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11 Ways To Drive Traffic
Away From Your Website
By Jerry Bader |
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While watching a Toronto
Raptor basketball game I saw
T.J. Ford, one of the
fastest players in the
league, rush down the court
like a man possessed and
proceed to throw the ball
behind his back to a
trailing Andrea Bargnani.
The trouble was the ball
sailed over the head of the
seven-foot Bargnani into the
second row of seats. Ford,
himself, ended up with a
beer and popcorn facíal
after landing in the lap of
a front row patron. So what
does this have to do with
website design and marketing
you ask? A lot.
As talented as Ford is as a
basketball player he
sometimes plays
out-of-control, and his
major asset, his speed,
becomes a liability. When
this happens in a basketball
game the answer is to slow
the game down and get back
in control
Don't Speed-It-Up;
Slow-It-Down
Website visitors are like
the speedy T.J. Ford; they
are so intent on getting
what they want as quickly
and efficiently as possible,
that they often surf the
Internet out-of-control.
How many times have you sat
in front of the computer
with your hand resting on
your mouse searching for
some desired product,
service, or information,
when all of sudden you find
what looks like what you
want, but before you even
have a chance to discover
exactly what it is, your
hair-trigger finger decides
it's time to move-on. It's
like your finger has a mind
of it's own.
Speed Kills Marketing
Efforts
All the talk and discussion
about short attention spans
caused by people raised on
video games and
quick-cut-edited music
videos is very misleading.
What website visitors won't
tolerate are websites that
waste their time, and many
websites are guilty of
exactly that. Contrary to
popular belief, the job of a
website designer, who
understands marketing, is
not to speed up website
visitors, but to slow them
down so they can absorb the
marketing message.
If you want your audience to
remember you, if you want to
make an impression, if you
want website visitors to
understand why they should
give you their business,
then you have to slow them
down long enough to absorb
your message. And that
message better be worth
their while or they will
never come back.
It isn't about how fast a
page loads; it's about
delivering an appropriate
payoff for the wait.
Now I will admit there are
people who absolutely,
positively will not wait
more than eight seconds for
anything to load. You know
who you are. And I say, the
hell with them. These are
the same people who won't
wait their turn in a brick
and mortar store either,
they demand to be served
before everyone else - it's
just not possible to satisfy
these people, so why design
your entire website
marketing around them. They
are never going to hang
around long enough to grasp
your message and learn why
they should be giving you
their business, so forget
about them
The people you should be
worrying about are the ones
that really want to find out
more about what it is you
do, and are prepared to
invest a little time and
effort to give you a chance
to explain yourself. These
are the important people;
this is your real audience,
and you disappoint them at
your financial peril.
The Reasons Why Web-users
Are Impatient
The real reason website
users are so damn impatient
is not that they have such
short attention spans, it's
because most websites are
designed to meet perceived
company objectives, rather
than audience needs.
How To Drive Traffic Away
From Your Website
Let's take a look at some of
the reasons why your website
visitors may be leaving your
website before they've had a
chance to hear what you have
to say; or to put it another
way, if you want to drive
traffic AWAY faster than you
attract it, here are some of
the things you should do.
1. Give Web-visitors Too
Many Options and Choices
Social scientist and
Swarthmore College
professor, Barry Schwartz,
has coined the phrase, "the
paradox of choice." His
studies have concluded the
more choice you give people,
the less likely they are to
make a decision. Some choice
is good, but too much choice
creates confusion: it's a
case of diminishing marginal
utility.
A well designed website
explains, directs, guides,
and focuses visitor
attention on the things that
are of real benefit to your
visitors and to your
company.
Every business provides a
variety of products,
services, and information to
their customers, but these
things are not all of equal
importance. Your website is
a place to focus attention
on your core marketing
message, not a place to
provide a shopping list of
everything you are able to
do and every product or
service you may be able to
offer.
2. Give Web Visitors Too
Much Information To Process
Architect, author, and
information designer,
Richard Saul Wurman, in his
book, 'Information Anxiety'
talks about, "the
ever-widening gap between
what we understand and what
we think we should
understand."
Good website design is about
more than technology and
aesthetics; it's about
deciding what information
needs to be presented and
what information needs to be
left out. If you are truly
an expert in your field, you
should know what information
is important to your
customers in order for them
to make a decision. Too much
information is like too much
choice, it confuses rather
than clarifies. Focus on
delivering meaningful
content or risk having your
visitors hit the exit
button.
