Website Design Guideline #4: Increase the User's Connection to your Site by Promoting Community

ARTICLE SNIPPET - The Ultimate Goal of Community-Building Programs is to Increase the Consumer's Connection to the Site by Fostering a Sense of Camaraderie Among Unique Groups of Individuals.

Usability and design are two key factors in publishing great websites. You may have a clear strategy and great content, but if your site is unusable and unattractive, it will be difficult for users to find what they're looking for, difficult for you to get users to do what you want them to do and difficult to get users to become loyal customers and revisit again and again.

Creating user-friendly websites begins by following the 14 Mequoda Website Design Guidelines for successful website design. By reviewing a site's score for each of the 14 items, along with the overall average score, the areas of the site that operate well, and those that need work, become evident.

In this chapter of Website Design for Publishers and Authors, we take a close look at Guideline # 4: Increase the User's Connection to your Site by Promoting Community.

• The Mequoda criteria for community building expect visitors to feel enthusiastic and loyal to the site. Are they inspired with feelings of belonging and encouraged to contribute?
• Websites that encourage a feeling of belonging among users, that offer mechanisms for being involved in the site and that motivate them to become involved are good at community building.
• For a marketing site, community-building tactics function as word-of-mouth marketing tools and increase both site traffic and search-engine visibility.
• For membership websites, providing a space for members to communicate with one another and to interact with the association or site editors should be a high priority.
• The ultimate goal of community-building programs is to increase the consumer's connection to the site by fostering a sense of camaraderie or belonging among unique groups of individuals.

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