Are you up for Thai food tonight? Finding a good spot is easy: just log on and search in Google. I did, and in 0.73 seconds, Google came up with 24.3 million results. So now, my job is to click on names and find out if the restaurant looks like a winner. Based on data from Google, I will spend as much as 8 seconds on a site before I decide to stay – or go to another site.
Which means your website should follow the KISS principle: Keep It Simple, Stupid. Give people the information they need in a format that’s easy to view and with interactions that get them quickly where they want to go. That way, they’ll invest more than 8 seconds on your site!
How to make a KISS Home page:
WHO: Name, logo, and phone in the Header. Yes, that info is at the bottom of the page and on Contact Us but make it easy for folks – put it right at the top
MENU: Visitors want to know your site will be easy to navigate, so post your Pages menu at the top for easy access and with page names that are familiar to most people
WHAT & WHY: What we marketers call a “value proposition’ – a short paragraph that tells what product or service you provide and what benefits you deliver. Here’s where you can quickly differentiate yourself – you are faster, healthier, cheaper, better than all the rest.
HOW: If you’re a restaurant or product company, show off the goods. They’ll sell better with quality photos. If you are a service provider, describe the process with a few words and graphics so that people know they’ll get to the end-benefit quickly and painlessly
WHY US: If a visitor has scrolled this far down the page, let them know that you have a special talent for delivering what they want – years of experience, special credentials, dedicated staff, a gazillion satisfied customers
CALL TO ACTION: Make clear what you want – call us, email us, make an appointment, set up a demo, download a form – and provide buttons or links that are easy to click
“Beautiful” creates a beautiful response.
You may not be selling fashion, but the visual appeal has a direct impact on the response, which is the key to a beautiful bottom line for your business. A study by Google reports that a visitor will judge whether your site is attractive within 1/50thto 1/20thof a second.
What do people call beautiful? NOT visually complicated sites – people rate clean, uncomplicated sites as “more beautiful. They also want familiarity – sites that are easily recognized as belonging to your category of service consistently rank higher on the beauty scale. Quite simply, people prefer visiting a site where they are comfortable, with everything where it should be, including the actions they want to take.
Coming up with a page design that is visually attractive, simple to recognize, easy to navigate, and in line with your customer’s expectations may sound like a lot to ask, but it’s no different than creating an attractive environment for a brick-and-mortar store or the place you call home. If you have the time to do the research and have a creative flair, you can do it.
Or…
Hey, the folks at Buzzworks are creative and have already invested the hours to know how to make a truly simple, beautiful, highly-responsive website. Give us a holler and we’ll get started!