The 8 Second Rule: How to Make People Love You Almost Instantly

Did you know that on average when a person arrives on your website you only have eight seconds to make an impression before they decide whether to stay or to go to your competition? In today’s fast paced world, eight seconds is not a long time for a business to make a value proposition clear to all demographics and possible website visitors and attract them to stay with your company and learn more about what you can do for them. But, it is not an impossible task either.

Website designers work closely with copywriters to conquer this daunting, yet achievable task for businesses in all industries. This is because the importance of keeping people interested in your brand for longer in our instant gratification world cannot be overstated. Here are a few of the top factors that go into keeping your potential customers interested in your brand and engaged with what you have to say.

• Design a site that will load quickly – Fast load times are important and impressive for both search engines and people. With the eight second rule in mind, losing even milliseconds because your site is taking too long to load can cut down on how much time you ultimately have to make an impression on the person visiting your website. When seconds count, it is important to cut back on the items in your website design and coding that cause it to load slower. This can be videos that play automatically, coding not arranged in the optimal way, or any number of other factors that can slow down the load time of your site.

• Create an eye-catching headline – Once the page is loaded, you must capture the interest of the person who has just arrived. Headlines have long been known to be important to sell newspapers. The same is true of businesses with websites. A headline must state clearly what it is you provide to the person visiting, both benefits and your actual offering. Doing this in as few words as possible can be difficult. The headline must naturally appeal to your target market, but also to those just outside of it who may be interested in what you have to offer.

• Grab their attention with a pop-up – Many websites are against pop-ups but in some cases they can keep people on your site for longer. Having an immediate call to action can make people feel more engaged with your brand right away, keeping them on your website for longer than the average eight seconds. Pop-ups that are most effective for home pages are those asking a person to answer a quick question, or a sign up screen to subscribe to a newsletter, or even a free offering. If your company has anything to entice a person to engage with your brand, offering it through a pop up can prove effective at spiking people’s interest and keeping them on your website for longer.

• Add images and videos to spark visual interest – Pictures and images say more, faster, than headlines and words. When a person arrives at your website and they are met with visual cues as well as verbal, you are able to add a new dimension to your content by making it more interesting for people to look at, and in turn making more people want to continue to engage with your brand.

Getting people to your website is tough, but keeping them there can be even tougher. Contact Infintech Designs for help with your website design so that you can keep people engaged for longer than eight seconds and help improve your online sales.