Man, talk about pressure.
A new study by news @ nature titled "Web users judge sites in the blink of an eye" says Web users make up their mind about a site in the first twentieth of a second.
The first twentieth of a second!?!?!?!?
Recently, John Sullivan wrote in an article titled "Why Not Do Something Strategic in Recruiting" that "Recruiting managers must realize how ugly and dysfunctional their
current corporate jobs/career web sites have become and how they negate
other branding and advertising efforts."
I couldn’t agree more (although I would also add that some good old search engine optimization should be part of any good redesign).
That said, selling a site in one twentieth of a second definitely ups the ante on getting it right.
So, what rules to follow?
According to the study, "the amount of graphics on the page
should be strictly limited, perhaps to a single eye-catching image. ‘It’s not about getting as much stuff on the page as possible.’"
Additionally, make sure your pages load quickly and be conscious of a left-to-right approach to layout when considering how Westerners view pages.
This new study reinforces the challenge SEOs face: keeping it simple vs. wealth of content.
The study quotes Marc Caudron of London web-design agency Pod1, saying, "Sixty percent of traffic comes from search
engines such as Google. This makes a user’s first impression even more critical. ‘You’ll get a list of sites, click the top one, and then
either say ‘I’ve engaged’ and give it a few more seconds, or just go
back to Google."
So, is it worth being found on Google, with the help of a content-rich site, if it’s at the expense of them leaving in one-twentieth of a second?
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