I’ve been working on a web project and was floored to learn that 50% of visitors spend less than 10 seconds at a website. The good news is that 67% of the rest hang around for almost an entire minute. For all the effort that goes into site design, prospects sure don’t give you much time to set the hook. Knowing how to draw people to your site and convert them to customers is far from an exact science. However, there are some basic principles that every website needs in order to keep visitors engaged.
You don’t have to be a website designer to appreciate these principles. But if you’ve hired a designer, or you’re looking at samples of a designer’s work, here are some things to consider:
❑ Not slow and steady. Nothing makes me bail faster than a site that takes too long to load. Time is critical: 40% of visitors will leave a page if it takes more than three seconds to load. Many factors can slow a site down, but ones you can control include inefficient code and fancy-dancy graphics that no one cares about. In most cases, you’re going to need an expert like Dr. Techno to figure out why your website moves like a rail car in the winter.
❑ First impressions. When it comes to first impressions, people pay more attention to visual cues than to written content. Google studied eye movements as people scanned web pages and found that the logo, navigation menu, search box, and main image are viewed before the written content. You may not be a designer, but you can question your design choices. Why is the menu over there? How can we make it load faster? Why did we pick that graphic? Strategic, thoughtful design is worth the investment.
❑ Orange & green don’t match. Since I have to ask my wife every morning if my shirt and tie match, I’m probably the wrong person to give an opinion on colors. However, I do think too much time is spent fretting over web color schemes. Keep it simple and in line with your brand identity. Toxic eye candy leads straight to the exit button.
❑ Shakespearean silliness. No one wants to read your treatise about why you’re great. When you’re writing text for your site, embrace my “Napoleon” complex: short paragraphs, sentences, and words. Put away the thesaurus and write the way you speak.
I’m also a fan of bullet points. They get referenced and remembered more than wordy paragraphs. Your website is not the place to let the world know you have a degree in English. That’s sheer injudiciousness!
❑ Every page is a landing page. People spend more time designing their home page than any other. Why? Because they assume it’s the first page visitors will see.
In reality, when visitors find you through search engines and links from other sites, they land on other pages. Therefore, make sure every page contains key information, a clear value proposition, and a call to action. You never know which page is going to be called on to make your first impression. Make them all count.
A website is not a static project. It’s a moving target that needs constant measurement, manipulation and makeover. Putting in the work to get it right after the project is completed is as important as the work you put in getting it started.
Mike McCarron is the president of Left Lane Associates, a firm that specializes in the “monetizing” of transportation companies. A 30-year industry veteran, he founded MSM Transportation, which he sold in 2012. Mike can be reached at [email protected] or at 416-931-7212, or follow him on Twitter: @AceMcC.
