The Value of Your Site’s First Impression
Awesome Content: Set Up For Online Success
In a recent article entitled 5 Irrefutable Qualities of Successful Blogs, I emphasized that the design of a blog or website is perhaps its most important factor in drawing in potential readers. People tend to be drawn in or turned away by their first impressions of a website.
Let me share with you a brief quote from that article that makes this point:
The problem is that every visitor that hits a less-than-amazing blog ends up leaving before even looking at the first post titles. Visitors never even make it far enough to see the ‘amazing’ content that the blogger has put together. First impressions are, after all, lasting impressions.
A Case Study in First Impressions
Let me give you a specific example that demonstrates this principle perfectly. In another article last week I recommended that my readers should read and follow a leading blog in the blogging tips niche. The author there produces a lot of useful advice for creating more successful blogs and he currently has over 25,000 RSS subscribers.
In the comments section of the article where I praised that blog, one of my readers left me this comment:
I find that blog to be proof of the importance of design. It looks boring. I’ve seen it recommended a few times and I’ve never bothered to even read the first title, because of it’s appearance.
His comments are very insightful. In fact, he’s hit the nail right on the head. He and many other users have found that blog and have simply passed it over not even looking at the first title because the design was not appealing.
That blog has 25,000 followers. Imagine how many they would have if they were making a strong first impression!
First Impressions are Lasting Impressions
When a user stumbles upon your site it only requires a few seconds for them to decide if it is worth digging into your material or not. If your site isn’t making a powerful first impression then you can probably rest assured that you’re losing potential readers and subscribers every day.
There are two ways to increase the number of visits to your site each day. First is to get out and attract as many people as you can through advertising, dropping links and telling your friends about your site. The second is to have such a great site that a large percentage of your visitors decide to return day after day.
If you only focus on attracting users and not on keeping them, then you are wasting a lot of energy. What’s the purpose of getting people to view your website if they immediately click away because they aren’t interested in your presentation? The answer is simple. There is no purpose to that.
The blog I mentioned above accomplished nothing by having my reader visit their site and they failed in their attempt to connect with another reader. Don’t make that same mistake on your site.
Practical Guidelines to Control that First Impression
There are two keys in this art that can give you an amazing edge over your fellow bloggers. The first key is somewhat easy for most people and I’ll discuss it briefly below but the second one is very difficult and I’m going to devote tomorrow’s post to explaining it.
In 5 Irrefutable Qualities of Successful Blogs I gave this advice which really sums up this very important point:
Search some of the popular template clubs that are available like Elegant Themes and Theme Forest. Google search for unique themes. Stand on the corner of the street and shout if you have to but find a beautiful template for your blog.
Take your time and carefully browse through many themes before you settle on the one that is right for you. Remember that first impressions are lasting impressions so it’s incredibly important to find something that really stands out.
If you are blogging for profit like many bloggers then you should be willing to spend a few dollars to secure an above average layout for your blog. At Elegant Themes and Theme Forest you can secure some pretty amazing templates for between 20 and 75 dollars.
Group Discussion: What do you think about first impressions? What sites can you think of that provided you with a great first impression? Which ones were lousy? How do you think you can improve on your site to make it more appealing?
Eric B. said:
Greate post! First impressions are always important
Matt Longley said:
You are definitely right about needing to make a good impression on your visitors. Whenever I show people my site, the first thing they say is, “your site looks nice”, they never say, you have cool services or you have awesome content.
Also, I have done a lot of testing and have seen tons of heat maps (site overlays that show areas that people view on websites). After looking at those it is interesting how many people leave a site without ever scrolling down or clicking on any links. For most sites 80% of the visitors never get past the top viewable part of the website. So having a first great impression is very important.
It is good to check how people interact with your website. You can do this by using tools like
Google Analytics: Use this tool to determine your bounce rate. Bounce rate is determined by the amount of people that actually click through to something on your site after they come to a page. You can also look at many other stats that would show you if people are having browser problems. If you have a high bounce rate and it is mostly among firefox users, you may have an issue when using firefox and should check how your site looks in that browser. You can also check your sites overlay using google analytics to see what links people are clicking on.
Crazyegg: crazy egg is a service that shows heatmaps and click analytics. You can easily see where people are clicking on your site using this service.
Clicktale: this service shows heatmaps of how people scroll on your site, and also records visitor sessions on your site. So with this service you can actually watch recordings of what people are doing.
