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According to recent research, it’d better be good. Visitors to your site will spend an average of 27 seconds on your home page. Because online reading speed is 25% slower than for printed material, this is closer to 20 seconds.
Take a look at your home page and answer these 10 questions:
- Are the advantages of doing business with my company obvious?
- Does the home page discuss only the benefits of my company or product?
- Does the home page clearly state the benefits are they “above the fold”? (the viewable section of your home page when the page opens)
- Could someone, not familiar with my company, determine exactly what we do or sell in less than 20 seconds?
- Is the copy in short bursts with headlines or do I use long blocks of text with few or no headlines?
6. What is the sentence structure like? Do I use long, run-on sentences or is
wording short and crisp?
7. Does the website use brief summaries of information with links for more in- depth info or is it very general?
8. Is the background on my home page light (preferably white or cream) or
is it a reverse type on a dark background?
9. Is the type face in Times Roman or are you using a sans serif font like Arial or
Helvetica?
10. Does your home page project a personality or is it very formal and
constrained?
Give yourself 2 points for every yes and 0 points for every no answer. If your score is:
|
16 or > |
Congratulations – you’ve got a website that works for your users |
|
12-14 |
Your website needs work.Spend the time to improve your score |
|
8-10 |
Hope you like in-person networking |
|
< 8 |
Consider re-doing your website.It may actually be harming your business |
Website Usability
Having a user friendly website is often the difference between getting leads from your site or believing that the money you spent on your website was a waste of time and money.
Often, just changing the way you present information can make a significant difference in the way visitors perceive your company. Be aware of your own behavior on the Internet when you come across a website that isn’t giving you the information you need or that is hard to read. You’ll know what we mean.
If you’d like more information on website usability, our recommendation would be the book by Steve Krug, Don’t Make Me Think, A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability. The book is available http://www.Amazon.com
There are six “rules” for making your website more user friendly. There are probably more but these are the ones I believe are most important:
Make the website scannable.
Visitors to your website are looking for information. Make sure you give it to them without making them search for it.If you don’t, they will move on to your competitors site … in 27 seconds.
Keep it simple.
Web pages are not the place for long complex copy. Create a link in the text for a pdf file for articles or other complex or lengthy material. Comprehension will be higher from a printed page.
Keep primary information “above the fold”
Keep important information “above the fold” but also realize that readership patterns are basically from the top left hand corner to the bottom right corner. This pattern can be affected somewhat with picture and offer placement but, remember this as a general rule of thumb.
Use links for more information
Don’t try to tell site visitors everything they ever needed to know about your or your company on the home page. Give an interesting but brief summary and then link to another page for more information.
If you want to be really professional, don’t use the link as “more info” but use the title of the page or name of the document as your link.This keeps your site more search engine friendly but that is a topic for another day.
Make your website reader friendly
Lots of white space and short crisp copy will be more scannable and more easily understood than long copy blocks.
Remember that contrast between the type and the background is another factor in readability. Readership is best with maximum contrast between the type and the background. The best contrast is black type on a white background. If your audience will be more mature (40’s plus), please keep the background as light as possible. As eyes age it gets much harder to read reverse type. If you fell you must use a colored background use a muted color. Bright backgrounds with white type are hard on the eyes and very difficult to read.
Another important factor in readability is sentence structure. Short sentences where possible and concise sentence structure. Eliminate extraneous words that aren’t necessary. Make sure that your information flow follows a logical structure with one thought leading to the next. This is a Writing 101 rule but even more important for web based copy.
The last point for making your website more readable, is font. Don’t use a serif style font for web based copy (Times Roman is a commonly used serif font for print)Use a sans serif font such as Arial, Helvetica, Tahoma, Verdana etc. Serif fonts have little tails on each letter and are more difficult to read at lower resolutions found on most computer monitors.
Develop a personality for your website
The tone is friendly, open and professional. Too many websites are factual but don’t leave the reader with a “warm” feeling. There are all kinds of metrics that are designed to measure the trust factor for a website but the most important one can’t be measured.How does the copy on your website make your reader feel? Would you trust the person who wrote that?I believe that the emotional response from the copy on the website is a much bigger factor than most business websites realize.
The six rules outlined above are very straightforward but most people have trouble writing simply about an area that they are expert in. It may be better to hire someone from the outside to write your website copy for you.
Whichever way you choose to put the copy together for your website, test the end result with people you know and trust to tell you the truth. Ask them to read it critically and ask them the ten questions I asked at the beginning of this paper. Check your score again and see how you do. If you still need to do some more work, spend the time or money to get it right. Having a great website extends your brand and energizes your print advertising. It’s worth the time and effort to get it right.
Denise Garbacz is the President of FastForward Marketing Solutions, Inc, a marketing firm specializing in online communication.
You can reach FastForward Marketing at info@getwebwired.com or by calling 704-756-2844.
