A Six-Second Assessment to Turbocharge Any Page of Your Site
How to do a Six-Second Assessment of your web pages to identify problems that sap away your sales
Your car runs sluggishly. What do you do? You
probably take it to the repair shop where the
mechanic hooks it up to a computer to pinpoint
the problem.
But what would you do with a sluggish web business
that gets visitors, but lags on sales?
You can find a professional to identify the problem.
Or you can perform a six-second assessment to test
it yourself.
Open up your page and quickly glance at it. Check
across the very top and down the center to the
bottom of the screen. Don't scroll down. You want
to see only what your visitor sees the instant
your site appears. Then ask yourself the following
three questions.
Does your title grab them?
Does the title jump out and grab the viewer by
clearly identifying the problem that brought them
to you? Or is it merely a generic label that
vaguely describes the content of the page?
You don't want a formal, generic description.
You want them to see that you understand who they
are and what they need. You want a title that uses
the very phrases they're thinking about, phrases
that articulate exactly the kind of solution they
hope to find.
Don't limit your titles to simple declarative
statements. Ask a question. Or be a little
mysterious. Pique their curiosity with something
they'll have to read further to figure out.
After all, would you have been as curious to
read this article if it had been titled "Improving
Your Web Pages"? Probably not. But the emotive
language and the implied promise of something
that would help you solve a problem drew you in.
Forget any misplaced ideas of what is "supposed"
to be professional looking. You get no points for
cool, detached formality. The only way you get
people's attention by grabbing it.
Do they quickly grasp what you can do for them?
The second thing to check is whether your page
is easily skimmable. Do you face an intimidating
wall of text, or is your eye naturally drawn to
key points on the page? Are paragraphs short and
inviting? Do headings, bolded text, and graphics
give you an instant "feel" for what you'll find
on that page even before you read it?
People don't want to "work" at reading online.
If you give them newspaper-like blocks of text,
they'll run. Let them take an instant overview of
the content and they'll identify and read the
details that fit what they're looking for.
Do they quickly understand what to do next?
The third thing you want to check is whether
they'll grasp THE key point of the page: the
action they need to take next.
Is it clear what you want them to do?
Many sites waste their prime space, front and
center, on a rambling introduction to the site
owner or the site's business philosophy, or some
other explanation of why the site is worth
shopping on. Meanwhile, all the visitor wants to
know is, "Can I find what I'm looking for on
this site?" They want to know what to do.
Even a big site with a multitude of categories
and products can get right into directing
visitors deeper into it.
Megasites like Amazon, or WalMart, or eBay
make a very clear attempt to direct visitors
in specific directions with recommendations,
specials, or featured items.
Don't worry that someone will leave if you
feature something they're not looking for. Even
if they're not interested in that specific item,
they'll recognize that you'll be clear with them
on how to find things. And if you've given them
reason to believe that your site has what they're
looking for and that you have clearly marked the
way to find things, they'll start moving in the
direction of what they want.
Final thoughts
While it certainly took longer than six seconds
to read these guidelines, the scan itself should
be nearly instantaneous. If you have to exert any
effort to find these elements on your page, you
need to fix them so that they're obvious at a
glance.
Remember, your visitors will unconsciously make
this exact same scan on your site the instant
they arrive. They're not interested in what you
have to say. What matters to them at this point
is how clearly and easily you solve the problem
or question that brought them there.
Try this Six-Second Assessment on your own
site and see how well it does. You almost
certainly will find some areas to improve. Fix
those areas and you may be surprised at how
much it turbocharges your results.
Helping you become the successful business owner you want to be.
LIKE THIS PAGE? ADD TO YOUR SOCIAL BOOKMARKS: Blink Del.icio.us Digg
 Furl Google Simpy Spurl
 Technorati
 Y! MyWeb
|
