And the 6 Factors of No Interest to Search Engines
In a previous article, eight essential aspects of website design optimisation for search engine visitors were examined. Although we are examining website design optimisation as separate parts one part for search engines the other part for people, during the optimization process they must both be accounted for at the same time.
This is because website design optimisation for search engines, often opposes the website design optimisation considerations for people visitors. This conflict often requires us to strike a balance between the two.
In this article we take website design optimisation one stage further and look at how web page optimization can affect a person's behaviour.
But first, have you carried out any web site optimization for people ?
Also:
Do you know which web page optimization measures produced results ?
I suspect like the majority of web site owners your answer would probably be NO for one or both of these questions. Assuming you knew what to look for it would still be difficult to remain objective about your own web site, particularly if you were involved in the design.
What is of significant benefit is the trained eye of an independent person to uncover or confirm areas of the design that would benefit from improvements.
If you would like an assessment carried out on your website we provide a number of Free web page optimization evaluations, just complete one of the forms on our site.
Determining what and how effective web page optimisation is, can only really be done through visitor tracking and measuring definable visitor actions, combined with split-testing, or segmentation and targeting.
When carrying out an evaluation we suggest the emphasis be on eight factors that influence people the most when visiting a web site.
The key behavioural influencers of people are:
1. Visual Look
Complementary colors should be chosen for the site so as to match the theme of the site with text of a color and size that makes it easy to read for people of all ages. Backgrounds or images should not be distracting and should compliment the look and theme of the web page providing additional useful information and enhancing the visitor’s perception and understanding of the site. Do not use images unless they contribute to your message.
2. Impression
The page should impart a clear impression of what you want the visitor to have, within 3 seconds of them first viewing the page. Your web page must give people a quick clear summary of what you are offering. If people can’t work this out quickly most will generally become frustrated and move to another page, or another site.
3. Easy Flow
Avoid the use of multi-column page layouts. Studies show that multi-column layouts distract visitors and cause them to deviate from what should be an easy flowing path down the page. Many studies have also shown that in general, key information or impressions you want to impart to the visitor should be across the top of the page below the header, in the top left corner and page center. Using these guidelines a layout can be designed with minimal distractions and an easy to follow flowing path to the objective of the page.
4. Page Navigation
Navigation of the page should be easy to use, links in the page should look like links – blue underlined and it should be clear what they are leading to. Make use of image alt tags and link tags as an aid to the visitors understanding of where links are going. These are requirements for good site accessibility and compliance with W3C web design standards.
5. Clarity and Value of Proposition
Visitors must be able to clearly determine what your web site is offering. If the visitor can not clearly determine what is on offer they will go elsewhere. Any proposition or offer must also have "value" in the mind of the visitor. The page must answer questions in the mind of the visitor such as, how does this benefit them, in what way is the offer of value to them and what makes your offer so special that they should buy from you.
6. The Proposition Experience
If a site provides downloadable information, purchasable products or services, or sign-ups to obtain information, products or services, then the process by which these are obtained needs to be free of distractions, obstacles and barriers and as short as possible. The anxiety and friction caused by a site’s order and fulfilment process is a significant factor in lost sales and site abandonment.
Typical deficiencies are:
- Asking for too many unnecessary personal details
- Requesting information too early in the process
- Having too many steps or pages to the fulfilment process
- Unnecessary barriers – register / create account before ordering
- Lack of visitor reassurance at key stages in the process
- Assurance measures not within the customer’s eye path
- Insufficient or lack of trust boosters during the process
- Insufficient or lack of confidence boosting measures
- Failing to reaffirm the value of the proposition
If you have a fulfilment or order process with more than 3 steps you should look closely to see what can be done to shorten the process.
7. Site Navigation
This often creates a conflict for website design optimisation as the site navigation preferred for people is frequently not the best for the search engines, since the two requirements are usually not the same.
For common links to pages throughout the site we usually advise a top or side of page navigation menu that should have a consistent location and appearance throughout the site. The only exception to this is normally the home page. Large sites can benefit from a search box and all except sites with less than 10 pages, should have a site map as a further aid to visitor navigation.
8. Download Speed
The advent of high-speed Internet has caused many web site designers to abandon mainly text web page designs and replace them with web designs high in graphics, flash movies and videos. Modern web pages have become so bloated that even for visitors with a broadband connection they are slow to access with a normal browser.
The consequence of this is that for 30-40% of Internet users without high-speed broadband such web sites are completely inaccessible or are so slow they give up.
What makes the problem far worse is that many image laden web pages are not effectively optimized. By that we mean they do not use graphic images, flash and movies that have been optimized for the smallest file size while maintaining quality.
In our experience across 100’s of site, savings of 50% or more in the download size of images are common and achievable through better optimization.
The first six factors are of no interest to the search engines. However, the last two factors are of interest, along with 8 other factors you can read about at
Things Your Website Must do for a Search Engine.
Our web design and website design optimisation enables site owners to improve functionality and increase profitability of their web sites. We also specialize in web design and research and publish free reports on web page optimization.
We also provide FREE if No-Result services, guaranteed to increase site performance and/or revenue. Visit our site to view our full range of web site optimization services or to obtain a Free evaluation or consultation on your web site.
