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Maximize Your Site for Effectiveness
September 20, 2007

The number of elements that can be added to a Web site is seemingly reaching critical mass. The term “bells and whistles” gets bandied about when talking about Web sites, but are these elements truly effective? That is, do they engage the user in ways that enhance their experience on your site or do they create clutter at best and frustration with your site at worst?

In The Industry Measure’s Summer 2007 survey of Internet design and development specialists, we asked Web developers which Web site features they felt were the most effective and which were the least effective.

The 10 Web site features that were deemed to be the most effective are:

• PDF (selected by 80% of Web developers and designers surveyed)
• Flash animation (54%)
• e-commerce (52%)
• streaming video (48%)
• link to FTP (48%)
• registration boxes/user log-in (47%)
• streaming audio (42%)
• use of cookies to personalize Web view (36%)
• polls/surveys (36%)
• banner advertising (27%)

The 10 Web site features that were deemed to be the most ineffective are:

• pop-up advertising (selected by 40% of Web developers and designers surveyed)
• cost per click advertising (31%)
• banner advertising (31%)
• polls/surveys (27%)
• licensed content (news, features, photos, wire service) (25%)
• use of cookies to personalize Web view (24%)
• streaming audio (21%)
• link to FTP (20%)
• Flash animation (20%)

Looking at the numbers, things like “banner advertising” are fairly close on both the “effective” and “ineffective” lists, which suggests that those items are close to a tipping point; that is, they are in the process of transitioning from an effective to an ineffective item, which is not unusual. After all, there was a time when pop-up advertising was perceived as being effective, a perception that changed after pop-up blocking applications became a hot-selling software category. (When people actively invest in products to avoid a feature, chances are that feature’s effectiveness is in question.)

One of the results of our survey, however, was that many Web designers and developers selected “don’t know” regarding the effectiveness of these Web features. And, we suspect that few of the folks that actually did answer the question truly knew. Do does this then call into question the validity of the data?

Not necessarily; the fact is, there are few metrics with regard to these kinds of Web features, and it’s not the kind of things that Web developers measure. If anyone will measure them, it will be their clients. Thus, these “effective” features are likely those their clients keep asking for because those clients have found that they work to some extent, either generating greater click-throughs, page views, or direct responses.

The lesson to be drawn from all of this is that when it comes to your Web site and your marketing, question everything. Work with your IT people or your Web developers to track page views, amount of time spent on a site, and so forth. At the same time, visit your own site—and your competitors’ sites—as if you were your own customer and evaluate the user experience.

After all, most marketers are also consumers; an objective visit to your (and other) sites can give you a sense of what would likely frustrate another customer, and what would be considered a rewarding experience:

• Things on your Web site that annoy you probably annoy your customers, too.
• Confusing icons and navigation, and missing links that frustrate you will also probably frustrate your customers.
• Does a Flash animation help or hinder what you are trying to accomplish? Are you likely to click “skip intro”? If so, chances are a site visitor will, too.
• If your polls and surveys are ineffective, try to gauge why they are ineffective (The Industry Measure has no small amount of experience here). After all, developing effective questionnaires is both an art and a science.

And let’s face it, just because some technology or feature is “wicked cool” doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to help in your marketing efforts. Bells and whistles do attract attention, but sometimes they just give people a headache.

Posted by Richard Romano on September 20, 2007 | Comments (0)