find it. And they’ll do it quickly.

Besides the human element as to why this is a bad idea (which is a big part no doubt), adding extra steps into the content process is bad for a websites SEO as well. The farther the bots have to crawl, the more likely they are to get lost, and the less likely they are to get to your content. I’m not saying this will negatively affect your SEO, but it will not do you any favors. Laying out your content structure in as simple a way you can will greatly help the bots and your SEO. More importantly, it will help the users get to the content they want to, which will help your business overall.

Easy does it, right?

The secret to a great web experience is not really a secret anymore. It’s as simple as combining great content laid out in an easily understandable way, and shown to the user in a pretty but well thought out manner. Granted, that sounds like a lot (and it is, that’s why us designers and developers are so valuable), but it’s something that needs to be thought out as a whole from the beginning.

Lastly, as a good rule of thumb, it should never take more than two clicks to get to the content in question.

Tags: seo, usability, web design

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 at 8:14 pm and is filed under content. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.