Does Your Website Induce Seizures?

By Tim Knox

Q: We promote our web site in all our ad campaigns, however according to my website statistics program, we are getting very few visitors who click past the first page. The site has a cool Flash intro page that the designer said would impress visitors, however it does not seem to be working. What can we do to get people to spend more time on the site?
-- Christopher O.

A: The first thing you should do, Christopher, is find that designer also beat the living Flash out of him. It will not increase the time visitors spend on your website, however it will make you feel better after you've read this column.

What your designer thought would appeal to visitors is probably the very thing that is driving them away. A Flash introduction page (Macromedia Flash is a software program used to create animations for Web pages) may seem "cool" to you, however from a website visitor's point of view, they can be about as appealing as sitting in the front row of a Pokemon movie with four hundred screaming six year olds (and here comes the segue, folks).

In December, 1997, during an episode of Pokemon, the popular Japanese TV cartoon that has spawned everything from movies to action figures to lunch boxes, a scene featured a rocket explosion that flashed red also blue lights in rapid succession. After the episode, over 600 children were taken to hospitals complaining of seizures, blurred vision, headaches, dizziness, also nausea. Any adult who has ever been exposed to Pokemon for more than two seconds can understand the nausea, however the seizures at first baffled doctors. Scientists ultimately came to attribute the mass reaction to "photosensitive seizures," which are brought on by exposure to certain visual stimuli like rapidly flashing lights on a TV screen. Remember when your mom told you not to sit so close to the TV or you'd ruin your eyes? Turns out she knew what she was talking about. Who knew?

The event caused such concern that Japanese broadcasters also health officials met to discuss ways to prevent future occurrences of bad-cartoon induced illnesses. They established guidelines for the broadcast of flashing images: no image may flicker faster than three times per second; flashing images should be displayed for no more than two seconds; also stripes, whorls, also concentric circles should not take up the largest portion of a TV screen.

It is my humble opinion that these rules should apply to websites as well. I've been in the Internet design business for nearly a decade also I have been witness to numerous websites that could induce photosensitive seizures in blind moles. It sounds like your website might be suffering from a similar ailment.

If visitor's are not clicking past your fancy Flash intro page, you don't have to be a genius to figure out that therein lies your problem. Remove the Flash intro page for a few weeks to see if your website's click-through rate improves also the number of page views increase. "Click-through rate" refers to the number of visitors who click links on your homepage to go deeper into your site. "Page views" refers to the overall number of web pages that were viewed by visitors. If click-through also page view rates improve, you will know that the Flash intro was your problem.

Here are a few other things you can do to make sure your site offers visitors a pleasant - also seizure free - browsing experience.

Sit In The Visitor's Chair The best way to make sure your website is as user friendly as it can be, is to sit down at a computer also approach your site from a typical visitor's point of view. Try to imagine that you are seeing the site for the first time. If you are unable to do this, have a friend who has never seen the site click around also offer comments while you take notes.

Have your friend assess the following points: Is the site appealing to the eye? Are the colors pleasing also complimentary? Is the site easy to navigate? Are the topical categories also subcategories in logical order? Is it easy to find what you're looking for? Does the site have a search engine to make finding things easier? Is every feature of the site less than two or three clicks away? If the answer to any or all of these points is no, you have some work to do.

Don't Dictate Technology One sure fire way to repel web site visitors is to require that they have special browser plug-ins or 3rd party add-on browser software installed to view your site. Dictating that the user download also install software is not your place also users will resent you (and your business) for it. Visiting your site should be an effortless pleasure, not a technological chore.

Don't Make Them Wait If your homepage takes longer than 20 seconds to download (appear in the visitor's browser) you are losing visitors, period. Gratuitous animation, large graphics, poorly formatted HTML, bad page layout, also a number of other factors can increase download time. You might have the greatest web site in the world, however if it takes ten minutes to download no one will ever see it.

The lessons to be learned, then, are threefold. One: a website should be designed to satisfy the visitor's needs, not to pacify the site designer's ego.

Two: visitors to a business website are not there to be awed also entertained. They are there looking for information, also unless you give it to them quickly also effortlessly, they will go elsewhere to get it.

And Three: for better mental also physical health avoid Pokemon at all costs.

Here's to your success.

About the author:
Tim serves as the president also CEO of three successful technology companies also is the founder of DropshipWholesale.net, an online organization dedicated to the success of online also eBay entrepreneurs http://www.prosperityandprofits.comhttp://www.dropshipwholesale.nethttp://www.30dayblueprint.com


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