“Jazz That Dwells in the Present”
“Bluetooth Headsets With a Chic Factor”
“Slow Recovery Seen for Iceland”
Quickly scanning the Wall Street Journal website it occurred to me just why it is so easy to use this website and why it is so successful at converting people from scanning to reading—a significant conversion goal of any news/content oriented website. The reason for this success as that The Journal demonstrates a strong understanding of online eye-tracking and reading behaviors. This is apparent as their headlines act as engaging, truthful, relevant labels to the content that lies within.
Unfortunately many brands don’t practice this basic fundamental of online success and clutter their content with irrelevant, fluffy headlines and labels. Many of them invest a great deal in website redesign and revitalization when simply rethinking the content headlines and labels instead will measurably increase conversions, brand loyalty, and repeat site visits.
To increase online conversions brands must align with usability and messaging best practices. These best practices are derived from observing the behaviors of users performing specific website tasks. Some of my observations that every brand should know and implement in their messaging and labeling strategy includes:
• Get to the point
• Users tend to scan pages in an “F” shape pattern
• Start subheads, paragraphs, and bullet point content with information-carrying words that users will notice when scanning down the left side of your content
• Users will read the third word on a line much less often than the first two words
• Provide confidence and allow users to confidently predict what they’ll get if they click
• Users like numerals because numbers represent facts
• Do not be misleading or promise too much
• On the average Web page, users have time to read less than 28% of the words during an average visit
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