Got A Second? – Barely! Grabbing a
website visitor’s attention
by Angela Nielsen
The blink of an eye! That’s how long it takes a visitor
to assess the overall look of your website. Research has recently shown
that a site visitor will decide whether or not they like your website in
1/20th of a second. That’s less than the time it takes to blink! And in
less than 10 seconds they decide to stay at your website or leave!
The report, published in the latest issue of Behaviour and
Information Technology journal, claims that “if the first impression
is negative, you’ll probably drive people off. It really is just a
physiological response," Gitte Lindgaard told Reuters. What the report
does not conclude, is what actually makes a successful, aesthetically
pleasing website, but only how much time it would take for a visitor to
make that decision.
In the 6 years we have been developing websites, we have had the ability
to test many different styles and looks of websites. We have also
studied successful sites, to find out what the secret really is. What we
found out is astonishing. Ready?
There is no secret! That’s right, there is no single, right way to build
a website. There are however many “wrong” ways to avoid.
The real secret of a good website, is to eliminate anything that drives
your visitors away. And how does one do this you ask? By understanding
your target market. That’s the real trick in designing a website that is
successful, and more importantly a home page that will retain your
visitors.
Too many times new website owners think they need every bell and whistle
available. They tend to pack their home page with too many components
that are simply “eye-candy” and have no real value to the viewer. Others
strip their site down and all you see is miles and miles of content, and
no appealing graphics to get excited about.
What is needed is a site with the right balance of graphics and content.
By “right”, we mean whatever is most pleasing to your target audience.
If you are trying to attract elementary school children, then having a
bunch of flashy images, bright colors, and huge fonts would more than
likely pull them in. However, if you are attracting Fortune 500
companies those strategies would be a sure turn off.
I like to think of a website as a house. Take your house for example.
You probably have a nicely colored front door, and possibly a wreath or
other decoration (even just a fancy door knocker) hanging on that door.
Chances are you have some sort of welcome mat that you spent time
picking out just to give your visitor’s a welcoming place to wipe their
feet. You keep the area around your front door clean and tidy. Your
front door is welcoming and warm, making your visitors feel like they
want to come in, that they want to see more.
In the same way, your home page is the front door to your website. This
is the page that you should spend the most time constructing, because if
visitors don’t move beyond it then the other pages won’t matter! You
want this page to be eye-catching (but not overwhelming), easy to
navigate (but not boring), and have the right amount of content to grab
the attention of your visitor.
Let’s start with the visual appeal of your home page.
First and foremost you should have a professionally designed logo. Your
company name displayed in plain Arial text just won’t cut it for most of
your visitors. A nicely designed logo is the first part of establishing
credibility with your visitor, and as such should be shown prominently
at the top of your website.
Along with a memorable logo, your website should incorporate colors that
your audience will respond to. For an explanation on selecting colors,
please see our “Color Theory” article at
http://www.onelily.com/articles/color_theory.htm.
Graphic images are also important to help the viewer relate to your
website. Professional photographs can easily accomplish this and still
be affordable. There are numerous stock photography houses that provide
high resolution images for very affordable prices, or you can hire your
own photographer for custom work.
When using images of people, keep it down to earth. Research indicates
that while viewers like to see attractive people in their own age group,
they should not necessarily be identifiable as models. It’s more
important that the images portray someone relatable that looks like them
or “real” in their eyes rather than made up.
Your home page should be organized so that visitors quickly understand
what they can accomplish. The typical website has logo on top (in a
banner sometimes called a masthead), along with navigation either
horizontally across top or vertically along the left hand side. Yes,
this may seem old and boring, but it’s what visitors have come to expect
and rely on. When that gets changed too much they don’t feel comfortable
and tend to back away.
Navigation is the key to the flow of your website. Your navigation
should have links that can be easily identified. Home, About Us, Our
Products, Our Services, Contact Us – yes those are names we’ve seen a
hundred times and we think we’d like to fluff that up – but don’t forget
that is what your visitor is looking for. Remember, newspapers are
written on an 8th grade level in order for the majority of it’s readers
to be able to read and understand, and that same principal should apply
to your navigation and entire website.
Make sure that your navigation flow makes sense for your viewer,
ordering your pages with the most important pages listed first followed
by the lesser important or least likely to be viewed pages. This helps
assure you get your audience to the meat of your website quickly. To
avoid confusion, consistency is key, so whatever navigation you use on
your home page should be carried on throughout the remainder of your
website.
Last but not least, is content. Content has to be rich and exciting
enough to draw your visitor in, and short enough to grab their
attention! Research suggests that the average reader can read
approximately forty words in ten seconds.
The paragraph above is exactly 40 words. If you only have 10 seconds to
pull your viewer in, that’s roughly the amount of content they can take
in during that amount of time.
People tend to scan websites rather than read them entirely, so adjust
to this fact. Use eye-catching headlines, bolding, bullet points,
anything to break up the monotony of a plain paragraph and draw
attention to the stuff that is most relevant for them to see. Plenty of
white space helps to pull the reader’s eye along through the content of
the page. Faced with a large block of text, our eyes tend to skip past
it.
In short, you really have no choice but to make your website’s homepage
an attention-grabber. Let your visitor know right away they are in the
right place, that you have THE answer to their problem, that your
company is credible, and that your site is easy to navigate.
Once they find the basic components that are expected they will be drawn
in to more of your content and navigate deeper into your website. That’s
the foundation for a solid call to action so your website achieves it’s
goal. Remember, you only have a second!
About the Author
Angela Nielsen is President of
One Lily Inc., an award-winning web development company located in
southern California. To find out more about Angela Nielsen or One Lily visit
www.onelily.com. Copyright 2006 by Angela Nielsen. Editing
provided by
www.sharpediting.com.
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