Currently, there are entire institutions dedicated to performing usability tests that serve to demystify the user experience and explain how a website visitor interacts with a site. Several years ago, virtualhosting.com posted a fascinating article about website visitor eye tracking studies that revealed some very interesting tidbits on how your website design affects your visitors. Despite its age, I feel that many of its findings are quite relevant to the modern web and how visitors interact with websites. I hand picked several of their main points to discuss further here, you may view the list and their explanations in full at: 23 Actionable Lessons from Eye-Tracking Studies

1. 1. Text attracts attention before graphics.

   I instinctively want to disagree with this one. After all, everyone loves pictures and good photography can make or break a website’s design. However, when a visitor is coming to your website, the majority of the time they are looking for information about what you do, who you are, or how you can make them better informed. Your visitors want real substance, not just visual fluff.

2. 2. Users initially look at the top left and upper portion of the page before moving down and to the right.

   This point touches on the F shape of a user’s eye movements over a website. You can use this to your advantage and lay out important calls to action and headlines along this shape to maximize their visibility.

3. 3. Readers ignore banners.

   This should come as no surprise to many of you, users have been bombarded with banner ads on many of their favorite sites, and users are learning to completely tune these out. Because of this, it isn’t wise to design calls to action that resemble banner ads too closely in either shape or design.

4. 4. People generally scan lower portions of the page.

   This is a big one in my experience with client relations. All too frequently I get requests to try and stuff everything up on the page to keep the information “above the fold.” With the invention of the scroll wheel on mouses, it has become normal behavior for a user to scroll through a page. An excellent article that expounds on this point can be found at: Life Below 600px

5. 5. Shorter paragraphs perform better than long ones.

   Your visitors are lazy, they want to get the answer to their question as quickly and easily as possible. There is a challenge in balancing the need for text for SEO purposes, and the need to present your information as plainly as possible for your visitors. Users don’t read big blocks of text, the shorter and more succinct you can state your point, the more likely it is going to be read. In short, use lists.

6. 6. Lists hold reader attention longer.

   Lists present information in short phrases that make it easy for users to scan and find what they want quickly. Lists are the most efficient way to get your information to your users.

7. 7. White space is good.

   White space is vital to making your content more digestible for the user. By giving your information space to denote its importance, you make it easier for the user to find what they are looking for.

The main goal of user experience studies are to determine how to make your content more accessible and readable by your users. If you would like to find out how EyeMagine can optimize your site’s content to allow you to better communicate with your audience, please contact us today.

With such measurable and obvious success criteria, you would’ve thought that good practice and winning techniques would by now, be well established, and bad advice would be quickly exposed for what it is. It appears however, that this is not the case.  It’s amazing just how bad some of the advice out there really is.

Here are five of the worst offenders:

1. You can never give the user too much  [Wrong!]

On the face of it, this sounds like a good idea. The more information you provide, the better informed their decision becomes. However, in reality too many options can be overwhelming and lead to ‘choice paralysis’.  You know what that’s like: taking much longer to order food from a very long menu than from a shorter one, or taking an eternity to choose which of the thousands of available paint colors to apply to a home.

More is not always better. If you want to encourage users to buy, you need to make their choice a simple one.  Remove everything but the most important information, and minimize the number of choices available. This is something that’s been understood for some time in traditional retailing, but hasn’t filtered through to the web.

2. Never miss an opportunity to cross-sell [Wrong!]

We all know supermarkets do it:  You’re lining up at the checkout surrounded by chocolate, magazines and other extras.  You go in for a loaf of bread and come out with a bag full of candy and a magazine on interior design; it’s an effective technique.

Many successful websites also use this approach very effectively, looking for opportunities to cross-sell, based on your buying habits and those of other users.  They may not always up-sell though, as the web is not the same as the real world.  Good online retailers are often careful to avoid distractions at the checkout.  They are user-driven and therefore have to be as easy, focused and fast as possible.

Up-selling is important, but do it before the checkout process begins, or after the transaction is complete. Once the user makes a decision to buy, you need to ensure that nothing gets in the way of that transaction.  Some opportunities to cross-sell are worth missing.

3. It’s all about your site [Wrong!]

Web designers want to sell you web site design services. It is therefore unsurprising that they concentrate their attention and advice on the website. However, the website is only one small part of a successful ecommerce business.  The heart of successful ecommerce lies in service, not the website.

Don’t become so fixated on tweaking and improving your website that you neglect other areas of the user experience. Good customer service includes vital components such as email notifications, telephone support, policies, order fulfillment, handling complaints, offers and discounts, and ongoing communication.

Customers who receive superb service are considerably more likely to make a second purchase and recommend you to friends and family.  It’s even possible to substantially reduce your marketing costs if you make customer service a priority; your reputation will spread through word of mouth.

If you want to learn more about customer service, try Bruce Temkin’s blog

All that being said, getting your website right is still extremely important. Small things can make a big difference in the eyes of your users. Take for example security…

4. Users care about security… badges [Wrong!]

It’s clear that users care about online security. In fact many people are still unwilling to buy online for fear of credit card fraud.  The media has done an excellent job of making the public suspicious of online transactions, even though they willingly hand over credit cards at restaurants.

Whether the users’ concerns are justified or not, we need to take them seriously if we want people to buy.  Many ecommerce businesses spend a lot of money to ensure the site’s security.  How then do they choose to communicate this to their users to reassure them? – They slap a badge on their website!

