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How to get more customers from your site by passing this WEIRD TEST
Are you having a hard time figuring out how to get more customers? Did you spend thousands hiring a site developer with no real results to show? It’s not your fault! In the fast-paced digital world we live in, where attention spans are shrinking faster than ever, websites have mere seconds to captivate visitors and convince them to stay. It's a make-or-break moment, often determined by what's known as the "three-second test."
Picture this, you go on a site for the first time and in three seconds, you’re immediately hit with a bunch of info! Cluttered text everywhere, boring stock photos, and a generic header that says something like “We Give You Piece of Mind.” You don’t know what the site is about and what they sell, and you’re certainly not going to read that giant chunk of text in the “about” section to find out! So… you leave and go to the next site.
As a site owner, if you showed someone a screenshot of your website and in three seconds they couldn’t tell you what you sell, you’re in big trouble… Let’s change that!
According to Forbes Advisor, in 2023 61% of users reported leaving a website within 5 seconds if they couldn’t find what they were looking for. That’s a lot of lost traffic and customers if you ask me… Imagine you owned a restaurant and out of 100 people who came in, 61 just looked at the menu for three seconds and walked out. You’d be livid! Well, that’s exactly what’s happening with your site!
People land on your page and look at the first fold (cover/hero section that spans the height of your screen when the page loads) and can’t find what they’re looking for. As a result, you lose out on potential customers and they have a bad user experience and go somewhere else and 88% don't come back.
This hurts conversions in the short and long term.
I’ve gone through probably 50-60 websites in the past week and most of them fail this test. Here’s a few to give you an idea of what one of these sites might look like.
I don’t know about you, but there’s no incentive for me to stay on this site!
Now I know what you’re thinking, ‘Abel! Won’t people just read the services below the title to know what this business is about?” While they certainly can, you want to assume that people will not scroll to do so. The more work they have to do to find out about your services, the higher their chances of leaving the site.
Although this site has a beautiful image that’s pleasing to look at, they also fail this test for several reasons! Can you spot them?
Conversions aside, have you ever visited a site and just felt overwhelmed and immediately clicked off? That’s because you just experienced a lot of cognitive load which fatigued your brian. Now, what is cognitive load?
The Medical College of Wisconsin defines cognitive load as the amount of information your brain can process at any given time
Here’s an example of a site with very high cognitive load
Bet you can’t tell me what this site is about in three seconds huh? You probably already left in two! The information is condensed and all over the place. You’d have to at least spend 15 seconds just to even start understanding what to do on the site. I bet Amazon is looking pretty tempting now.
This is what’s happening to your site! People land on your page and go ‘oh boy, that’s a lot of info…” and resistance kicks in. Their brains start to hurt and they feel intimidated. What do they do as a result? You guessed it! they click off and go to the website that kept it simple and ultimately buy their products and not yours.
How can we fix this?
Passing the three second test is actually super simple and just requires you to make a few changes to your site. I bet you’re probably starting to figure out what they are by now.
This is pretty simple to do, you just need to make sure you have a clear and visible logo in your navigation bar.
Website standards typically recommend the following:
As you saw in the above examples, the two sites had poor titles which painted a vivid picture of what services that business provided.
In your title, you should answer the following:
For example, a title like “The Arizona law firm that helps big businesses avoid millions in lawsuits” answers all 4 questions perfectly and will do better with SEO. Something like “We fight for your business” is very vague. Who is “we”? What kind of businesses? What kind of fight? Are you in Arizona? In the U.S.? I, as the user, I have to do more thinking instead of more buying!
Your title is what catches the interest of your users but it’s a good idea to include a quick summary of your services and how they deliver results to your customers to really hook them in.
You want this paragraph to fit the following:
Too many times, I often see sites that don’t have this paragraph, or it’s too long, super vague, and worst of all, has poor contrast with no accessibility whatsoever. A way to get around contrast, is adding a dark overlay to your image/video in the first fold and make the text a lighter color.
If your CTA button is not clear, visible, or enticing enough to click, then you might as well kiss your chances of getting conversions and more customers goodbye!
Every CTA button should have the following:
This is one that’s not utilized enough by websites but can bring up your conversions like crazy! Think about it. You go on a site and you’re about to click off but then a cool animation or video of the company plays and you can’t help but watch. Now, you’re more tempted to look at the title and even scroll to look for more engaging content. According to Forbes Advisor, 88% of users spend more time on a page if they see a video, which means more potential conversions and customers for you!
A good video
Navbars are pretty simple and if you follow common website development standards, you can’t mess it up. Yet… some do! Certain sites make theirs too tall like the Kuipers Law example which wastes precious fold space that they could be using to hold user attention. Others like Sunkiss Pools have transparent ones that are hard to see, and some have their links cluttered everywhere in the navbar.
Here’s some guidelines I recommend
I know I know. Animations are fun and it can be tempting to overdo it, but that can be the difference between $$$ and a site that doesn’t generate leads. Why? Several reasons actually:
Keep animations simple and very quick.
Here’s a good example of a website with a great title that was designed by The Website Architect
When you look at this site for three seconds, can you tell me immediately what they do? Of course you can! They hit the nail on the head! Their title answers all four questions:
They also have a summary paragraph describing how they can help people wanting to learn German and even took it one step further by adding a list of services they provide. In addition, they have a big bright CTA button which grabs your attention with their well-written CTA. The navbar follows web design standards and although the illusion of completeness is present, people already have all the necessary information to make a purchase. They don’t need to scroll.
Shameless plug, but here is my portfolio site as another example
Again, can you tell what I do in three seconds? Not to brag… but yes you can!
My summary paragraph is kinda long but I wrote it in a way that can be easily skimmed and give you the main idea that I build websites without you having to spend a bunch of time reading. You can also see that I have a clear CTA button below my paragraph and in the navbar so people know what action to take. My navbar also follows web standards. Lastly, I don’t have the illusion of completeness going on because my work is on the first fold which let’s users know “hey there’s more! Scroll.” I don’t have a video at the moment, but that is certainly something I plan on adding in the future.
When we look at and assess the content of our own site, we can often be biased and too close to what we are selling. We sometimes think we have the perfect copy and headlines when in reality, no one has a clue as to what we do/sell. If you want to pass this test, all you have to do is show people who are unfamiliar with your site a screenshot of the first fold and ask them “what do I do or sell?”
If they can give you an answer that accurately sums up your offer then you are all good! If they can’t… well it’s back to the drawing board for your headlines and copy.
Whew! That was quite a bit of information but I hope you’re starting to understand what the three second test is and why it’s important, but just in case, let’s recap!
If you follow these guidelines for your website then you should see an improvement in your conversions over time. People will actually stick around long enough to learn and become interested in your offer. As a result, you get more customers and you guessed it… MORE $$$!
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