In a prior article we explained why the key visitors to a web site were search engines and people. Which one is more important does not matter, suffice to say both are important and both are essential for a web site to thrive and prosper.
In the prior article, 7 key factors of web site optimization for search engine visitors were examined. Although we are examining web site 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 site optimization for a search engine, is frequently at odds with the web site optimization requirements for people. This dilemma often calls for a compromise that may favour one more than the other.
Here we examine web site optimization one stage further and look at how webpage optimisation can affect a person's behaviour.
But before we get to that, have you undertaken any web site optimization aimed at people ?
If you have:
Do you know which of your webpage optimisation measures produced results ?
I suspect like the majority of web site owners your answer would probably be NO for one or both of these questions. Assuming you knew what to look for it would still be difficult to remain objective about your own web site, especially if you were closely involved in the original design.
What is especially beneficial is the trained eye of an independent person to uncover or confirm areas of the design that would benefit from improvements. If you would like an assessment carried out on your website we provide a number of Free web page optimization evaluations, just complete one of the forms on our website.
Determining what and how effective webpage optimisation is, can only really be done through visitor tracking and measuring definable visitor actions, combined with split-testing, or segmentation and targeting.
When completing an assessment we suggest the emphasis be on seven factors that exert the most influence over human behaviour.
There are many behavioural influencers but the most important ones are listed below:-
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. Backgrounds or images should not be distracting and should compliment the look and theme of the web page providing additional useful information and enhancing the visitor’s perception and understanding of the site. Do not use images unless they contribute to your message.
Visitor Impression
The page should impart a clear impression that you want the visitor to have within 3 seconds of them first viewing the page. Visitors expect to get a quick impression of what your web page is offering. If people can’t quickly grasp the essence of what you are offering they will not stick around.
Transparency and Offer Value
Information about the product or service being offered must be clearly apparent to the visitor. 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. Any proposition or offer must also have value in the mind of the visitor. The page needs to address questions in the visitors mind like, what value is this to them, what’s in it for them, what makes your offer different or unique and why should they buy from you ?
Slide and Glide
The page should be clearly laid out in a single column avoiding two or three column layouts. Studies show that multi-column layouts distract visitors and cause them to deviate from what should be an easy flowing path down the page. It has also been shown in other studies that the places on a page to get the most consistent visual attention are the top left and page center below the header. 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. Use alt tags for images and title tags for text links as a further visual aid for visitors. These are requirements for good site accessibility and compliance with W3C web design standards.
Web Site Navigation
This often creates a conflict for web site optimization as the site navigation preferred for people is frequently not the best for the search engines, as both usually have different requirements. 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 Proposition Experience
If a page is offering opt-ins, downloads or products and services for sale, then the system the visitor must follow should be short and without distractions and hindrances. 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:
- Absence of customer assurance
- Insufficient use of trust builders
- Asking for too much unnecessary personal information
- Insufficient reassurance of the customer during the process
- Customer reassurance builders not positioned within their eye path
- A failure to reaffirm the value of the offer during the process
- Having too many steps and/or pages to the fulfilment process
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.
Page Access Time
Since the coming of the age of broadband Internet, many webmasters have discarded mainly text page designs and replaced them with web designs high in graphics, flash images and movies. Some of today’s web pages are so heavily laden with images that even for visitors with a broadband connection they are slow to access with a normal browser.
The net result is for around 40% of web users without high-speed broadband such web sites are completely inaccessible or are so slow they give up.
To make matters worse in our experience the majority of high graphic web designs are not very well optimized. This means the images and movies in the design are not optimized for quality while maintaining the smallest downloadable file size. Savings of typically 50% in image file sizes are achievable with better optimization, leading to faster page access for visitors.
Our web design and web site optimization enables site owners to improve functionality and increase profitability of their web sites. We also specialize in web design and research and publish free reports on webpage optimisation.
Most of our website optimization service we supply with Guaranteed Results or You-Don’t-Pay. If we don’t win you the agreed results you pay us nothing.
We also offer free consultations and a range of FREE web site optimization service evaluations and web site reports. Visit us for a consultation or a FREE website design optimisation report on your web site.