That Don't Impress Me Much: Even Pretty Web Sites Have Abandonment Issues

By Kim Krause Berg

There is a certain similarity between human relationship breakups and web site abandonment:

"Why do they always leave me?"

"What am I doing wrong?"

"It wasn't what I thought it was supposed to be."

"I tried so hard to make it work!"

"I just never found what I was looking for."

"Boy, was I ever taken for a ride! I was so fooled by what I was told."

The good news is that making a good first impression with your web site visitors is much easier than preparing for a blind date. For starters, you can be surfing in your pajamas, no makeup or with "bed-head" and the web site won't laugh its head off at you.

For good web design, you should have a good idea ahead of time about who will be knocking on your web site door. You need to be ready with at least one critical thing they're looking for.

Moreover, it has to be quick and easy for your visitor to figure out. Things like who you are, why you're better than your competitors, and how to buy something make for positive first impressions.

Don't Lie to Me

Speaking on behalf of web sites only, not as a relationships counselor, one of the biggest turn offs web site visitors have is dishonesty. It comes in many forms. For example, any job search in Google will inevitably bring back employment sites, as well as work from home sites. Here's how one web site promoted itself:

"Earn up to $300/hr. Hot jobs. No experience necessary. Apply in seconds."

Really? I can earn that kind of money without any experience? And my application will take "seconds"? I'm gullible, so I clicked to see. When I arrived at the homepage, I discovered several images weren't loading. I didn't see a link to their "apply in seconds" application, but I could watch a demo. (I wonder how long that would take? It didn't say.)

There were 14 paragraphs with boldface text explaining how people make money with the product, how it's the best one out there, and for a fee (which is supposed to prove YOU are sincere), you can make so much money per month that all your dreams will come true.

Nowhere on the homepage did it say how you would do this. It did mention the product name itself, repeatedly. (Probably for the sake of search engines, not you.)

Nowhere on the homepage did it say why this company could pay that much money to anyone, regardless of their background, work history, age or location. Where does this money come from?

I finally located where to apply way down at the bottom of the page. Apparently, the designer believes everyone who comes to that page is going to read all 14 paragraphs.

Credibility? I could write a long list on all the credibility and authenticity elements that were missing from the homepage alone. I never entered the rest of the site because their claim was the same one made by thousands of other web sites just like it on the Internet.

Once burned, twice shy. But more importantly, this web site didn't persuade me to take any action. No second date for this one...

If you've read studies on the pros and cons of long content vs. short, then you know that long pages aren't so terribly awful. If you can manage to engage your visitor, they'll hang in there with you. It's like if you're lucky enough to meet someone who is funny and a great conversationalist. Once they grab your attention, you want to know and hear more.

Do You Have What I Want?

It takes a long time to know if a person has everything you want. Shania Twain walked through a blazing hot desert in her music video for "That Don't Impress Me Much", tossing aside all kinds of things that didn't impress her. She sang, "Oh-oo-oh, you think you're special, Oh-oo-oh, you think you're something else."

This is what people are thinking to themselves when they download any page from your web site. They're looking for what's special. They want to know why it's worth doing business with you. Who are you, really?

My son wanted a certain popular kids book series on history. To find it, I could have gone directly to Amazon, but not knowing anything about the books other than seeing a few of them arrive home with him from school, I asked Google for help. The search engine quickly took me to the publisher of the series. When I arrived at the publisher's web site, I was happy to find the following elements within the first few seconds of arriving:

1. Attractive, colorful web design

2. The web site name, and a reference to the book series I searched for. Therefore, I knew I was in the correct site.

3. A "Featured Book" was front and center, in clear view.

4. There were three types of navigation, indicating a large web site. But, each navigation scheme had a purpose and a targeted end user habit. The top was auxiliary stuff, such as "things to do on our site". These links would attract return visits such as kids looking for parent-approved games or needing homework help.

The left side navigation was designed for first-time visitors and browsers who are "just looking". Sections for Parents, Teachers, Kids and Writers indicated they intended on meeting the needs of many different types of consumers. Every link described in descriptive terms destinations like "Discussion Guides" or "Mother/Daughter Book Club", rather than simply "Discussion" or "Clubs".

The central navigation filled the main body of the web site and was broken into sections. This is how I learned the book series had several categories. They briefly describe, with well-chosen words that provoke interest, each category and a drop down menu allows the visitor to scan and click directly to the corresponding section inside the web site.

5. I knew I could purchase from this site because of the "Shop" button at the top of the page. It wasn't a tiny shopping cart icon, which some kids and non-computer savvy folks may have missed.

Informative and attentive, I was convinced of the company's customer commitment and professionalism.

What was missing?

While grateful to have found information on the series, chances are good I'll do some comparison shopping elsewhere, looking for good deals, sales, or even used books in good shape. No pricing information, sale items or discounted items were on the homepage.

Curious about pricing, I clicked from the central navigation scheme on a book title that sounded like one my son might like. I was taken to a page describing the book with a cover shot of it, and an excerpt, but there was no "call to action" link or button provided to find out how to buy it, or how much it would cost. Incredibly, when I clicked on the Featured Book link back on the homepage, I met another conversion dead end. This web site had convinced me their products and company were credible, but they forgot to show me how or where to make a purchase.

I had a choice of clicking around the site looking for prices, or leaving and ordering elsewhere. Armed with all the information they provided me, I could easily find the book at Amazon.

What Am I Doing Wrong?

Every break up usually ends up where someone asks this dreaded question.

For web sites, what you're doing wrong is directly related to who you're doing it for. You're totally co-dependent on the needs, whims, wishes, desires, dreams, financial status, location, age, gender, and personality of the person who clicks into your web site.

Content writing can be an ego-trip, which is why I prefer a third-party be hired to write your copy, both from a search engine marketing standpoint and the marketing one. The number one priority is not to satisfy the stakeholders, unless you happen to have some who understand design goals. Your web design mission is to meet needs, answer questions, and point the way to productive activity such as purchases or registration.

The bottom line is this. If you have something great to offer, flaunt it! Get out where everyone can appreciate it.

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Bio and Copyright

Usability Consultant, Kimberly Krause Berg, is the owner of UsabilityEffect.com (www.usabilityeffect.com), Cre8pc.com (www.cre8pc.com), and Cre8asiteForums (www.cre8asiteforums.com/). Her background in organic search engine optimization, combined with web site usability consulting, offers unique insight into web site development.

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