In my last article, Six Usability Tips to Maximize B2B Website Conversion, I briefly touched on one important part of the conversion equation: error handling on forms. Since form usability is so critical to the conversion process, it warrants a deeper look.

Forms that are too cumbersome, too daunting, or poorly implemented place a major roadblock in the way of your visitors—and provide yet another excuse for people to leave your site without converting. It’s a no brainer that making online forms as inviting and as easy as possible is imperative. Here are eight best practices for implementing conversion-friendly forms.

Establish trust. Clearly indicate what you’re going do with your visitor’s personal information. Offer prominent, reassuring statements like “We will never spam, sell, or trade your personal information” or clearly link to your privacy policy. If applicable, include trust icons.

Set clear expectations. Clearly tell visitors what they will receive and set expectations regarding what will happen next. This is especially important for sites focused on lead generation and on sites that require visitors to complete a form to obtain information downloads. Balance the information you require against your visitor’s perceived value of the offer. Visitors will be more likely to provide additional information beyond the basics if it makes contextual sense or if they highly value what they receive in exchange for their personal information. For example, prospects might be willing to provide more information if it helps you deliver a detailed quote.

Limit the number of fields. Take a critical look and evaluate the business need for each of the fields. Strip your form down to only the essential and/or test making any non-essential information optional. Many studies have shown that in general, the shorter the form the more likely that people will complete it.

Use appropriate fields. This is the online version of using the right tool for the job. For example, use:

• Radio buttons for mutually exclusive choices (e.g., yes or no)
• Checkboxes for “choose all that apply” options
• A single checkbox for options a visitor can turn on or off (e.g., opt into or out of permission marketing newsletter)

Implement form validation carefully. Form validation on select fields helps ensure that visitors submit properly formatted data. For fields where entry format is standard or there is no room for variation (e.g., email addresses always require an @ symbol and a .com, .net., or .edu, etc.) form validation makes the most sense.

The upside of form validation is that you get the data in the format you want and that your system requires. The downside is that you run the risk of frustrating visitors if they enter the data in a commonly acceptable format that does not match your validation pattern and you require them to stop and renter their data (e.g., 5558889999 for a phone number versus 555-888-9999). Where you can, format data with possible variations on the back end.

In addition, provide visitors with preset values to minimize the risk of receiving data in an incorrect format. For example, provide drop-downs for state and country.

Finally, consider using email fulfillment instead of providing downloads directly on the thank you page to ensure a visitor is providing his or her real email address.

Help visitors prevent errors. Make it obvious which form fields are required by using a visual clue like asterisks or bold field names. And if you require data entered in a certain format, provide example text, such as a phone or credit card number that shows the format you want the visitor to use.

Help visitors recover from errors. Highlight errors and clearly indicate exactly what the visitor needs to do to correct the issue. Be sure to place the error message in close proximity to where the error occurred so the visitor doesn’t have to spend time figuring out what went wrong.

Organize forms based on a logical flow. Pay attention to the flow of your form to ensure it follows a logical structure. For example, on one lead generation form, I noticed some users were inadvertently placing their email address in the Zip/Postal Code field—even though the field width was noticeably smaller than other fields, a visual cue that should have helped visitors catch the error. It’s likely that the error was occurring because the form did not match visitors’ expected flow of information. The form was asking for First Name, Last Name, Zip Code and then Email. The flow on many forms places email directly after First Name and Last Name. Grouping similar elements in proximity to one another will help visitors flow through the process more smoothly.

For B2B marketers, form optimization is really a cornerstone of conversion improvement. Take a close look at the forms on your site to see what roadblocks you can clear in your prospects’ path to conversion by implementing some of the best practices outlined here. You’ll find that improving form usability will usually significantly improve your site’s conversion rate.

Below are six, easy to implement usability tips to ensure that visitors get the most from your site and you get the most for your search marketing investment.

Answer prospects’ basic questions first

During the usability studies I’ve conducted, one of the most often repeated complaints I’ve heard is about having to wade through marketing fluff (as in I don’t bother reading this marketing fluff). Your visitors have little patience to read through your carefully crafted marketing message. They simply want to get to the content they need with a minimum amount of effort.

Upon clicking through to your website, visitors immediately want to validate that:

1. They are in the right place.
2. They understand what they can (and can’t) do on your website.
3. They can get the information they need and/or take the desired action.

Some of the most common questions visitors have include:

• What does this company offer?
• What can I do on this site?
• Where can I go next?

Providing answers to these basic questions will immediately give your prospects a sense of place and encourage them to explore further.

Additionally, make sure your product, solution, or service information is readily available. Provide concrete details that help prospects evaluate your offerings and differentiate your firm from the competition (e.g., specification lists, fact sheets, or comparison charts).

Facilitate easy scanning

The simple truth is that the large majority of visitors to your website are going to scan your content rather than read it. Make your content easily digestible. “Chunk” pages into discrete segments with prominent, understandable headlines.

And by all means, use:

• Active voice
• Concise and actionable text
• Bullet points instead of lengthy paragraphs
• Link names that clearly establish the context of the destination

Make navigation choices obvious

Your visitors need to be able to quickly orient themselves on your website. They need to understand where they are, where they can go, and where they have been. Use visual clues to help give them a sense of place. Some easy to implement recommendations include:

• Consistently underlining links.
• Clearly indicating visited links by using a different visited link color.
• Being consistent in your linking scheme-use the same (or similar) linking conventions throughout your site to help visitors immediately recognize navigational elements.
• Including a breadcrumb trail at the top of the page to help users navigate back up the website hierarchy (e.g., Home > Solutions > Customer Relationship Management).

Speak your customers’ language

Many companies are unwittingly guilty of using internal company terminology on their websites. Ensure the labeling you employ is immediately understandable to visitors and is consistent with common industry terminology.

If you’re not sure, do a sanity check. Show your website to someone outside your company-a customer with whom you have a good relationship, your spouse, a colleague, a friend-and see if they understand what your business has to offer.

Provide intuitive error messages

Make your web forms as easy as possible to complete.

First and foremost, try to prevent errors from occurring. Make it obvious which form fields are required and use clear and concise field labels. If you need data entered in a particular format, provide an example.

Once an error occurs, using red to indicate errors on a form will be sufficient for a large percentage of your audience. However, if you use this tactic color blind visitors will be left to their own devices to figure out what went wrong. Use additional formatting (e.g., bold font) to help draw the prospect’s attention to the areas that need to be corrected.

Placing the error message in close proximity to where the error occurred is also helpful.

Additionally, limit the number of form fields to those only absolutely necessary.

Invest in usability testing

Usability testing provides immediate insight to what attracts visitors’ attention, how they navigate, and what they comprehend. It allows you to take an unbiased look at the effectiveness of your messaging, navigation, content, labeling, page layout, and organization.

There are plenty of reputable companies who can conduct usability studies for you. In this down economy if you can’t find the budget to hire an outside firm, consider bringing the work in house. Several good do-it-yourself resources are readily available. Steve Krug’s “Don’t Make Me Think” and the University of Austin’s Usability Testing Primer are two great guides.

Expend the effort to identify and address some of the common usability issues on your website. It will maximize the impact of your search marketing efforts and help clear the path to conversion.

Maximize conversion and search marketing ROI

Six simple steps:

1. Answer prospects questions.
2. Facilitate scanning.
3. Make navigation obvious.
4. Speak your customers’ language.
5. Create intuitive forms.
6. Invest in usability testing.

B2B marketers should implement these fundamental usability best practices to maximize website conversion and ultimately search marketing ROI.