Be seen and stay seen. A short guide to website development
1. The figures.
Over 75% of surfers will scan a website to see if the information in it is relevant to their search. If they don’t immediately see what they want, you’ve already lost them. So how do you get, and more importantly keep, their attention? A surfer will give your site approximately 4 seconds before they form a decisive opinion. It’s this decision that you need to mould to your own end.
2. Use formatting that stands out.
Highlight words РAnyone scanning your page will instantly notice the occasional highlighted word. But be careful, highlight too many words and you’re defeating the object. The unhighlighted words soon become the focus of attention.
Use lists РBullet points or ordered lists also grab a person’s attention. They imply a list of useful items and will draw a person’s eye to that list.
Include informational graphics – Many people will see a site with no graphics and feel that there are too many words to take in. Remember, a picture really is as good as a thousand words. Be sure to make the graphics relevant and useful. Insightful and colourful graphs can really draw attention to your message.
Grab attention with headlines – Include short and snappy subtitles in your content and be sure to make them stand out. Text that is visually broken down like this appears easier to take in and also gives the reader an idea of where to look for the information they want.
3. Modesty is the best policy.
You may have the greatest site in the world or you may be offering the best service available on the entire internet but if you tell people this there’s a good chance they won’t believe you and if they don’t believe you there’s a good chance they’ll avoid your site. There are very simple ways of informing people that you have the best site without actually telling them. Inform them of the service you offer and tell them why they need this service but don’t tell them you’re better than any other site in the world. They simply won’t believe you.
“4. A useful quote formatted like this can work wonders at grabbing someone’s attention. Make the most of it but don’t make it too long.”
And always reference the quote With a name and date
5. Search engines and surfers.
While it’s true that the ultimate goal for your website is to bring in regular visitors and plenty of them, one of the best ways to do this is to let the search engines do the work for you. Search engine optimisation and search engine marketing are extremely big business today and knowing the basics is essential to the long term success of your website. All pages on your site should include Meta Tags that inform the spider of your desired keywords and a description for your site.
The page content itself should include these chosen keywords or keyphrases regularly throughout the passage. The correct density for keywords and keyphrases is a hotly debated issue in all walks of Internet life, to learn more you should research SEO.
You need to find a happy medium between content rich pages that will grab your readers attention and also keyword optimised content that will attract the search engine spiders and place your site amongst the top rated. Getting this balance just right will bring new visitors to your site and attract them to return again for more information.
6. The bottom line.
Every article or piece of website content should include this information. By doing so you are setting yourself up on the road to continued success but by ignoring these factors you are dooming yourself to a life of Internet failure.
Having read this page, you would probably have paid extra attention to each of the numbered headlines, the bulleted list, the sparse highlighted words and even the quote in the middle of the page. If you were scanning the page it would have taken you approximately 4 to 5 seconds to get through the headlines. They will have given you a very clear indication of whether this page is what you are looking for.
Once you scanned to the end of the page and decided it could contain what you are after you would more than likely have gone back up the page stopping firstly at the quote and then at the bulleted list. The first thing you will remember about the site is likely to be the quote contents, so only use quotes that get your message across. Quote yourself or even your hairdresser, if needs be. Once you make it a quote it becomes official and people will be more likely to believe it.
Just one more thing. Read, read and proofread every bit of your content. Preferably get a few honest friends to read and proofread it for you. If a friend doesn’t make it to the end of your message, you don’t stand a chance with a stranger.