One thing that I find fascinating is to combine these tools with testing tools, such as google website optimizer. So this way you can see the pages that have high bounce rate and need improvement. Then you can use heatmaps and click tracking to see the areas that people arent reading or clicking on. Then you can run tests using google website optimizer to try to improve these troubled areas by presenting different variations to different visitors.
hope these tips help, and thanks again for the awesome post nick!
Typhoon said:
Yes, I also do think that First Impression is the Last impression because if a new visitor is not convinced by your blog on the 1st visit then he might not visit again.
Stefan said:
You have a great point and this is actually why I decided to add your site in my RSS reader. I’ve clicked away from several sites simple because they doesn’t look like a serious blogger or because it’s to much of a hard work to be able to read their posts.
Finding a great design is one of the most important things when you build your site and if you have the money, I encourage people to maybe hire a graphic designer.
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Stefan » Thanks! I’m glad that you subscribed and I’m always excited when you stop and leave your thoughts here. I guess I’m glad then that I got a great template or else I would have never seen you again! You hit the nail on the head when you mentioned that it makes the blogger look less serious. Cluttered or ugly blogs can make people look very unprofessional.
Bruce » What do you mean, Bruce? How do you know that’s you? LOL. I could be talking about some other blog and some other reader. Well I’m not. But I could be! LOL.
Typhoon » You’re right. You’ve only got seconds to capture their interest or you’ve lost them…probably forever.
Irinel » You’re right that you shouldn’t judge a book by a cover but people do. Because of that we had better put a good cover on our books so that the people who do judge that way will open the book and look inside.
I have to run, but I’ll answer the rest of the comments when I get back.
Stefan said:
Well, since you keep delivering such great content I’m sure I would have found you again sooner or later.
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Stefan –>
Thanks, Stefan. Hopefully more people will find me sooner or later also!
Bruce said:
I obviously think that was a great post. I was quoted in it. I too wonder how many more readers Daily Blog Tips would have if they worked on their first impression. Somebody should send him this link.
Irinel said:
Great post, as always!
But it’s a saying: “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover”.
But you are very right!
Arisu said:
I think that even if you can´t afford a custom template , looking for one that really matches your site is very important.
And presentation is more than just a fancy template. It has to had order and not too many things goingo on. Images to give an extra impact and show what´s the article about, or give the public something else to think about. Just those little details can make the difference between a second glance and closing the window.
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Arisu » I completely agree. I wanted Site Sketch to be about sketching or creating blogs and websites so I tried really hard to locate a theme that supported the word sketch. I wanted it to look good and to reinforce the overall direction of the site. Your theme definitely needs to match your site.
Hua Chen » I’ll look into what I can do to translate the blog into Chinese for you using that service. Thanks for letting me know that there is a demand for it. We’ll get it up soon!
Hua Chen said:
A very attractive title, but if you add a Google translator in your blog will be better. Therefor I can read your entry in Chinese.
And your blog is very good, I will come often! Both know knowledge and learn English.
Daniel Groves [HiddenCSS] said:
First Impressions, this is probably a perfect link to visit your website with for the first time ever. This is actually quite an inspiring article, expect a trackback within a few hours.
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Daniel Groves [HiddenCSS] » Thanks for the trackback. I just read your post at Hidden CSS and I applaud you. Once a blogger begins to look at their own work critically and work, I mean really work, to improve it and make their readers experience better then they are on the road toward success. You, my friend, are on that road! I’m going to be visiting your blog again in the near future as I am very interested in seeing your redesign that you are working on.
Tom Kenny » You’re right about user testing. People too often tend to disregard people’s input but when users let you know what is good and what is bad then you are able to find the elements that need improved. User testing is essential. In fact, I plan on talking about that more in the very near future.
Arisu » Thanks for that. I modify the color and brightness of every photo in Adobe Photoshop. I search Google images, Flickr, Yahoo and others and I don’t settle on an image until I find one that I think can really capture the essence of the post. Of course, some of them end up being duds but with the amount of effort that I put into each one I can be very confident that they will add to the overall beauty of the site.
Doug Dillard » Thanks. I’m glad that you’ll be back. I actually think that I’ve seen you around at a few other blogs that I frequent. I’m glad that you found me here and I look forward to interacting with you more in the future!
Tom Kenny said:
Great post and is certainly something that designers tend to overlook. User testing will go along way to improving first impressions.
Arisu said:
Nicholas>>
Yes, this blog is a terrific example of a blog/theme match made in heaven. I also like the images in every post very much, always very ad-hoc to the post and the whole blog.