3. Give Web Visitors Too
Much Non-relevant Content
The only thing worse than
overloading your website
with more information than
visitors can absorb is
confusing them with useless
and non-relevant content.
Non-relevant content is
content that doesn't advance
your major purpose: to
deliver your marketing
message in an informative,
engaging, entertaining, and
memorable manner. If it
isn't relevant, dump it
4. Give Web Visitors Too
Many Irritating Distractions
Websites should be designed
to direct visitors to the
information they want and
that information should be
the content you want to
deliver.
You cannot sell someone a
product or service they do
not want. A real prospect is
one that needs the same
information you want to
provide; the art of sales is
directing potential clients
to relevant information, and
presenting it in a way that
visitors see your product or
service as fulfilling their
needs.
On the surface, third-party
advertisements and banners
may seem like a good way to
make some extra cash from
your traffic, but these ads
become so distracting,
visitors either get fed-up
or click on one of the links
that takes them away from
your site. Whatever few
bucks you earn from these
ads, you are loosing by
chasing real customers away;
this of course assumes you
are a real business with
something legitimate to sell
and not a website that's an
excuse to deliver
advertisements.
Other nonsense like favorite
links and silly
fluff-content merely
distracts visitors from
investigating your site to
find what they are looking
for.
5. Give Web Visitors Too
Many Red Flags
Website visitors are
constantly looking for red
flags that tell them that
the site they are visiting
should be skipped as soon as
possible.
If you want to make sure
visitors won't deal with you
make sure you don't provide
any contact information: no
contact names, no phone
numbers, and no mailing
address is a sure sign that
you won't look after any
problems that arise from a
website transaction.
Your website must be
designed to build trust and
foster a relationship, not
scare people away.
6. Give Web Visitors Too
Many Decisions To Make
How many decisions do you
demand from your visitors in
order for them to do
business with you?
Take for example the
seemingly simple task of
purchasing a new television.
Do you purchase the
inexpensive but old tube
technology, the newer Plasma
technology, or the LCD
technology? How about all
the various features to
choose from like
picture-in-picture,
commercial skip-timers, and
on and on? All you really
want to do is relax with
your spouse and enjoy a good
movie - is that on a VSH,
DVD, Blu-ray, or HD-DVD?
7. Give Web Visitors Too
Many Stumbling Blocks
Do you make people go
through the order processing
system before they can find
out how much something
costs, or do you demand
potential customers read a
ridiculous amount of small
print legalese that only a
lawyer could understand?
If you want to drive traffic
away from your site make
sure you build in as many
stumbling blocks as
possible.
8. Give Web Visitors Too
Many Forms To Fill-in
Do you attract your visitors
with special offers or free
white papers and then demand
that they fill-out complex
forms, surveys, and
questionnaires before you
give them access to what
they came for? If you do,
you are probably losing a
lot of people you attracted,
and you are guaranteeing
that your next email
promotion will end up in the
trash.
9. Give Web Visitors
Incomprehensible Page
Layouts
Good design, proper page
layout, consistent
navigation, and well
organized information
architecture that promotes
serendipity, helps visitors
find what they're looking
for and provides a pleasant,
efficient and rewarding
experience for the website
visitor.
Website designs that rely on
technology, databases, and
search engine optimization
rather than focused content,
coherent organization,
articulate presentation, and
a memorable, rewarding
experience are designs
designed to chase traffic
away.
10. Give Web Visitors Too
Many Confusing Instructions
One of the most frustrating
experiences website visitors
encounter is confusing
instructions and incoherent
explanations of how your
product or service works or
how to order what you are
selling.
11. Give Web Visitors Too
Many Reason To Click-out
If you really are determined
to fail, make sure you
provide website visitors
with as many reasons as
possible to leave your site:
irrelevant links to your
favorite sites, links to
your suppliers because
you're too cheap to put
their information on your
own site, or any combination
of the reasons mentioned
above, all contribute to
driving traffic away from
your site.
About The Author
Jerry Bader is Senior
Partner at
MRPwebmedia, a website
design firm that specializes
in Web-audio and Web-video.
Visit
www.mrpwebmedia.com/ads,
www.136words.com and
www.sonicpersonality.com.
Contact at
info@mrpwebmedia.com or
telephone (905) 764-1246
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