Eleven (11) questions under 30 seconds : will your website pass the visitor-engagement test?

Increase the time spent by web visitors on your site and get more conversions using these eleven (11) questions that all visitors ask themselves as they interact with your website, starting with your home page!

 

From the outset, let’s be clear: visitors instinctively ask themselves these 11 questions as they interact with your site.

Also keep in mind that whenever a visitor answers “no” to any of these questions, he or she may leave your site immediately. In addition, and not to be neglected, the length of visits to a site is one of the criteria for ranking by search engines, including Google.

Work with these questions to help you:

• manage the development of a new site;
• or to improve your existing site.

 

Questions 1-2-3: Engage your visitors with a strong first impression

As soon as a visitor arrives at your site, he immediately asks himself these three questions, all at once so as to decide whether or not he should visit your site.

He does this in a second or two.

That fast!

 

1- “Does this site relate to what I am looking for?”

From the moment web visitors arrive on your home page, they ask themselves “Should I visit, or not, this site to find what I’m looking for?”

It is therefore necessary to ensure that all content on this homepage rapidly lets the visitors know that they are in the right place. Hence the use of photos, eye-catching visuals, headlines, videos and / or texts that clearly show visitors that you are offering the types of services or products they are looking for.

As has often been said, the homepage showcases the website’s content

 

2- “Do I like the look or aesthetics of this site?”

At first glance, your visitors will either love the look of your site, not like it or be indifferent.

It is a known fact that the aesthetics of a site plays a leading role in visitor retention; and by aesthetics we mean graphic design. This includes the choice of colors, the layout of the content (visuals and texts) including the typography, all the while respecting the your brand’s visual identity.

 

3- “Is there a main marketing message that appeals to me?”

This is your core marketing-message – your unique selling proposition – the reasons why it is really worth for your visitors to find out more about what you offer. Typically, this should be in keeping with your brand.

Do note that, compared to others, if your messaging is wrong or weak you will lose visitors.

 

Questions 4-5-6: the value of a user-friendly website in content and structure

Indeed, all that was accomplished by a good first impression are visitors that now think your site deserves at least two or three more seconds of their time. 

So this is where the next three questions come into play.

They are about a website’s technical structure and content presentation in order to make the user’s experience enjoyable.

4- “Will I be able to easily surf this site?”

If your site is complicated or takes time to surf, then your visitors will quickly put a stop to their visit. The ease of navigation is influenced by certain technical factors such as the adaptability of the design of the site to the visitor’s device (computer, tablet or smart phone); the site map structure; the loading time of the site pages etc..

 

5- “Will I quickly find the information I need?”

The visitors finally start their interaction with the content of your site by browsing your menus to quickly find what they are looking for.

Here, the rule of the 3 clicks always applies: if a visitor does not find what he’s looking for in at least 3 clicks … he’ll skip to another website!

Thus the importance of strategically developing the site plan and particularly the names of the sections and subsections of the site: everything to make it easy to surf.

 

6- “Is the information, as presented, clear and interesting?”

Not enough or too much information are both irritating to a web visitors. This also applies to a presentation that is too vague or ambiguous and, for some, to poorly structured or with texts riddled with mistakes.

On this point of the clarity of the presentation, do not hesitate to include diagrams, photos, animations, videos, explanatory illustrations and even, if necessary, a glossary.

The quality of the presentation of the information can affect the visitors’ confidence in the site being visited.

 

Questions 7-8-9-10 : let me assess the value of what you are offering

At this point, your visitors now take the necessary time to begin the evaluation process of what you offer. Essentially they want to make sure your offer really meets their needs.

To do this, they will ask (themselves) the following 4 questions as they move through your information.

 

7- “Does the quality presented (product or service) satisfy what I am looking for?”

Note that the question ends with “… what I am looking for? ” It is therefore the visitor’s metric..

In the first place, this question concerning the quality of what you offer will be partly answered by the quality of the site design, the images and videos presented, the quality of the texts, etc.

But beyond these elements, you must present information to confirm the quality of it all, such as examples of completed projects, case studies, a list of clients, guarantees and certifications; all serve to answer this question about the quality.

 

8- “Can I trust this information and this organization?”

To a large extent this question is answered by the content as detailed in the previous questions, in particular question # 7.

That being said, the question of trust is also answered more specifically with a web section (Profile) that presents the executives and the team members of the company or organization. To this can be added testimonials, links to social networking pages, and even the use of a chat module to answer their most pressing questions rapidly.

Everything to inspire trust.

 

9- “Can I afford to pay for what is offered?”

At this point, your visitors  should be favorably considering the website’s offering. Now they have to assess the costs involved as suits their budget limitations.

This assessment is done fairly quickly in cases where sites display prices for their products and services; but in other cases, the visitors can re-evaluate the content of the site to get a sense and see if his budget would be sufficient for the product or service offered on the site.

 

10- “Will it be easy for me to avail myself of what is offered?”

In other words, “Do I have to travel somewhere?”, ” Is it far? “,” Is the product delivered “,  “Is it complicated to order? “, etc.
These questions all relate to the ease for the visitors to obtain what you are offering.

Simply put, if traveling is involved then the site must list out the places where the product or service are available and have Google maps to hand; If request for delivery is the action, then the site should easily allow them to place that order.

All of this information needs to be quickly accessible on the site.

 

The last question, if all is right at this point…

A visitor who has moved through the previous ten questions by answering yes will come to this last question:

11- “Am I ready and willing to take action?”

This is where the many types of calls to action come into play, depending on your field of activity or the types of services or products offered: from the invitation to call, to chat or to complete an online form, not to mention free trial offerings, contests, time-sensitive discounts and all other such tactics.

The important thing is to make sure that there is no ambiguity and that the visitor knows exactly what to do and can do it without having to search. Because many visitors leave at this stage, especially if the proposed call to action does not satisfy them.

 

Eleven questions: use them to develop and to improve

Any website that has been developed or reworked to best answer these 11 questions will achieve highly improved results in terms of sustained interaction, followed by quality conversions.

Conversely, if a site does not give the expected return, despite a good amount of visitor traffic, then these eleven questions can be used in conjunction with visitor statistics and behavior (re: Google Analytics) to make a diagnosis so as to improve the structure and/or content of the site.

 

---

And do you have any questions? … Any comments?

Contact us to discuss how we can help you!

Call us, send us an email or fill in our contact form.