Websites Under Your Control Blog

 First glance... A couple of years ago we published an account of a research study showing that first impressions are made in the first 1/20th of a second.  (A blink of the eye takes about 15 times longer!)

Second glance... Then a few months ago, we described typical visitor time on web pages (30 seconds, regardless of amount of text), pointing out that only about 100-150 words will "register."

The magazine industry has had centuries to figure out what works. Think about the row after row of magazines you see at the store. Each magazine has a few things in common with the rest:

• First glance... an overall appearance that appeals to their target audience, to get them to take a closer look,
• Second glance... seldom more than 100-150 words, in 3-6 "teasers," to entice potential readers to open up the magazine, and,
• nothing else! 

Your home page should follow the same approach

You need an overall look that immediately appeals to your ideal audience. Remember, that "appeal" is won or lost before any words have had time to even register in your visitors' minds.

You cannot convey more than the most basic message on the home page. The goal is to catch their attention on any of a very few key topics, so they will click (not scroll) to learn more.

30 Seconds -- that's all you have!

Scientific studies and our own server statistics on hundreds of thousands of web page visits agree -- visitors who don't leave the page immediately will spend roughly 30 seconds on a web page, and it doesn't matter all that much if you double or triple the amount of text.

Adult reading speed is about 250 - 300 words a minute, so there is only time for the interested visitor to read about 125 - 150 words on your web page (which, if about average, has around 600 words).

How do readers learn anything when they read only 20% of the words?

By being very selective. They scan down the left side of a page very quickly for topics that catch their attention and spend most of their time in those topics. 

The eye tracking chart here, from web usability guru Jakob Nielsen, shows results that have been repeated in numerous studies.

7 Tips for getting your message across in 30 seconds...

1. Keep it short. If people will only read around 100-150 words, don't write 1500 words.
2. Stay above the fold.  80% of reader attention is in what they can see without scrolling, on pages too long to fit.
3. Skip the blah blah. Don't waste valuable space with meaningless filler text.
4. Use lists and bullet points to focus attention on key points.
5. Put key words at the beginning since readers scan down the left side to decide where to focus attention.
6. Use interesting, descriptive headlines, followed by short paragraphs.
7. Link to other pages with meaningful "anchor text" to both grab the readers' attention with the link itself, and to move longer narratives off the page.

What is "anchor text"? It's the text the reader sees in a link. Your reader (and Google) will pay more attention to a link that is descriptive such as "headlines are crucial for search engines" rather than "click here for more" or http://txzz.com/06. 

If you are using our Online Business Partner, just highlight the text you want to use as your anchor text while in the editor, click the link manager, and select the page you want to link.

The purpose of search engine optimization is to get traffic to your pages, but your site must be written and formatted for those who visit.

Your headlines serve both purposes. The visual formatting makes the headlines stand out to your visitors. The designation of some text as a headline (using "heading tags") makes it stand out to Google and other search engines. For both, the headlines make it immediately obvious what topics are covered on your page.

How to make a headline

Headline levels, defined using "heading tags," can be numbered from 1 to 6, with 1 being the most important in terms of indexing.

For best results, place the main topic of your page in "heading 1" tags, and the subtopics in "heading 2" tags. If you care about Google showing the page, use words in the headlines that your visitors are likely to search for.  For example, a headline such as About Our Company informs your human visitors what is to follow, but a headline that says you are a company "serving the needs of North Texans needing ambulatory and wheelchair transport" is more informative, and certainly helped Preston Trail Transport to reach the first page of Google. Notice how it tells what they do, and where they do it.

If you use our Online Business Partner^® service, just log in and open your page, click in the relevant text, and click to set the heading in the tool bar. Otherwise, contact your webmaster with your instructions.

The bottom line: Optimize your pages with well-written content that uses important keyword phrasing in the headlines. It is one of the easiest ways to improve your search engine results.