I teach my students at Web Video University a very specific way to design and layout their web sites. This is done to ensure that the maximum number of visitors turn into customers.
The techniques I teach aren’t based on theory or opinion. Rather, they are based on my years of experience in direct response graphic design…and…in operating dozens and dozens of web sites.
And while these techniques will convert the maximum number of visitors into customers, they don’t always produce the best looking web sites. Which is why a fair number of people are hesitant to use them.
Well, Eyetrack III has released a new study that may make these people reconsider. By the way, I found this study through ProBlogger, who found it through Direct Creative Blog. So props to them.
While the study results don’t surprise me (as they confirm classic direct response tactics), they do illustrate in a statistical sense where people’s eyes go and what they do once they land on your site.
Here are a few highlights from the report:
- Dominant headlines draw the eyes first on a page
- Headlines capture the eye for about a second, so you better make your words count
- Shorter paragraphs, broken up frequently, perform better than long paragraphs
- Text advertising holds attention almost 5 times longer than image advertising
- One-column web sites perform better than multiple-column sites
- Text should deliver facts and images should illustrate concepts
There’s actually much more than this to the report and it’s an interesting read. To see the full text of the report, just click here.