Four Things Site Visitors Do Online That You Should Know

Today Web visitors use search engines as ‘answer engines’ which they view as part of a single, integrated Internet resource (for a great discussion of this pick up a copy of “Prioritizing Web Usability” by Nielsen and Loranger). They don’t think or care very much about individual websites. Their information grazing habits have turned them into answer engine query animals turning stones to find digestible nuggets of information.

Here are the four things they may be doing as they encounter your site:

1. They go to their preferred search engine and type a few descriptive words.
2. The look at the top listings of the search engine results page.
3. They visit some of the sites they find on that page, but leave quickly after a minute or two… at best.
4. They view most pages for less than half a minute.

With such pressure to communicate effectively, you’ll want to:

• Avoid fluffy talk, vague language, misleading statements, or poor graphics and photography.
• Give them well written and concise information
• Avoid the temptation to engage in a concentrated sales pitch.
• Make sure your site is lean, well designed, easy to navigate.

It may not seem to be earth shaking news. But these four behavioral patterns influence everything else. The moment you consider building a website, you should start thinking as much about how people succeed in their tasks using the web, and how they fail. It’s not just a question of what you want to say about your products, what photos you use, or the baseline functionality (though that’s certainly important). The whole issue of usability will affect how successful your new site will be.

In short, web  users are far less invested in your product or brand. So think a bit differently about what they want and need. Step outside the box regarding your day to day activities and what might interest you. Think about them.

It’s all about the customer. Do everything you can to catch and hold their interest.