Aug
Ten Seconds of Eyeball Time
Andy Grove of Intel famously said that you have 10 seconds of eyeball time for each visitor to your Web site. (He also said something about only the paranoid being able to survive these days, and that seems right on too.)
If your visitors don’t see what they’re seeking in those 10 seconds, they hit the back button and get the hey out of there. These days it may be even worse. I believe those 10 seconds were posited about 10 years ago. Visitor patience is now down to the two- to five-second range, I guesstimate.
What kinds of sins can you avoid to help stop of 10-second bloodshed of lost visitors?
A company called Hostway recently conducted a survey of what turns off Web vistors. Four of the top 15 were all related to the use of Flash animations, including flashing text, images and so on.
(I say take a look at Facebook and Google, and you’ll see success in simplicity.)
Other sins included poor navigation (put what they’re looking for in the center of the screen with clear clickability; a registration policy (people do not want to register with your stupid site unless they really get something in return); the lack of contact information such as phone number and address (visitors resent anonymous contact forms); outdated or confusing content; and music or sounds that play automatically.
Tags: Andy Grove
