The Only 7 Influencers of People on Your Web Site
In a previous article we explained why the key visitors to a web site are people and search engines. It doesn’t really matter which one we view as being more important, both are essential for a website to flourish.
In the prior article, seven essential aspects of web optimization for the search engine visitor were outlined. Although we are examining web optimization as separate parts one part for search engines the other part for people, in practice both have to be considered at the same time.
This is on account of the fact that web optimization for search engines, often opposes the web optimization requirements for people. This conflict often requires us to strike a balance between the two.
In this article we take web optimization further to see how it can influence the behaviour and perceptions of people visiting a web site.
But before we get to that, have you undertaken any web optimization aimed at people ?
If you have:
Do you know which aspects of your web page optimisation were effective and which ones were not ?
I expect like many site owners you would answer ‘No’ to at least one if not both of these questions. Being able to objectively evaluate your own website is also likely to be difficult, the more so if you did the design.
What is especially beneficial is the experienced eye of another designer to uncover or confirm areas of the design that would benefit from improvements. If you think your website would benefit from such an assessment complete a web page optimization form on our website for a FREE evaluation.
Establishing the effectiveness of any web page optimisation can best be achieved by tracking visitor actions combined with A/B split-testing or Multivariate split-testing.
When carrying out an evaluation we suggest the emphasis be on seven factors that influence people the most when visiting a web site.
An in-depth evaluation involves many more aspects, but for simplicity the main ones are summarized as:-
Visual Appearance
Complementary colors should be chosen for the site so as to match the theme of the site with text of a color and size that makes it easy to read for people of all ages. Images, graphics and backgrounds should not be overly distracting, complement the rest of the page and impart an impression or additional information. Avoid using images that do not contribute to conveying the message or perception you want to create in the visitors mind.
Visitor Impact
The page should impart a clear impression that you want to create or the main message you want to give the visitor all within 3 to 5 seconds of them landing on the page. Visitors expect to get a quick impression of what your web page is offering. If people can’t work this out quickly most will generally become frustrated and move to another page, or another web site.
Clarity and Value of Proposition
A visitor must be able to clearly determine what your web site is offering. Ambiguity causes confusion in the mind of the visitor which leads to anxiety and frustration and a quick loss of that person from the site. The value of your proposition or offer needs to be clear. The page must answer questions in the mind of the visitor such as, how does this benefit them, in what way is the offer of value to them and what makes your offer so special that they should buy from you.
Easy Flow
Avoid the use multi-column page layouts. Eye tracking studies have shown multiple column layouts cause visitors more distractions and detract from them following a clear defined path down the page. Other studies show that important information or perception creating images should be placed below the header, in the page center and in the top left corner of the main body of the page. Using these guidelines a layout can be designed with minimal distractions and an easy to follow flowing path to the objective of the page.
Page Navigation
Page navigation should be easy to see and easy to follow, with on-page links that look like links – standard underlined blue text. Make use of image alt tags and link tags as an aid to the visitors understanding of where links are going. Using link and image tags will make your site more accessible to the visually impaired and add to your compliance to W3C web design standards.
Site Navigation
This frequently causes one of the biggest conflicts in web optimization between what is best for the search engines and what is best for people, since the two requirements are usually not the same. Site wide links should be consistent in appearance and location. The only exception to this is normally the home page. The site should also use a site map and on large sites a search facility. A different site map should also be created for search engines.
The Offer Experience
If a page is offering opt-ins, downloads or products and services for sale, then the process by which these are obtained needs to be free of distractions, obstacles and barriers and as short as possible. The anxiety and friction caused by a site’s order and fulfilment process is a significant factor in lost sales and site abandonment.
Common short-comings are:
- Too many steps in the process
- Insufficient use of confidence boosting measures
- Not confirming the value of the offer
- A lack of trust boosters during the process
- Unnecessary distractions on the fulfilment page
- Requesting information too soon
- Requesting unnecessary personal details
If you have a fulfilment or order process with more than 3 steps you should look closely to see what can be done to shorten the process.
Download Speed
With the advent of high-speed Internet, many webmasters have discarded mainly text page designs and replaced them with web designs high in graphics, flash images and movies. Modern web pages have become so bloated that even for someone with a high-speed Internet connection they can be slow for a visitor to download to their web browser.
The consequence of this is that for 30-40% of Internet users with no broadband connection these sites are unavailable to them or are so slow they give up.
What makes the problem far worse is that many image laden web pages are not effectively optimized. By that we mean they do not use graphic images, flash and movies that have been optimized for the smallest file size while maintaining quality. Savings of typically 50% in image file sizes are achievable with better optimization, leading to faster page access for visitors.
We provide web design and website optimization service that enable site owners to improve functionality and increase profitability of their web sites. We also have many years of experience in web optimization and search engine optimization.
Most of our website optimization service we provide are Guaranteed under a No-Win, No-Fee basis. If we don’t win you the agreed results you pay us nothing.
We also provide FREE if No-Result website optimization service guaranteed to increase site performance and/or revenue. Visit one of our web site optimization pages for a Free evaluation or consultation on your web site.
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