Attention Grabbing Web Design Will Kill Your Sale!
by: Per Strandberg

In the of-line marketing world it is all about trying to get the attention of the potential consumer to a commercial message.

The primary goal is to get noticed by the public.
It doesn't matter if it is for radio, TV, magazines, newspapers or posters.
It all comes down to getting noticed.
On the Web this doesn't work!
The reason for this is that on the web, the net surfer is actively searching and looking for information from this gigantic data repository and database that we call the Internet.

They are scanning and reading text on web sites and they are mostly blind to graphics and pictures.
In the of-line world the potential target is mostly passive and experience ads in a state of relaxation among other stimulations. Here you must scream out your message to market your product or service.
Off-line people are passive!
On the Web people are active!
What does this mean for your web site?
For one thing, when anyone visits your web site, you at that moment already have their full attention. So, there is no need to get visual attention to attract your visitors.
They are on your site, already!
But, you normally have their full attention only until they have decided if your site is what they are looking for or not.

If your site is not what they are looking for or they don't understand that your site is what they are looking for they quickly leave your site, never to return.
The time between they arrive at your site and decide to stay or leave is very short.
Normally around 10 seconds!
If you use flash or large graphics, which take to long to load, most people leave without figuring out what your site is about. The attention span on the Net is short!
The web surfers don't look at graphic so much as they are reading the information you present.
When they arrive you need to keep their attention and inform them about what your site is all about and describe its benefits.

You need to keep their attention, but not by an attention grabbing web design!
Instead, use attention grabbing text!
The most important attention grabbing text is the headline!
The headline will break it or make it!
Does this mean that the web design can look sloppy or amateurish?
No!
It just means that the design of a site should not be made with extensive graphics or flash presentation. This will just confuse and take to long time to download.
If you make a clean and easy navigational web site you are much better off!
Yet, what one see on the Internet is to often sites with advanced web design that to often leave you asking what its all about and what its creators are thinking!
If website owners and webmasters concentrated much more of their effort on text information and less on design they would see much better response from their potential customers.
There is no need to hire a web designer and pay them several 1000 of dollars to make a site attractive and to make it commercially viable.
In most cases this is contra-productive.
The web designer often will kill your sale by creating attention grabbing web design.
Instead, put your effort on the text information on your site!

About The Author
Per Strandberg is a software designer and web site maker! He has a web site which offer data backup information at http://www.data-backup-and-storage.com. Visit his site with web traffic generating tips at http://www.catch-traffic.com

Back to Web Development Articles 1