Studies suggest that the average website visitor will spend somewhere around 4 seconds evaluating your website to determine relevance. You read that right: 4 seconds. So this means that given the very likely scenario that a user doesn't see what they want in 4 seconds, they will leave. In the language of website analytics, this quick departure due to lack of perceived relevance is called a "bounce." Using tools like Google Analytics, we can measure the percentage of bounces. A site like ours, with a domain like ours (oaktree.com), attracts a whole lot of folks looking for...what would you guess? Oak trees! As a result, we have a higher than normal bounce rate.
For everybody else, there are a few simple lessons to make the most of the 4 seconds that a user will spend on your site before deciding to bounce:
- Keep it simple: your home page is no place to wax poetic. Ensure that your page is clean, scannable and offers a limited number of choices
- Ensure that links and menu labels correspond to language that your target end users actually use when searching. This sounds like a head-scratcher, but you can invest a little time with Google researching search terms that describe your products or services. Better, hire someone with expertise in SEO (search engine optimization) who can use analytics software to identify a list of terms that fit your content best.
- Prioritize your messaging so that a user is able to easily find key content. "Key content" means content that you consider key, as well as your end user. Hopefully, these are the same.
- Avoid clutter: question the addition of "eye candy," or graphical content that doesn't add value, that doesn't help you achieve your business goals. Every element on your page must meet specific objectives.
4 seconds is little more than the blink of an eye. So the fact that you are still reading this post suggests some success--that this content was relevant to you. But the norm is drastic: we have precious little attention, and patience for content that doesn't add immediate value. Take the time to design yours so that your site will capture the attention you expect and translate your website in a valuable tool for your organization.