Statistics show that visitors on a website will give it a “once over” for about 5 seconds to determine
- If they can easily navigate your site
- If the information they are looking for is on the page / relevant content
FIVE SECONDS! That’s it - – - that’s not a lot of time for a making a lot of mental notes. If they are gone without clicking on other links they are a “bounce” and you have a problem.
Think about your real estate Website as a home you are helping the property owners getting ready to have photographed.
- Does the home look cluttered?
- Do you need to take your arm and run it down the shelf to remove all the knick-knacks?
- Are the kitchen counters over accented with cookie jars and roosters?
- Is there more furniture in a room than needed?
If your site is too cluttered, it will be confusing to the visitor and they will leave.
Below are a few tips to optimize your landing page to increase visitor conversion:
- User smaller and fewer graphics
- Use bulleted text list when possible
- Keep the content short – keep away from lengthy paragraphs
- Try not to have the visitor scroll below “one screen height” (meaning, if you have to scroll, your page has too much content)
- Reduce the number of choices and links
Another way to think of the first page of your site is to compare it to a magazine cover – simple images with a little teaser text and it makes you want to open the magazine and read more.
