Got Five Seconds to Ramp Up Your Sales? By Jenn Blanchard | Posted April 27th, 2008
So you’ve found a niche and a blockbuster product for it, written your salescopy, and built your website…
… Now you’re ready to start counting your money, right?
Not so fast!
Before you do anything else, do this quick five-second test to make sure your site is EASY to use!
Just how important IS website usability?
For an e-commerce site, it’s CRUCIAL. If people can’t follow your navigation scheme, they won’t be able to find your products…
… And if they can’t find your products, how can they BUY them?
In fact, according to market research from the Gartner Group, more than 50% of web sales are LOST because visitors can’t find what they’re looking for!
With results like these, I firmly believe EVERYONE should test their sites for usability.
And with the five-second test I’m about to show you, you can find out key information very quickly: Your visitors’ first impressions
Major roadblocks in your site navigation
How well your web page communicates its MOST important content.
Don’t think five seconds is long enough to learn anything useful?
Well, that’s roughly how long the majority of web surfers spend deciding if YOUR site has what they’re looking for! (The maximum is 10 seconds.)
Here’s what you do…
The Five-Second Usability Test
Step 1: Find several people who fit your target market and ask them to be your focus group.
Step 2: Give your users a focused goal. Let’s say you sell computer software tutorials. The goal you give them might be something like, “Find tutorials relevant to your skills and interests.”
Step 3: Display your homepage for five seconds, then ask your focus group to try to remember everything they see.
Step 4: Once you’ve removed the page, ask your test subjects to write down everything they remember about the page.
Step 5: Ask two relevant questions to see whether your page allowed them to find what they were looking for.
For example, “What kind of tutorials does my site offer?” or “Did you spot a tutorial that fits your current skill level?”
If any of your subjects AREN’T able to recall the most important elements on your page, make adjustments to your layout… then re-test.
That’s it!
(Still in the planning stages of building your site? All the better to find out valuable info BEFORE you invest time and money in it…
… Just do the test using a sketch of your homepage.)
I’d love to hear the results of YOUR Five-Second test when you’re done.
Did you: Learn anything new?
Get unexpected results?
Wish you’d skipped the whole experience?
Comments (75 Comment)
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