The Things that Make us Think in Website Design

One of the best known laws of marketing (including web marketing), is that people aren’t interested in you (despite the fact they clicked on your website) … they’re interested in what you can do for THEM.

Another of the most important rules of owning a website is that if you make people think, they will avoid coming back to you. “Argh, my prefrontal cortex!”, they’ll subconsciously scream . And in a jiffy, there goes all of the link building, content optimizing SEO effort you’ve put in to get your site to number one in Google in order to get clicks.

Riddip - I didn't want to think!

So, today we are looking at the common website design mistakes that make people think too much, and how you can get around … thereby staying focused on the REAL goal of your internet marketing, which is not to get visitors, but to use visitors to make money.

Thought-Inducer 1: Obscure Titles

When you design your website, use words that aim at the lowest common denominator. Try to let go of the urge to ‘corporatise’ your language. So:

• If you have a page full of jobs, put the word ‘Jobs’ on the button, not ‘Employment Opportunities’
• If you are selling movies on a page, use the word ‘Movies’ on the linking button or navigation, not ‘Digital Video Discs’

You get the idea! There is an example for every industry. Don’t be afraid of sounding  ‘dumb’ – remember, people don’t care about you and your vocabulary, they care about themselves!

Thought Inducer 2: Link appearance

You need to make it obvious where you want a person to click on your page. The easiest way to call attention to a link is by using a coloured, beveled, shadowed button. Using a simple coloured square makes it look like a graphic, and using text devalues the importance of the link. Worst of all is not changing the color of your links from the ordinary text color … waaaay too much work!

Thought Inducer 3: Marketing jargon in links

Some common examples of this understandable (but deadly!) usability mistake include:

• ‘Quick Search’ instead of ‘Search’
• ‘Product Types’ instead of ‘Categories’
• ‘Assistance’ instead of ‘Help’

Use the same words everybody else does for standard pages – trying to set yourself apart here often drives your visitors away, and wastes all of those web marketing dollars!.