Doug Dillard said:
Great post to read on my first time here Nicholas. Extremely well written and a just a great post.
Well my first impression of your blog is “BRILLIANT”. I love the overall look and from reading the first post I will be back quite often.
Keep up the great work!
Hua Chen said:
Thank you for your reply.
You are very kindhearted. Thanks.
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Hua Chen » Thanks for that. I believe that connecting with your readers on a personal basis is one of the great keys to creating a successful blog and one of the great benefits from having a successful blog. I love being able to connect with people on here and I hope that you do also!
P.S. I added the Google translator to the very bottom of each page like you requested with Chinese included just for you. Try it out for me and let me know if it works for you.
Hua Chen said:
Nicholas Z. Cardot » I’m also glad to do so.^_^ And I guess you must very busy communicate with your readers from you set up your blog.
You are so much efficient, in this short time you had already set up the translate link in your blog and it don’t broken the blog design. Unimageable!
P.S. It works very well, thanks! And my real Chinese name is 华晨, and Hua Chen is the Pinyin of my name, their pronunciation are almost the same. And Hua(华) is my last name and Chen(晨) is my first name, we Chinese put our last name first, do you know?
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Hua Chen » It certainly does keep me busy trying to reply to every comment, but that is one of the things that I love about this site. I love being able to personally communicate with as many people as I can. I’m glad that the Chinese translation works for you and I did not know about the first and last name being switched around in Chinese. You’ve taught me something new!
Jeff B. » You’re site definitely looks great. Good work on that. If you don’t take the time to make it look good then people won’t take the time to look at your content.
Jeff B. said:
As stated, great designs aren’t only beneficial to blogs, but to any website for that matter.
When setting up the website for my employer (with some excellent help from a friend), I didn’t just pick any old theme, or solely stick with ones that went with the content. The theme had to be top notch.
From the feedback I have received over the last year, friends and family have only praised the design of the website, and has been picked up by google searchers in our area!
Corinne Rodrigues said:
Great post – as are all of yours! Nicholas would you do me a big favor and visit my blog and give me your first impressions -would mean a lot.
Thanks and regards
Corinne
George Serradinho said:
I thought you were talking about ‘Daily Blog Tips’ as I find their posts very informative, but the design is not up to the same level as the posts.
I guess we have all been to a site and had a bad first impression and maybe gone back at a later stage and it looking much better.
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
George Serradinho >> Yeah. I hate to talk bad about the site there because it really is a great blog. But you sum it up well when you say that the design does not measure up to the same level as the posts.
Tycoon Blogger said:
Great post and I agree 100%. Let’s face it, we all make quick impressions and whether it is right or not, most people do judge a book (blog) by its cover. You can have great content but if your design is a mess or you have the same theme as hundreds of other blogs some people may not even take the time to read your stuff. I think you are hitting on both, your theme rocks and your content is outstanding. Keep it up!!
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Tycoon Blogger » People might say that we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but you are right. They still do it. Most people won’t look any further into a site that looks unprofessional than what they see on the first glance. Thanks a lot for the site praise. I really appreciate. I only hope that it’s a help to you and others!
Mukund said:
Yes! I accept with that! As far as I know, it is the site design that attracts a lot more visitors than the content in it. Once you setup a nice theme, then you should concentrate on your content. That is the right way to success. This is something that I learnt from my personal experiences.
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Mukund –> Exactly. Without a great design people won’t even see your content. Without great content, it won’t even matter what the site looks like. Success really demands both great content and great design.
Mukund said:
Exactly Nicholas! At the same time, I would like to bring to your notice that your site’s right sidebar contents are not visible when viewed in IE. I use an older version of IE and I came to know that your site looks different in IE when compared to Mozilla Fire Fox.
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Mukund –> Are you using Windows, Mac OS, Linux or something else?
Mukund said:
I am using Windows Nicholas! Your site is perfect when viewd in Mozilla Firefox but when I view it in IE, the right side bar contents are displayed below. Hope you understand what I say.
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Mukund –> Is it IE version 6? Or is it a newer version of IE?
Mukund said:
I use IE6. I think there is a problem with the search bar because only that widget looks improper when viewed in IE. Try to ask some of your friends to view your blog through IE and see if they find the same problem. I think that will solve this mystery.
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Mukund –> That’s why. I don’t code any of my sites for IE6. It’s too much hassle. In fact, most people don’t any more. You should consider upgrading to IE7 or IE8 and you won’t have those issues any more.
