How a website is constructed has changed immensely. In the early days, it was all about being a portal and providing connection points to access information or provide a way to make a purchase.

I reminisce over the simplicity of early websites, like the (in)famous Space Jam website.

Websites have always included multiple pages to provide people with information, but now, website interactivity is as fundamental as reading from left to right (if you’re a Westerner) to process information. The way information is organized on a website is designed to help guide you through a sales funnel to turn users into clients.

How you organize the content on your website is important. And it is called page flow. Having good page flow is key to engaging customers and guiding people through the pages of your website to take the desired action. This page or user flow is part of the larger user experience (often referred to as UX). It is essential to create content that can easily be digested, connecting people to information points via calls to action (CTAs), and allowing them to take action, either through ecommerce or a form. 

In this blog post, we’ll explore some essentials for page flow and how to create a better UX for your website.

When crafting your website, you must consider how a user will view your site. Western design has taught us to read from left to right and top to bottom. Website page flow uses essentially the same principle. That's why you don’t see many websites that scroll from left to right. 

MySpace attempted a rebrand and redesign in 2013, and it tried a left-to-right scroll approach, but it has since abandoned it. It wasn’t naturally intuitive for users to do this, nor does this format work well on mobile devices. The website design and page flow lacked intuitiveness.

The website design didn't inspire people to return to the MySpace platform, and now MySpace is just a distant memory for many.

A website should have a good page flow that makes it easy to navigate and read the content being showcased. Let’s take a look at one of our templates, Angelou.

This sample website template uses an S-shape design. This design structure creates a natural flow for your eyes to read through a page from left to right and down the page. This type of page flow eases you in and keeps you engaged, not just with text but also with imagery to make the content easy to read and digest. It is a little like a visual ping pong match, allowing you to swiftly dart down a page of information.

When creating content for the pages of your website, a storytelling approach works well, as does pairing imagery and text to make content easier for users to consume. Long sections of text can be difficult for users to absorb and can make a page seem unapproachable. Too much text and you might see people drop off or bounce to another page or off the website altogether. Let’s take a look at an example. Which of these looks more interesting?

Pairing text content with an image can make a wall of text easier to digest. It adds visual interest and cues to help scan a page. Images can help keep your website visitors more interested in what is being said because images stimulate the brain faster than text, more than 60,000 times faster.

Is an image necessary for each section or block of text? Absolutely not, there are many different types of visual aids you can use to make content more engaging, including dividers, colors, and different layouts.

Text and images aren’t alone in driving page flow. Clear CTAs appeal to customers and help drive engagement.

A high contrast button paired with text telling a visitor what to do draws the brain’s attention. Just like kids can’t help but want to touch things, you want to click the button. 

Chefs use a similar strategy when plating food at restaurants. When you get your food in a restaurant, the plate often looks beautiful. This is intentionally done to make that dish look appetizing, to make you want to eat it. How does this equate to websites? The CTA is the entree you are waiting to feast on. Everything else (text, images, and other visuals) is plated to draw you to it.

What were you drawn to when you first saw this dish? I bet it was the meatball. The high contrast is intentional.

As you prepare and update content on your website, think about your goals. What do you want people to do? Your text, images, CTAs, and other visuals should guide people to these goals. It could be buying a book, signing up for an email list, or downloading a freebie. You control the goals and how people visiting your website can get to them. 

Sales funnels are great tools to guide people to a goal. Let's review what a storybrand sales funnel could look like:

With each click you encourage people to take on your website, you are driving them to deeper pages and closer to your goal. There can even be multiple ways to get to the same goal. That goal can be to: 

• Make a phone call
• Complete a contact form
• Purchase a product or service
• Book an appointment
• Fill out a lead gen form

Whatever your goal might be, you should always make it clear and easy to get to, which is why your site navigation is as important as page flow.

Every page of your website doesn't have to use the same page flow. How a page flows, depends on the content of the page and the desired goal. What every page of your website should have is a natural flow that guides your visitors from one page to another. 

Let’s take a look at the page flow and objectives of a homepage, which is a little different than other pages of your website. The objectives of a website’s homepage include:

• Visually telling your story
• Describing where you’re located and who you serve
• Showcasing your best work to engage your audience
• Being a hub to connect customers to deeper pages of your website
• Serving as an elevator pitch for your business

Your homepage is NOT supposed to be:

• An in-depth resource with every piece of information on your business, from pricing to gallery content
• Completely empty without descriptions
• A novel, over-explaining your business and purpose (save some details for the deeper pages of your website)
• An SEO directory or a dumping ground for meta keywords

The other pages of your website can have a similar flow to your homepage, but they should include more details. For example, a gallery page will have more images than a homepage. You can break up the collection of sample images with information about your services (yes, you need text on your gallery pages). 

We encourage you to analyze the pages of your website for flow. As you navigate each page, do you feel guided through the information? Do you feel encouraged to take a specific action?

As you take a closer look at the pages of your website or start crafting new pages, see if they have the following:

• Calls to action (CTAs) to other pages on your site
• A way to connect with you, either directly through a form on that page or a link to a contact page
• Your location/business details (best photography in the X area and X state)
• Options to return to or navigate to other pages on the site (e.g., visual menu or secondary navigation)

To capture user attention, all the pages on your website should be skimmable and easy to follow.

Here are a few articles to help you learn even more about website strategy: 

• Create Better Sales Funnels, Click Funnels, & StoryBrand Style Pages
• What Should Go in a Website Footer?
• Best Practices for Your Website’s Navigation
• 5 Pages You Should Add to Your Photography Website

If you would like any additional help, give us a call at 866.463.7620 or visit photobiz.com to live chat with us (existing customers, please log in first). Our team will be happy to assist you.