Get More from Search - Trends in Search & Social Media

Our attention spans are shorter these days. With the immediate answers available from search engines, we’ve come to expect more from the websites we visit. As such, we’re all guilty of nibbling on site after site, looking for the right combination of design, content and product that will stop us in our tracks and engage our busy minds.

Your website visitors follow this same pattern. If, for instance, your website takes too long to load, they’ll just continue onto another site. Your goal as a website owner is to slow visitors down, giving them time to absorb your message and let your product or service make a lasting impression. So how do you capture their attention without frustrating them?

Simple is better. If you give people too many choices they will become overwhelmed and will go to a site that will make it easier for them to choose. Even if your company prides itself on a plethora of products and services, your bottom line will be better served by putting the spotlight on a few timely, best-selling products and guiding visitors to learn more about those products. A little bit of information can go a long way. Don’t overwhelm users with the details. Instead, focus on the information that is important to them – often the key benefits and purchase-critical information (shipping, privacy, guarantees, customer service, etc.). If you provide them with too much information it will confuse them instead of clarifying the offering.

Relevant content is great, but too much or the wrong content is great at driving people away. You’re the expert in your field, but don’t expect your visitors to read protracted discourses on your company’s virtues. Those are better left for business plans, not for websites. Remember the simple is better philosophy and always be relevant. Strive for engaging, succinct editorial that invites an action. Try call-outs in the sidebars with various call to action items to cater to various personalities – make sure that your visitors can get to know and get in touch with your company in the method they’re most comfortable with.

Limit distractions. There’s always the potential that an engaged visitor one second will become another site’s visitor or customer the next. Incorporating third-party ads can be a great income generator, but they can also invite site hopping. Go for ad serving technologies where you can control the ad content and disable competitive messaging whenever possible. Your goal is to keep visitors on your site as long as possible because the longer they stay; the more likely they are to purchase a product or service.

Remove the stumbling blocks. Leaving the prospect with the potential for too many decisions will send a 90% closed sale into a missed opportunity. Once a visitor turns into a prospect, you’ve got to make absolutely certain that they have all the decision making pieces in full view (i.e. price) or within one pop-up window away of “Buy now” or “Contact us.”  Abandonment is often due to not enough of the right information and that’s just an unnecessary faux pas.   

Design for easy navigation. Keep your page design fairly consistent to minimize confusion. Site visitors look for critical information in the top menu of a website – so make sure the most important pages and action items are always visible.

Not driving visitors away from your site means slowing them down long enough to understand your message and learn why they should buy your product or service. To do this, incorporate these principles:  keep it simple, relevant, non-distracting, decision-making friendly and easily navigable. By doing this, you’ll convert visitors who really want to learn and enter into a purchase. The people who are just nibbling aren’t ready to convert – but your site will be memorable and who knows, they just might come back when they’re ready to stay.