Sat Chen said:
Most people don’t code for IE6 anymore. So upgrade to IE7 or IE8. I don’t even use Internet Explorer anymore as firefox and chrome are way better.
Mukund said:
Yes Nicholas! I use Firefox to view your site and I have no problem with that. I just wanted to convey that your site is different when viewed in IE6.
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Mukund –> Thanks for letting me know. It’s just too difficult to code sites with modern web standards and try to make it look nice in a browser that is so old.
Mukund said:
You are right! It is too difficult to code a beautiful blog for earlier versions but it is always better that you play safe. Make sure your code works fine with all browers. Hope you get me
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Mukund –> The problem with that is that by coding for IE6 you are limiting yourself from using some very neat features that are being included in modern versions of html. You have to sacrifice the quality of your user’s experience in order to satisfy a few people who are several years behind on downloading a free piece of technology. A site like this one caters to people who want to make their websites and blogs to be top-notch and state-of-the-art. I feel bad saying this, but users with Internet Explorer 6 are not going to be creating those types of sites. By that logic, I am not targeting the audience of people that use IE6.
ZXT said:
I agree, first impressions last. Just like in real life. If you met someone personally and the person is a lousy dresser then you might think he/she is not an interesting person and can be boring.
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
ZXT –> That’s especially true if you are trying to make a professional impression. People who want to look professional need to make a great first impression.
Ron Boracay said:
I think what really matters most that contribute to that “good first impression” effect is the loading time of the site.
Some internet users doesn’t have that fast internet connection or browsing capability.
So I think, this should go first on the list.
Just my humble opinion.
Mukund said:
I would like to add one more point that will impress your readers. It is always important that your site loads faster. It is highly recommened that your site loads within 15 seconds other wise, the reader will lose his interest. So, ensure you have a better load time.
I found that sitesketch101 loads at 9.875 seconds. You may check yours here: http://www.numion.com/Stopwatch/
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Mukund –> Nice. Thanks for checking that for me and that is definitely a good piece of advice.
Mukund said:
You are always welcome Nicholas! I love your site and love to help it grow too!!
Ron Boracay said:
Almost the same point I have in my comment above yours.
Loading time is what matters most. Viewers don’t want to wait 30 seconds waiting, they will jump to another site if your site takes too long to load.
Mukund said:
Hehe!! You are right! I never read your comment! Sorry about that! Any way, I put up a link to measure the load time. So, that will be helpuful to others!!
akira07 said:
But i think 15second maximal is also not too good. With nowadays internet standart speed access, i think waiting for 15second is also annoying. So, i think 10second is a max, the exception is come from site with flash image.
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
akira07 –> I don’t think you should make an exception for flash. Flash turns a lot of people away from sites. Especially ones that take a long time to load.
Ron Boracay said:
But still, some flash based sites captures some readers or audiences.
I think, maybe, how well you created or how you just deliver those flash intro of your site will come in place.
Arisu said:
Akira>> Waiting 15 seconds for a good page ain´t that much, specially when you have more things to do while working at the computer.
And I can wait even more if the “loading” page is a fun one ^^
akira07 said:
Ok, before reading this article, i’m a person which think that template/theme is not an important thing. I’m always comment in other blog, content is a king, not a theme. And after reading this article, make me should thinking more deep about the importance of using good theme. And i’m agree, if the theme is look cool BUT not slowly opened, the 1st impression will be good.
My conclusion :
Theme is important in making good 1st impression IF ONLY it’s loaded fast.
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
akira07 –> That’s true. It is very important and too often people underestimate the importance of their site’s appearance.
Mukund said:
Perfect conclusion!! You are absolutely right! A good design with a fast loading time, with great content will impress your readers(just like sitesketch). Lol!!
akira07 said:
@mukund
No doubt mukund, your word is true about sitesketch. This blog load so fast and make me happy to read and commenting here.
My 1st impression of this blog can be created on 2 word : Simple and Cool
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
akira07 –> I’m glad to hear those two words. Thank you!
Mukund said:
Yeah!! Accept with you!! I would like to add one more word with that!! Simple, Cool and Informative!!
Kok Siong Chen said:
Yes! First impression is really important. Frankly, sitesketch101.com really gave me a good impression. This site make me feel that the owner of the site really serious for developing this site.
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Jeffrey said:
Site Sketch always has the article I am looking for in order to answer my questions. Thank you so much for the quality of your articles.
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Vinish Parikh said:
First impression is always important whether it relates to an individual or website.
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