7 HABITS of
HIGHLY EFFECTIVE
WEBSITES
Michael Reynolds, SpinWeb | www.spinweb.net

SAY
NO
TO BROCHURE SITES

CUSTOMERS AND
CONSTITUENTS
DEMAND MORE
FROM TODAY’S
WEBSITES

1. Design
2. Content
3. Usability
4. Transactional Tools
5. Cross-platform
6. Social Media Integration
7. Findability

DESIGN MATTERS
“... they make a snap judgement about
a site's overall design and appearance--
within 50 milliseconds, according to a
2006 study published in the journal
Behavior and Information
Technology.” - Entrepreneur Magazine,
July 07, 2009
A research team lead by Dr. Gitte
Lindgaard found that people can make
rough decisions about a Web page's
visual appeal after being exposed to it
for as little as 50 ms, which is 1/20 of
a second. - Jakob Nielsen

“Professional means that the design meets certain standards in its
typography, layout and style. When visitors see a site that skimps
on these standards, it's a short leap to assume the business might
skimp on other things as well--customer privacy, for instance.” -
Entrepreneur Magazine, July 07, 2009

ELEMENTS OF GOOD DESIGN
• Carefully crafted visual elements
• Thoughtful layout
• Proper brand color management

GIVE YOUR WEBSITE VISITORS SOMETHING
FOR THEIR BRAINS
(Like good content)

Content should be:
1.Professionally-written
2.Clear and concise
3.Frequently updated

Don’t bury your visitors in big blocks of text

Writing for the web is not like print.
Website content should be SCANNABLE.
• Subheads
• Bulleted lists
• Highlighted keywords
• Short paragraphs
• The inverted pyramid
• A simple writing style
• De-fluffed language devoid
of marketing-speak

“leverage cross-media channels”
“streamline strategic metrics”
“evolve proactive solutions”
“enhance enterprise e-markets”
“architect e-business services”

Keep content fresh
for both
GOOGLE and
PEOPLE
Consider a BLOG

You are using a Content Management System, right?

“If everything is equally prominent, then nothing is prominent.
It is the job of the designer to advise the user and guide them to the
most important or most promising choices (while ensuring their
freedom to go anywhere they please).”
- Jakob Nielsen, Usability Expert and Principal of Nielsen Norman Group

Time online is COMPRESSED

0.1 SECOND: Time
needed to decide on the
visual appeal of a website

1 SECOND: Maximum
response time for website
elements to update after a
click before users feel lack
of control.

10 SECONDS: the time users typically allocate to
examining a page before deciding that it's so bad that
they're going to leave.

Users should be able to complete simple tasks in
about 1 MINUTE. Awkward sites that require
much more than a minute for basic tasks (such as
filling out an application form) will be abandoned.

10 MINUTES would be a long visit to a website. One
study followed users researching a B2B purchase across
25 site visits. The longest site visit? 7 minutes.

RESIST THE URGE TO CRAM EVERYTHING
ONTO THE HOME PAGE
(This is usually the result of too many committees)

$%@!&*

Ahhhh...

Definitely built by committee. Where do I start?

Much cleaner, smaller navigation. Easier to make choices.

Website visitors scan in an “F” pattern
Eye-tracking heatmaps
Source: Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, April 17, 2006

Use card sorting to create a logical navigation

Form Labels Work Best
Above The Field*
*A study by UX Matters found that the ideal position for labels in forms is above the fields. On many forms,
labels are put to the left of the fields, creating a two-column layout; while this looks good, it’s not the easiest
layout to use. Why is that? Because forms are generally vertically oriented; i.e. users fill the form from top to
bottom. Users scan the form downwards as they go along. And following the label to the field below is
easier than finding the field to the right of the label.

Visitors focus on FACES
Eye-tracking heat map of a baby
looking directly at us, from a
UsableWorld study.
And now the baby is looking at
the content. Notice the
increase in people looking at
the headline and text.

DON’T FEAR WHITESPACE
IT IMPROVES COMPREHENSION

ARE YOU INVITING VISITORS TO COMMIT
TO THE TRANSACTION?

MAKE IT EASY FOR PEOPLE TO GIVE
YOU THEIR MONEY

DON’T MAKE ME CALL
OR (EVEN WORSE) RESORT
TO PAPER!
Visitors need instant gratification

REMOVE OBSTACLES (like needing directions)

B2B sites need online
payment options, too

So do non-profits...

Invite visitors into
your sales funnel

Give visitors online
research tools

Give them downloads
Bosses like to print things*
*(and that’s ok)

Offer a clear path to
your objectives

Make sure everyone can see your website. The world is
made up of more than just Internet Explorer and Windows*
*Thank goodness!

SERIOUSLY?

Sample browser stats for
www.spinweb.net
(last 30 days)

Ask your agency or
web developer: “What
DOCTYPE do you
code for?”
Acceptable answers:
“XHTML Strict 1.0 DOCTYPE”
Unacceptable answers:
“Ummm...”

DON’T BOX IN YOUR WEBSITE
(let it breathe with social media)

MAKE IT EASY FOR
OTHERS TO SHARE
YOUR CONTENT

Automate your website
announcements to
social networks

YOU NOW HAVE MORE THAN ONE
PERMISSION MARKETING CHANNEL...

WHAT IF NO ONE CAN
FIND YOU?

3 things that improve search engine rankings:
1. Fresh, relevant content
2. Human-readable URLs
3. Relevant inbound links

• Blog
• Industry articles
• Press releases
• Fresh case studies
KEEP CONTENT FRESH
AND RELEVANT!

HURL?
Human-readable URL = A page address that
is structured with relevant keywords
describing the content*
*(this means more for Google to gobble up)

RELEVANT INBOUND LINKING CAN
LIGHT UP YOUR SEARCH PRESENCE

Break down the barriers between you and your customer

7 HABITS of
HIGHLY EFFECTIVE
WEBSITES
Michael Reynolds, SpinWeb | www.spinweb.net