Description

What first impression does your website create? In this video, Eric explains the split-second judgments people make about your website when they visit for the first time. He gives specific recommendations to improve the “stickyness” of your website. If you want your website to generate more sales or leads, you must watch this video!

Transcript

Note from Eric: Below, you will find a word-for-word transcript of this video. I provide this as an aid for the hearing-impaired and for those who might just want to read it rather than watch the video. This conversational style is not reflective of how I write. Be nice! Hey everyone welcome back. Hope you are enjoying the videos so far. One thing i wanted to point out based on some questions i got is you can always, because this is on YouTube and the bottom-right hand corner of the youtube video there is a little icon and if you click that it will go full screen. I record these in high def so, that way you can see them almost like on a TV.Well today we’re gonna talk about first impressions. In other words, how people view your website when they first land on it. If you understand this you’ll be well on your way to getting your website to doing what you want. Step number one, realize that everyone on the internet has ADD, everyone. In other words, we want to move on. There’s no way we’re gonna sit around and wait.

Basically when people land on your website, when they land on it from Google, from typing it in, you basically got 5 seconds. You see they’re gonna scan it from top-left to bottom-right, and if they don’t see something on there, if they don’t see something that grabs em and says you’re in the right place, they’re out of there! As an example, take a look at my website. If someone did a search for Amarillo Website Design and landed on my page, take a look a the teasers!

Keep in mind that everyone on the internet scans, they don’t read! So if you have a whole bunch of text on your website, no one’s gonna read that. I mean think about your own behavior when you go on a website. You’re in a hurry, you on Google, you’re typing something in and you go to check the first one who shows up.

If he’s not the one and you make the decision quickly, you’re gonna go BACK! The most evil button in the world is the BACK button. And we don’t want people hitting the back button. Now if you saw my video on the Bounce Rate, this is what happens when people look at your website don’t see anything and hit the back. And if you haven’t seen the Bounce Rate Video, be sure to watch it. It will connect all of this together.

The next thing to remember about the internet is that everyone on the internet is lazy. Including you, including me. In other words we would rather sit back, and we would rather watch something than read something. And that’s why videos are so huge.

Have you noticed how many videos are on homepages today, including mine? I mean when you go to a homepage today, when you go to a webpage and there’s a video and a whole much of text on the side, what you’re gonna do? You’re gonna click on the video every time. And online behavior proves it out, web statistics prove it out. The most clicked on item on any homepage, or on any webpage is always the video.

You want to consider putting something together, that handles that but the key is keeping it short. If you’re gonna make a video, and by the way any one can do it heck i’m doing it! All you have to do is have an iphone or something and film it. Now if you want to be a little more professional you hire a cameraman or get someone with a nicer camera and have a microphone.

But really when it comes down to it, anything is better than nothing. So you have a video now what do you put in the video? Well it needs to be something that strengthens what you’re trying to do. Either generate a lead or whatever. Maybe a short introduction “Here so we are!”

Keep in mind that with a video you can connect at the personal level with someone, whereas with a bunch of text you can’t. So remember, put a video on your homepage, you’ll see an incredible difference of what can happen. I’ll talk a little bit more about what to put it an actual video in later videos.

Let’s look at your website design now. I want you to go to your website and i want you to look at it from this standpoint. First of all, do you have too much text? In other words, is that all that’s on your homepage is text? Remember, no one’s going to read that. We’re gonna scan it. Now you may be saying Eric I have to have that text on there. Okay.

Then break it apart for me. Break it into smaller pieces. “Bold” some of the words. Make it “scan-able”. Make it to where i can look down and pick out some of the key ideas. Make sure that there are some titles on there i can grab. And speaking of titles, what do your titles say? Are they descriptive or they very generic? Do they say things like advantages, which is nothing, or they say things that mention your product name or your service name.

Keep in mind when people first go to your website they’re scanning and they’re gonna hit those titles. And they’re gonna determine whether based on those titles whether they stay on your page. Make sure your titles are effective.

Also, do you have dumb pictures? Dumb pictures that don’t do anything. Also no calls to action. Both of these kinda go together, because a lot of calls to action are pictures. If the pictures are just stark photography and if they don’t contribute to what you do or explain what you do, you got to replace it with something more descriptive.

It doesn’t have to be a picture of you. It can be a stark photo, but it’s got to be something that is what you do. Okay i don’t want just generic happy people! Do you have a call to action? And you know what i mean by that. Something that tells people to do something. Click here, do this, download this. If your website is just a big glorified brochure and if you watched my first presentation, you know “How to go Online?” you’ll know why this is a bad thing.

You don’t want a big brochure, you don’t want a big billboard. We want website design that does something. And one of the easiest ways is to get that first click, and get that bounce rate lowered, is to have a good call to action. And we’ll talk about what goes into a good call to action.

Well, as always give me a call. Email me if you have any questions on how this works. But remember, the way people go to your website is key and the understanding what goes through your head is key. Remember, everyone on the internet has ADD, everyone is lazy and go check out your website! I’m Eric Spellmann. I’ll see you in cyberspace.