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Having too many options sometimes creates confusion according to
Swathmore College social science professor Barry Schwartz, who
coined the phrase "the paradox of choice." Ironically, given more
choices, people generally become less likely to make decisions.
A
well thought-out website, therefore, focuses attention on things
that are of real benefit to potential customers. First and foremost,
your website should focus visitors' attention on your core marketing
message or brand rather than offering a long list of things your
company can do or every product and service that it offers.
Simplicity supports
more effective selling by helping to eliminate potential customers'
confusion. An extremely cost-effective byproduct of keeping it
simple —
one that will continue to produce for your company
—
is that Search
Engine Optimization is greatly enhanced when marketing messages get
distilled right down to their essence.
Good website design must contain more than high-tech aesthetics. You
must carefully decide which information is important and which is
merely confusing clutter. Too much information, like too much
choice, confuses rather than clarifies.
Wary visitors are constantly on the look-out for gimmicks,
distractions and annoyances that send the message: "leave this
website as soon as possible!"
Distractions such
as unnecessary music, sounds, click-through ads, overuse of
drop-down menus, site search forms, long-loading graphics and the
like not only chase people away from your web pages but they go
almost entirely unnoticed by the most important visitors to your
website —
totally blind and
deaf page-crawling search engine spider robots.
Visitor friendly websites are designed and optimized to build trust
and foster relationships. They do not scare people away before they
can find simple facts and marketing points that could assist them in
choosing to do business with your company.
Spiderbots are programmed
to find key words, phrases, titles, descriptions and
text that will lead to the most efficient indexing of
information available to Internet users. No more.
No less.
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