You are being judged. Whether you like it or not, every set of eyes that comes to your website makes a judgment about what you have put up for everyone to see. What is really unfair is that these eyes judge your site on very well information. Quite literally, your site is like that book that everyone is judging by its cover.
And if the first impression is not appealing, you will lose your visitor within a few seconds. It is always been widely known that people judge websites quickly, but it was only recently that this judgment was determined to occur in less time than it takes for you to blink an eye. They should have ever come as no surprise. As people are living in an information saturated age, it's quite natural for us to disseminate the information we see as quickly as possible, so that we do not waste time on something that we don't care about.
It's for this reason that you need to control your visitor's eye. It's your job. When putting your website together, to do so in a way that helps your visitors quickly determine what your website is about and also draws them into your website to learn more more about you. In a word, it is your job to make the cover of your book interesting enough that they open it up, at least till the table of contents.
Feature something, anything. When a user comes across a website, especially a new website, they are looking to see whether or not that website appropriately matches what they were looking for. Essentially, what they are really looking for is a quick summary of what the site is about, and they do not want to have to look far of that summary. For the most part, if a user is not able to determine what the site is about within a few seconds, they will not bother spending a few more seconds to see if they can figure it out. However, if they do find that summary and it intrigues them, they will venture further into your website.
So do your visitors a favor and tell them immediately what your website is about. If you sell electronics, feature one of your products on the front page in a hotspot; this will tell them that you deal with electronics. If you specialize in debt reduction, choose the best hotspot on your page to convey this message. If your specialty is publishing internet marketing articles (ala Site Reference), give them an article with an attention grabbing headline to look at in a featured area that will draw your user's eyes.
One of the greatest mistakes you can make on your website is to have a busy website without giving your visitors a starting point on the homepage to work from. When creating your featured spot, keep in mind that eyes are drawn to larger font, different colored font, areas that are set apart by a border, or placed in a hotspot on the page. More on this later.
Learn website hotspots. Most websites follow a standard layout. Although, occasionally a website will surface that tries a variation on the standard layout. Most websites can be counted on to have some navigation at the top of the page and/or additional navigation flanking the main content on the left or right, with the body of the content taking up the center of the page. Regardless of how this became the standard layout, users now have come to expect this basic layout or some variation on it. This is good for you as it can help you identify the hotspots on your website.
Google did a favor for all website owners when they released their hotspot map. Now originally, this map was created to help website owners know where they should place ads for the highest click-through rates. Not surprisingly though, these hotspots are the same places that receive the most attention from the human eye, and that is the goal.
To find the places on your website that your visitors will look first. Typically, the first place that visitors will look on your website will be in the main content portion of your page and usually towards the top. Using visual cues is a great way to help guide your visitors to the hotspot.
Create a quick message that sells. If you have ever attempted to write an article, you will quickly learn that one of the most single important aspects of your article is your headline. The headline is the first thing that people read, and if the headline succeeds in boring them, then they will certainly not venture into the rest of your article. A website is very much like an article with the exception being the amount of control you have over the visual presentation in your website. The headline of an article should sell your potential reader. It should probe them, tease them, promise them what they are going to learn. Over and over again, headline will send a central message in a stimulating way, lead to the article being read. This is probably no surprise to you, but your website needs to have a headline, and I am not talking about just setting your title tag. Your website needs to have a central message that conveys a message that probes your potential reader, promises them the answers for their questions and brings them from the point of asking, "Is this the website I was looking for?" to the point of "I think this website might be able to help me."
Of course, using the visual cues of hotspots and featured areas on your website, you can draw your user's eye to this message. Using images: The web is primarily a visual resource. User eyes to read, to navigate, and to make judgments about a website. Using images within your website to attract the user's attention can be a great help in not only making your website more attractive, but controlling your user's eyes and enticing them to explore your site more.
If given the option between a text message and an image, more often than not, a user will first look at the image. Images entice users because they have the unique ability to convey so much information while asking the user to do so little work. They appeal the visitors and have the unique ability to not only install confidence, but convey feelings, trust, security, professionalism and reliability.
If you are not convinced of the ability of selling a product without using words, consider the marketing campaigns of Coca Cola. Coca Cola is famous for sensationalizing their marketing. They don't bother trying to tell you that Coke is the product you want. Rather they show you that Coke is the product you want through images. When using images on your website, however, be sure to keep the message simple.
Using a short phrase to supplement an image or graphic is a great way to deliver your message in a quick and efficient manner. Clarity is the goal. And with most website, an image or graphic alone will not be enough, but an image or graphic can give your website that extra push. Practice, practice, practice, and measure too.
Learning how to control your visitor's eye takes a lot of practice and experimentation. It can be quite surprising what attracts the human eye, and what works for one type of service may not work for another. Although there are broad rules that we can learn, there is no single model that's most efficient for all types of websites. This is why it's good to play around the loop. Disturb various arrangements on your site, feature different messages, play around with different colors to see how people react. Color theory is a great way to control your user's eye movements.
Most importantly, measure your results by viewing your web statistics. Measure the impact by placing a link in a prominent place on your front page, makes on that page and learn how to measure what affect that has on your visitors. Succeeding with a website requires that we answer our visitor's needs, and we do so quickly with a message that promises them answers to what they are looking for. There is a lot of information on the internet. The websites you deliver their message first are the ones that users will flock to.
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