Simply adding a small VeriSign or MacAfee badge to your checkout page is not enough to alleviate users’ fears.  At best they are free advertising for the companies involved.  At worst they are entirely ignored because they look like banners.  A better approach is to add copy to your website addressing this issue, and the steps you’ve taken to ensure your customers’ security. Don’t rely on a single graphic to say all that needs to be said.

5. Amazon is the template we should all follow [Wrong]

This lie is probably the most widely held of all. There is a belief that because Amazon is so successful, all ecommerce websites should follow their example.

There are however, a number of flaws in this argument:

- They don’t get everything right (nobody can)
- They are partially successful as they were one of the very first ecommerce sites
- Their reputation and brand recognition allows them to get away with a lot
- Users are familiar with their site and its eccentricities

In short, what works for them will not necessarily work for you. Too many website owners blindly copy Amazon because they are seen as the leader in ecommerce. Not only is that flawed for the reasons above, it also removes the possibility of you ever being better than Amazon or innovating in any way.

Bonus lie:  Ecommerce is easy

Probably the biggest lie of all is that ecommerce is easy. Admittedly off-the-shelf solutions such as Shopify make it extremely easy to build ecommerce websites. However, building the site is only the beginning. The real challenge comes in:

- Marketing your site
- Deciding when to up-sell
- Providing great customer service
- Communicating clearly
- Learning from others

Creating a successful ecommerce business is a long-term commitment that involves continually evolving both your website and your strategy.

EyeMagine can make this a whole lot easier for you. Contact us for more details or complete our online Request for Proposal form.
Read the full article (source)

Please feel free to comment below to add your two cents or correct any inaccurate information.

1. Choose your core focus market and select keywords

The first step is to decide what type of visitors your would like to visit your site and what keywords visitors from your industry are using in the major search engines. By solidifying effective search terms that will drive users to your site, you are now prepared to integrate these keywords into your site and blog posts (see below). Spend time deciding what keywords are used by people most who are looking for products or services that you offer and be sure that these keywords appear within the first few lines of your site.

2. Post on blogs and forums

This probably the most underused, and similarly over abused method to improve your search ranking. The key here is to answer questions and offer expertise to users on other website owners already established websites. For example if you are a mobile phone store, then you could answer questions users have about a phones features on a Motorola forum. By including a link back to your site, along with industry relevant keywords, your website’s ranking will rapidly increase. Forums allow you to build relationships in your niche industry and help build credibility and trust with potential customers. Furthermore, forums allow you to display your website link in the body of each post. Once the website hosting the forum is indexed by a search engine, there will be a noticeable effect on the ranking of your site. A free blog can be created with WordPress

3. Build Your Site in CSS

This article isn’t meant to be too technical, but simply put, ask your web designer if your website was built in tables or CSS. If he/she says “tables”, it is time to find a new designer. Many web designers still use tables to build websites. This technique has been completely abandoned by the expert design community and is frowned upon by search engines.

4. List your site on as many directories as possible

If you do a quick search using your industry as the keyword – say “los angeles photography” you will probably notice that many of the results that show up are different directories of sorts. Many of these directories are free. Submit your site to these directories along with your business information for instant results. If you are listed on a website that shows up in the first 10 pages of search results, it is likely your site will show up too.

5. Write articles on your site (like this one)

Having a blog on your site will provide a steady stream of fresh content that incorporates your keywords. A simple blog like this one can be set up with WordPress, a free open-source blog application.

6. List your business on google maps

This tool is free and better than Yellow Pages. Your site ranking will not only improve just by being listed, but users will be provided with a map directly to your organization, basic contact information, and even hours of operation. Customers will thank you for not burying the store phone number deep within your site.
Google Maps

7. Provide Useful Information

Search engines look kindly on providing visitors with rich, useful content. Don’t spam potential users. Educate users rather than up sell them. Here are some examples of this logic applied
- Pet care tips for a Vet office or pet supply store
- Valentine’s day date ideas for chocolate shop or florist
- Free excel finance calculators on website for real estate agent

8. Write press releases

Releasing a new product? Write a press release. Hire a new CEO? Write a press release. There are many websites that offer free press release listings for you to submit your release to. Make sure to link back to a relevant page on your site.

9. Submit your site to the search engines yourself.

Do not pay for any service that offers to resubmit your site to search engines. They could get you permenantly blacklisted from the search engine. Then it’s back to the drawing board. The major search engines are Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL, and ask.com.

Google – http://www.google.com/addurl/
Yahoo – http://search.yahoo.com/info/submit.html
Microsoft – http://search.live.com/docs/submit.aspx
AOL – http://www.dmoz.org/add.html
Ask – http://www.garryconn.com/how-do-i-submit-my-site-to-askcom.php

10. Improve your Metadata

While search engines have admittedly reduced the importance they place on your meta tags, there is still great value to be had from optimizing all of your meta tags. For the title attribute, use a descriptive title that does more than state the page and your company name. For instance, on your about or company page, rather than have a title that looks like this “About | Eyemagine”, a more useful title would be something like “Eyemagine is an Orange County based web development agency”. Now, not only is the page title actually describing what content is on the page, but it contains relevant keywords that you want to target. Similarly, try tailoring your meta description to the page itself, rather than using the same description sitewide. For usage info, refer to the w3c page on meta tags: W3C Schools. One important thing to note, search engines have all but completely phased out the keyword meta data from their algorithms due to the abusive keyword usage by webmasters in the past. While many recommend ignoring them completely, I still create keyword lists (no more than 15-20 keywords.