Website usability is all about user engagement.  It's about interception points and understanding your users.  For years now webmasters and site owners have been using metrics such as path analysis to track user interaction on their sites.  So what happens when you determine that user engagement on your website needs improvement?  How can you improve website usability on your website?

There are some fundamentals that webmasters and site owners need to consider when looking to improve their website usability.  First (and probably the most important) is to always keep it simple.  Those who have a design background don't always follow this rule and it shows when you look at a number of poorly designed websites out there.  With website usability, simple is better.  Simplicity is and always will be a better way to entice better user engagement than say complex, dynamic sites.  When it comes to having more features and bells and whistles on your site, vs. keeping the site simple, I am in complete agreement with Jakob Nielsen, lean towards simplicity.

Seven Simple Steps to Improve Website Usability

1. Understand the current level of engagement - you may want to consider conducting some eye tracking studies to see how users currently interact with your site.  Why do they click on one link vs. another?  Are they even noticing your conversion triggers?  Why are they ignoring an image vs. reading the text copy on the page.  Eye tracking can be a tremendous tool in understanding the user's behavior on your website.

2. Provide informative, relevant and quality content - to improve user engagement, be sure to feature content on your site that users cannot find anywhere else.  Try to display the content in the language of your user.  Using corporate jargon and marketing buzzwords is not necessarily what your users are looking for.
3. Simplify your site navigation - make the site easy for people to use.  There is nothing worse than a homepage that is so busy that the user doesn't know where to begin.  How do you expect them to find what they are looking for if you are bombarding them with images, flash, advertising, lengthily paragraphs and a whack of features that do not speak to the user?  Again simplicity is the key.  If you have to show users how to use your site, chances are you have a problem with website usability.
4. Offer a unique experience - try offering content found no where else on the Web.  Speak to the user by using their language.  Offering a unique experience and changing the perception of the user so that they feel satisfied with a "unique" experience can go a long way in generating repeat visits.  At bare minimum offer a unique experience over that of your competition.
5. Provide clear value on the homepage - don't confuse the user as to the value of your site as it relates to your product or service offering.  Understand the needs of your user and communicate the value that your product/service provides to address the user's needs.  The value proposition needs to be clearly conveyed on your homepage.
6. Personalize your website - offer widgets or other tools that help increase user engagement.  Keep the user wanting to come back to update their personalized features by providing new "add-ons" on a regular basis.  Think of a painter that goes into a hardware store to buy paint.  If the staff that serves the painter can provide a personalized experience, the painter will be more likely to come back and not only purchase more paint but purchase their paint brushes, cleaners, and additional paint supplies from them again.
7. Give the user something to come back (to your site) for - With the success George Lucas had with the release of Star Wars, fans flocked to see the next release of Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi and later the three Prequel episodes. While webmasters can only dream of such success, there is something to be said for releasing updated content, new blog posts, new podcasts. Controlling supply and demand for your content can be a great way to improve return visits and use of your site.

Website usability should be part of a continuous improvement process that involves mapping out the intent of your users.  Gathering data from your users about what they’re doing today will help you understand what they’ll need tomorrow.  Ensuring that your website addresses the needs of your user can determine how successful you will be today and how successful you can be tomorrow.