QUESTION:
We promote our web site in all our ad campaigns, but according to my
website statistics program, we are getting very few visitors who click
past the first page. The site has a cool Flash introduction page that the
designer said would impress visitors, but it doesn't seem to be working.
What can we do to get people to spend more time on the site? --
Christopher O.
ANSWER:
The first thing you should do, Christopher, is find that designer and beat
the living Flash out of him. It won't increase the time visitors spend on
your website, but it will make you feel better after you've read this
column.
What your designer thought would appeal to visitors is probably the very
thing that is driving them away. A Flash introduction page (Macromedia
Flash is a software program used to create animations for Web pages) may
seem "cool" to you, but from a website visitor's point of view, they can
be about as appealing as sitting in the front row of a Pokemon movie with
four hundred screaming six year olds (and here comes the segue, folks).
In December, 1997, during an episode of Pokemon, the popular Japanese TV
cartoon that has spawned everything from movies to action figures to lunch
boxes, a scene featured a rocket explosion that flashed red and blue
lights in rapid succession.
After the episode, over 600 children were taken to hospitals complaining
of seizures, blurred vision, headaches, dizziness, and nausea. Any adult
who has ever been exposed to Pokemon for more than two seconds can
understand the nausea, but the seizures at first baffled doctors.
Scientists ultimately came to attribute the mass reaction to
"photosensitive seizures," which are brought on by exposure to certain
visual stimuli like rapidly flashing lights on a TV screen.
Remember when your mom told you not to sit so close to the TV or you'd
ruin your eyes? Turns out she knew what she was talking about. Who knew?
The event caused such concern that Japanese broadcasters and health
officials met to discuss ways to prevent future occurrences of bad-cartoon
induced illnesses. They established guidelines for the broadcast of
flashing images: no image may flicker faster than three times per second;
flashing images should be displayed for no more than two seconds; and
stripes, whorls, and concentric circles should not take up the largest
portion of a TV screen.
It's my humble opinion that these rules should apply to websites as well.
I've been in the Internet design business for nearly a decade and I have
been witness to numerous websites that could induce photosensitive
seizures in blind moles. It sounds like your website might be suffering
from a similar ailment.
If visitor's are not clicking past your fancy Flash intro page, you don't
have to be a genius to figure out that therein lies your problem. Remove
the Flash intro page for a few weeks to see if your website's
click-through rate improves and the number of page views increase.
"Click-through rate" refers to the number of visitors who click links on
your homepage to go deeper into your site. "Page views" refers to the
overall number of web pages that were viewed by visitors. If click-through
and page view rates improve, you'll know that the Flash intro was your
problem.
Here are a few other things you can do to make sure your site offers
visitors a pleasant - and seizure free - browsing experience.
Sit In The Visitor's Chair
The best way to make sure your website is as user friendly as it can be,
is to sit down at a computer and approach your site from a typical
visitor's point of view. Try to imagine that you are seeing the site for
the first time. If you are unable to do this, have a friend who has never
seen the site click around and offer comments while you take notes.
Have your friend assess the following points: Is the site appealing to the
eye? Are the colors pleasing and complimentary? Is the site easy to
navigate? Are the topical categories and subcategories in logical order?
Is it easy to find what you're looking for? Does the site have a search
engine to make finding things easier? Is every feature of the site less
than two or three clicks away? If the answer to any or all of these points
is no, you have some work to do.
Don't Dictate Technology
One sure fire way to repel web site visitors is to require that they have
special browser plug-ins or 3rd party add-on browser software installed to
view your site. Dictating that the user download and install software is
not your place and users will resent you (and your business) for it.
Visiting your site should be an effortless pleasure, not a technological
chore.
Don't Make Them Wait
If your homepage takes longer than 20 seconds to download (appear in the
visitor's browser) you are losing visitors, period. Gratuitous animation,
large graphics, poorly formatted HTML, bad page layout, and a number of
other factors can increase download time. You might have the greatest web
site in the world, but if it takes ten minutes to download no one will
ever see it.
The lessons to be learned, then, are threefold. One: a website should be
designed to satisfy the visitor's needs, not to pacify the site designer's
ego.
Two: visitors to a business website are not there to be awed and
entertained. They are there looking for information, and unless you give
it to them quickly and effortlessly, they will go elsewhere to get it.
And Three: for better mental and physical health avoid Pokemon at all
costs.
Small Business Q&A is written by veteran entrepreneur and syndicated
columnist, Tim Knox. Tim's latest books include "Small Business Success
Secrets" and "The 30 Day Blueprint For Success!" Related Links:
http://www.smallbusinessqa.com http://www.dropshipwholesale.net
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