QuickTips: You've Only Got Seconds For A Website Impression

Grab their attention... and do it fast!

by Matt J. Whetham, March 2011

To make an impression on your web prospects, you've only got seconds – some studies suggest even milliseconds.  Communicating your brand, purpose, and capabilities needs to be done very carefully with your website.  This is why every website should follow some very important guidelines in presenting information, especially on the front page.

The Foundation

Most of your new website prospects will have landed on your website by searching on Google or some other search engine.  When they search for the keywords that they enter in, they will be presented with a plethora of choices which they now need to narrow down.  Therefore the user will eliminate whatever options they can as easy as they can.  We all do it, whether we’re searching for a new furnace or some research information; recognize how you yourself function when searching the web, and use that to build your website.

Emotion Will Precede Cognitive Judgement

If a website immediately turns someone off because of poor design and planning, then the user will never have the ability to judge the contents of the website because they will have moved on to option #3 of 15429 on Google’s search engine results page.  One of the most common emotions that will do this is confusion – if a site looks too busy, doesn’t communicate the purpose clearly, or requires too much effort (ie. reading) to obtain the information sought, the user will decide to move on.

Instant Gratification Is Required

The prospect needs to know right away that they are not chasing an empty opportunity by investing their time into reading and understanding your website.  Therefore, provide clear communication with the least amount of mental investment required.  Users look for hot-spots within your content:

1. Page headings and sub-headings
2. Images and videos
3. Bulleted lists
4. Bolded text
5. Hyperlinks

Emphasis on “Least Amount of Mental Investment”

Some users go to a page strictly to look for the “Contact” link on the menu.  Make sure there is one.  This type of viewer only wants the phone number to discuss the opportunity with you.  The main focus of your website should also be the main focus of your home page.  This seems assumed, but many websites fill their home page with introduction text that runs on, and no pictures with a direct link to the main product or service offered.   Don’t make them think; communicate it fast.  Put the details on a page where details belong – a page that is deeper within your site navigation, available only to the people who are seeking out that information, and are willing to invest more time after already being qualified there by your other more communicatively-efficient pages.

Answer Their Question Right Away: "Do They Offer/Sell What I Need?"

Make sure that the first thing they see when they look at your site is the answer telling the prospect that, yes, you sell, provide, or offer the product, service, or information that they need.  Don’t leave that question unanswered past the first 3 seconds of your viewer’s impression.

Now, Run Some Tests...

Test yourself.  Look for a product or service online, and go through the search engine results pages to see how long you typically take in judging whether or not the site is for you.  When you time yourself, 3 seconds is actually quite a bit of time for a first impression – it’s all you’ve got.