Yesterday, I wrote about the nearly, but not quite instruction - where the opportunity for a deal was there, the potential customer wanted to buy, but you failed to answer their objections and concerns well enough to close the sale.
One of the sales hurdles was too high for them to jump.
Google recently announced that they were going to start using the speed of your website as a minor factor in calculating your search engine ranking. It's a logical step. Slow websites are another one of those high hurdles - visitors try to use your site, get bored and disappear in search of an easier answer.
To make the sale, you have to make it easy.
A few years ago, Steve Krug (a respected usability and design guru) wrote a book called Don't Make Me Think! It's the perfect summary of how to design a good website. Don't make your visitors have to search for what they're looking for - make it obvious for them.
People don't really read websites, at least not initially. They scan them. We already know the problems estate agents solve - make the solutions jump out and the hurdles get smaller!
I read Steve's book and I have to say I felt it was a bit like reading Pyschology books at University.......you read it and think "well that's obvious" and then you realise that though it is obvious you're not actually doing that suggestion presently.
Really good read and well worth purchasing.
James
They're the no brainers!
Martin