Jakob Nielsen, the web usability expert’s latest report into online habits has been featured in an article by the BBC.
In the article he’s quoted as saying that users are getting more “ruthless and selfish” when they go online. 75% of tasks are successfully carried out these days, compared with just 60% way back in 1999, because consumers are more likely to know exactly what they want. Websites are getting navigationally better, but users are not spending as much time on pages as they used to, because they’re better at navigating the internet.
Following on from my post last week on Visitor Loyalty, this news adds a new dimension to engagement which we need to think about – that of quality. Are folks spending too much time on a page because they can’t find where or how to move on through the site to get where they want to go? Are they spending quality time on a site?
Another report on Jakob’s site mentions, “On the average Web page, users have time to read at most 28% of the words during an average visit; 20% is more likely.” Too much text on a page can be a “turn off”! If users can only read 20% of what you’ve written, try and make sure the most important 20% is at the start. Check out visitor length reports for your pages. If the average time on page is a lot less than the time it takes you to read the content, maybe there’s too much of it.
The BBC’s piece goes on to say: “In 2004, about 40% of people visited a homepage and then drilled down to where they wanted to go and 60% use a deep link that took them directly to a page or destination inside a site. In 2008, said Dr Nielsen, only 25% of people travel via a homepage. The rest search and get straight there.”
This says a great deal about the advances of search engines to find and index the content, but also shows webmasters have been working hard to optimize product pages so they can operate alone, engaging consumers and helping them succeed in answering the questions they’ve asked through searching.
Assuming I’ve not written too much today, and you've read to this point, I’d like to ask you a question:
Are there any areas of adCenter Analytics you’d like us to blog about?
Our product team is ready and waiting to answer any questions, so let us know if there are any specific reports or functionality you’d like us to cover by posting a comment below!