People more often come across an important button on every web page. That is the back button. It is a vital one as it facilitates easy and quick navigation between web pages. But most designers care a fig for the back button when they are creating web pages. In most websites, it is very common to see ‘back to start’, ‘back to home’ or merely ‘back’ links. But the thing of concern is these links are built without any logic and do not provide any concrete information regarding the position of a customer in a particular website before he/she clicks on the back button. The functionality must be in the line of a web browser back button. So the functioning of the back button on a web page needs to be improved.

Most people leave a particular website as quickly as they enter into it. If there is slim possibility of getting their desired information on the page, visitors simply hit the back button and go to their previous location. To prevent this, web designers resort to chrome-less windows, i.e. without a back button. They even make things worse by shutting down the original window and opening the site in a new window which has no controls at all. But in this way, the things won’t improve. Rather it reduces the usability of your site, because the most common method of moving around web pages is nowhere in the sight. You can not stop visitors from getting out of your site. Once they find their way, they will not come back for ever. So instead of blocking the way of visitors, you should focus your attention on taking advantage of the back button.

Try to place your best offers, products and services near the back button of the web page. Though, most visitors hardly look around while clicking on the back button, still there is a good chance of getting their attention.

Make certain elements of your web page clickable. Your logo must be definitely clickable. Apart from that, text elements should have links to other useful areas of your site. Chances are that people may land there if they miss the back button.

Always inquire about where your visitors are coming from. You must put some dynamic elements on your page that help you to know when they come from that location.

Similarly, when you click on a link, it is natural for you to expect a page that has a title similar to the title of the link. You can easily distinguish links from other texts as they have a different color and normally underlined. Another sign is the mouse changes its appearance when placed over them. It is really frustrating when the linked page contains information that doses not match with the link title.

Your home page must contain links to other pages of the website. It is highly recommended to avoid creating a home page that is one hundred percent links, as there will be no meaning of scanability with so many links. Give logical and easy-to-understand titles for your links. You need to link to common pages that also consist of a lot of links.

Tags: Usability of Back Button and Links on a Web Page