Are You Driving
Visitors Away?
We talk a lot about ways to bring people to your
Web site, but
are you driving them away once they get there?
There's a lot more to a profitable Web site than
traffic; the key is what you do with visitors once
they arrive. In the next few articles I'll be talking
more about what to do with visitors once they´re with you.
The first
20-30 seconds visitors are with you are the most
vital in peaking their interest. If your
home page is an immediate turn off, you'll lose them
before you can even get your message across.
Often, we build our
Web sites to make ourselves happy--we base our design on what we
want and not what our potential visitors want. Visitors care
more about clear organization, easy navigation, and
valuable information than they do about animation,
fancy Java scripts, and bulky graphics.
Some typical
turn-off's that drive visitors away are the
following:
- Java scripts
that don't work on all browsers or give
errors in some browsers. An excellent
resource for Java scripts and information on
their browser compatibility can be found at http://www.zdnet.com/devhead/resources/scriptlibrary/.
- Graphics that
are too big and take forever to load.
Graphics should be kept under 25-30k in size.
Use http://www.gifoptimizer.com to minimize the size
of graphics on your site.
- Home pages
that take too long to load. Keep the file
size of your home page down as low as
possible. Under 20k in size is good. If
you've only got 20-30 seconds to capture a
visitor's attention, don't let those seconds
be eaten up while they wait for the page to
load! Web Site Garage can help you evaluate
the HTML coding and load-time of your Web
site.
- Poor design.
Some typical poor home-page design elements
include the following:
- Extending
beyond one to two screens on the home
page;
- Drab,
default gray backgrounds;
- Screen-full
after screen-full of text paragraphs;
- Compatibility
with only one or two browsers;
- Dead links.
Link validity can be hard to keep up with on
large sites with listings, etc. But, at least
make sure the links that go to your own site
are accurate. Net Mechanic has a dead link
checker at http://www.netmechanic.com.
Before adding that
cool graphic, animation or Java script, ask yourself
the following questions:
- Does this element
really add to the usability of my site?
- Does this element
help to steer visitors to the places I want
them to go?
- Does this element
make my site more informative?
- Does this element
make people want to stay and learn more?
If you answered
"No" to these questions, you should
seriously consider whether this design element is
necessary. Don't take the risk of driving visitors
away just because you want to boost your ego or want
to play with the latest technology. Use design
elements that are usable and valuable to your
visitor.
Come back next week to
learn how to Steer Visitors Where You Want Them To
Go.
