Newsletter Article

May 2002

How do we Get Visitors to VISIT our Website? Or What's new in Homepages?

It is common to discover when reading your website logs that 80% + of visitors landing on your homepage spend but a few seconds and leave without exploring your site. By the way, do you read your logs to determine who and how frequently visitors come to your site?

Many say that the above high number should be expected in this age of the television flicker. I am not so sure that it is a good analogy as searching the web for information is quite different than surfing the television for the evening’s programs. The web visitor has typed in a keyword phrase of their own choosing, and if your site comes up in the search and they chose to visit your site they are much more predisposed to read your information than a surfer landing on a given television program. Further, when a television surfer lands on the television program, it will most likely be presenting a commercial. Flick!

The fact that they read little to no information on your page or do not proceed to seek out more information from the rest of your site should be of major concern to you. How do we address this problem? What are some of the things that we know about good homepage design?

• We have known, since this WWW thing began, that we need to present a complete picture of your business, profession or group on the homepage and of course present it professionally and attractively to encourage visitors to pursue your presentation further. In short, let them know what your site is about.
  
• The information should be brief, preferably no more than 2 screens to reduce scrolling. Well, wait a minute. If your information is compelling and well written you can get away with more screens. Some of the better-known websites are now up to 5 scrolling screens. Keep in mind that they did not start that way. They can get away with it now because they have an established audience. I suggest you do not try that long a homepage for your site.
  
• We must employ excellent navigation tools such as not more than 7 choices or major menu items. We can of course increase the number of options available using mouseovers. It must be clear to the visitor where they should go next to elaborate on the topics that they have just browsed on the homepage.
  
• The information needs to load quickly, we are impatient, we are the flicker group. Jakob Nielsen, an authority on site usability, sees 10 seconds as the key time for users to keep attention to their task. To download about 34K takes about 10 seconds on the typical 56K dial-up modem. If you go much beyond this you run the risk of loosing visitors. If you are using large graphics such as flash, which delays the “instant” presentation of information, we would suggest that you examine your homepage concept carefully. Slow download and/or one or more clicks to reach the real homepage, in many cases spells doom to grabbing that visitor and persuading them to check you out. And this is not even considering all the problems search engines have with flash when attempting to catalog your site.

• 3-column layout. The column layout format allows for more information to be presented in a manner that the eye can accommodate. Starting from the left, the first column could be submenu and additional content buttons if the main menu buttons are at the top of the page. The center could be the “stuff” of the page and the far right column could be “What’s New” or “News” with links to various parts of the site or to special downloads.
  
• More links Put links into the content of the homepage as well as the links that are in the navigation buttons. If you put links to an expansion of the sentence that is being read you increase the chance of the reader clicking on the link and visiting the page that you wish them to.
  
• Invitation to act This is critical! If you wish your site to be more than a passive brochure then provide opportunities for your visitors to take action, to respond to you in some way. Have your visitors print out a coupon for a special, sign up for a newsletter, or give you their email so they can receive future information - instantly via email. Begin to make your site an activity site. These links could sit in the far right column referred to above.

These are but a few of the old tried and true features of homepage design as well as some new trends. We suggest you examine your current site to determine if you are making use of these characteristics.

A final thought. Make sure you are reading your web logs to determine what is happening at your site. If you do not know what web logs are and how you can read them - Call us!!