Why Online First Impressions Count

We make snap judgments when we first meet someone. We make snap judgments when we see a movie trailer. We make snap judgments when we first come to a website. Whether we know we are making these snap judgments or not, they happen instantly and in the part of our brain that is called the adaptive unconscious.

Two seconds is all it takes to jump to conclusions.

Only 2 seconds.

Why is this important to you, to your website, to your blog and to your online presence?

Your online presence of your blog or website is being judged by people who don't know you in the first 2 seconds. This often determines if people stay or leave. It is not something you should be afraid of; it is information that is extremely valuable.

I often see great content being written by other bloggers but the design and the presentation is lacking. I would assume that most people don't even get to read the content.

In the book Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking Malcolm Gladwell explores the idea behind the snap judgments we all make. It takes 2 seconds to know and jump to conclusions, whether we know it or not. Malcolm Gladwell talks about a study performed with college students where they were shown 2-second video clips of 3 professors with no sound. Then they were asked to evaluate of how much they thought the professors were effective teachers. They then compared the notes with the students who took the class for the entire semester with the same professors and the notes between the students who took the quick snap judgment in 2 seconds and the students who took the entire semester with those same professors were almost identical.

We have this powerful inner judgment system in our minds called adaptive unconscious where we intuitively know if something is good or bad, if someone is trustworthy or not.

Thus it brings me to website design. You probably already made quick snap judgment about this site. Whether it is the color, the layout, and the navigation or banner design, you already made conclusions in your own mind whether you stick around this site or not.

You shouldn't say that if you build it they would come. Maybe. Maybe not.

If your content is engaging and valuable to your readers, eventually the word will spread. But why not position yourself in the best possible way right now so your readers see you right now.

3 Ways to Capture Your Reader's Attention

1. Great, clean and simple design

Keep your design, your navigation and your color scheme simple. Don't add or distract your readers with sidebar widgets. Don't add banner ads that flash and distract the reader's eye. Use simple colors and guide the eye to the most important aspect of your blog.

Your content.

Highlight the important aspects of your blog such as free ebook or report but it should not distract the reader from the reason they are there, your content. Content is why the reader is on your page, but simplicity of navigation and design is what gets them there. If just don't know what to do, keep it simple. Simplicity is the key.

2. Benefit and value driven headline

Headlines should be engaging the reader to click on the link to read them. If it doesn't captivate and interest someone to click on your blog post headline, rethink how you name your blog topics.

3. Engaging and valuable content

Content is the reason people will stay and come back to your website/blog. Content has to be not only valuable but it needs to engage the reader and solve their problem.