How well does your website work for you? Does it grab the attention of your audience in the first few seconds and keep it? We sat down with Kevin Mullins, VP of Brand Strategy at CM, to discuss the importance of what goes into your website design and how best to improve your online presence.
Q: What is the goal for a website’s home page?
K: The home page has to tell me what site this is and what it’s for; why I should be here and not somewhere else. Does it give a good first impression and offer confidence to a potential customer?
The goal of a website, especially your home page, is to make your brand self-evident. For some visitors, the home page will be the only chance your site will get to create a good impression. The magic happens at a glance for the average user to “get it” and instant recognition of the product or service you provide.
Q: Which type of content best captures attention?
K: The first few seconds are critical. You have a window of approximately 7–8 seconds to convey the big picture of who you are.
One thing we understand about people is we don’t read! We scan. Avoid taking up space on your website with a wall full of words. Think about how you browse a website, we visually search the page, trying to find the right combination of words that match our personal interests.
Video content is the quickest way to grab attention and maintain it in a short format. People have come to expect a short explanatory video on most sites. It is the easiest to consume and remember.
Q: Is there an order to how content should be displayed?
K: Yes!
Following up on how we absorb content by scanning, the user scans a website in the same format as how we read - left to right, top to bottom. To be successful, your website content should follow that format and direct the user’s eye and attention.
The top section of your website is known as your hero and for good reason. The larger something is, or the more prominent it is on screen, the more important it is. Good visual hierarchy organizes and prioritizes in a way that we can grasp the content easily and absorb it by scanning rather than reading. Create a visual hierarchy and reduce the noise.
Q: What advice do you have for someone looking to improve their own site?
K: Take a hard look at your website and without any explanation, do you understand what it is you do?
Know the main things that people want to do on your site and make them obvious and easy.
Know what questions I’m likely to have, and answer them before I ask:
What is this?
What can I do here?
What do they have here?
Why should I be here and not somewhere else?
Can’t tell what your website’s missing?
We can figure it out for you. We’re experts in all things web, whether we’re stepping in to support or deciding what web services to start with.
Let’s make this easy. Whether you’re starting from scratch or completely revamping the website you already have, we’d love to learn more about you and your project.
Schedule a FREE 15-minute discovery call directly with our owner, Chris.
