Make Your Website Work!

In an earlier posts I have tried to make the point that if you don’t have a website for your agency you

1) Aren’t really in business
2) Won’t survive

So, you’ve got one right? Assuming you do, what are some ways you can make it really effective? I’m not a web expert but I know someone who is. Wendy Shreffler with Public Strategies in Oklahoma City knows a lot about this subject and has given me some “best practices” suggestions I’d like to share with you:

• Content should be skimmable: people only read 28% of the text on a web page
• By cutting roughly half the words on a page, you can achieve a 58% increase in usability
• People read online in “blocks,” going directly to items that match what they are actively looking for
• Use simple and concise headings
• People read in an F-shaped pattern, skipping lots of text in between, according to an eye-tracking study by Nielsen
• Break up long articles in sections so users can skim down the page
• Make the first two words count, because users tend to read the first few words of headings, titles and links when they’re scanning a webpage
• People fixate longer on bulleted lists, according to an eye-tracking study by ClickTale
• Front-load keywords in webpage titles, headings, and links
• Manipulating the margins of a passage affects reading comprehension and speed
• People pay close attention to images containing relevant information, according to an eye-tracking study by Nielsen; however, users sometimes ignore certain images—particularly stock photos included merely as decorative artwork

I hope these suggestions are helpful. The future of business is online and as growing insurance sales organizations, we all need to master presenting our businesses well in cyberspace!