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The Width Of Sales Pages? People Using Higher Resolutions?

by Jamie Iaconis
20 replies
Hey guys,

I have been in this business for many moons and
from reading a post from yesterday, I am getting
the feeling that I should/should have increased
the width of my sales pages a long time ago!

What are your thoughts on this?

I have used/always used a width of 650 on sales
pages, but now I am getting the feeling I should raise
it to 960, I believe it was what someone stated.

Should I go ahead and increase the width?

Do you think it will or has affected my sales?

Let me know,
Thanks,
Jamie
#customer #higher #pages #people #resolutions #sales #width
  • Profile picture of the author Loren Woirhaye
    I feel 960 is pushing it. The more words per line the harder
    you make your reader work to comprehend your message.

    Test it for yourself - find a book with 10 words on each line
    and find one with 20 words on each. Which is easier to read
    for you?
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    • Profile picture of the author Jamie Iaconis
      Originally Posted by Loren Woirhaye View Post

      I feel 960 is pushing it. The more words per line the harder
      you make your reader work to comprehend your message.

      Test it for yourself - find a book with 10 words on each line
      and find one with 20 words on each. Which is easier to read
      for you?
      I understand what you mean... but would it not be optimal
      to cover more of the screen width-wise, than having so much
      BG color and then just a thin-ish sales page in the middle?

      I am thinking it would be best to try and cover more of the page
      width-wide with sales page, other than just the background.

      HHMM!!!
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  • Profile picture of the author LMC
    Most of my sales pages are chillin around 800 - 840, with a side bar of testimonials, so the actual sales page content is 650 as well.
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    • Profile picture of the author Jamie Iaconis
      Originally Posted by LMC View Post

      Most of my sales pages are chillin around 800 - 840, with a side bar of testimonials, so the actual sales page content is 650 as well.
      OK... but you do basically use a sales page of
      800-840, mine right now are 650 total width!

      I am starting to see more light now.

      So maybe between 800 and 900 is good?
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  • Profile picture of the author LMC
    Hey Jaime,

    I shot you a PM
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  • Profile picture of the author Aronya
    What resolutions are your page visitors using? That's what really matters, although I agree with Loren; readability is huge (you can always increase font sizes and white space). But, as a general rule, you want your pages to sync with your visitors' preferences, if possible. If your market is graphic designers, for example, they're likely to be running very high resolution systems, and 650 pixels is going to look awfully skinny on their monitors. On the other hand, if your visitors are geriatric, their vision is going to be less acute, so they'll be running more like 800x600, and your current layout would be perfect. Adjust for your market.
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  • Profile picture of the author artwebster
    Just to repeat what Aronya has said, you can make your sales pages any width you like and the chances are that anything over 800 is going to be too much trouble to read for very many people.

    I have noticed that even lap tops are being used now with much lower resolution - even 1024 looks very busy - I get the impression that many people in Europe using desktop machines use 800 and many people using the high resolution of lap tops do so because they don't realise they have an option to change them.
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  • Profile picture of the author Marian Berghes
    Ive tested 3 different sizes for one of my clients: 560, 660, 760... i know they all have 60 at end but thats just a thing i wanted to do

    The test was done using PPC traffic...1 week for each size.

    After 3 weeks we had: 6% conv rate using 560. 8.2% using 660. 7% using 760.

    So for that market (stock investing) and type of product (a home study course) the 660 worked better, alot better actually.

    I kinda suspected that would be the case anyway, and I generally recommend using that size at least for the actual copy part and you can add testimonials and stuff on the side.

    The main thing is tho...test,test and test some more. Nothing is the same on every website.
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  • Profile picture of the author TheRichJerksNet
    I always build my sites in 800 resolution, because the fact is I still use 800 and so do manyother people. Many tend to think just because new computers with larger screens are out that you should increase the wdith, I would disagree...

    I monitor my stats and still till this day the majority visiting my sites are using 800 resolution. As everyone always says though test it out for yourself and get your own results and use what is best for you ....

    James
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  • Profile picture of the author Jamie Iaconis
    Yes, very interesting...

    My stats right at this moment actually show:

    Last 100 - % of people - Browser resolution

    48 - 49.48% - 1024x768
    31 - 31.96% - 1280x1024
    14 - 14.43% - Unknown
    3 - 3.09% - 800x600
    1 - 1.03% - 640x480

    I guess I better keep checking up on that!

    Jamie
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    • Profile picture of the author Alminc
      If you don't have any graphics on your sales page then
      650-700 px with is enough. Your sales page is a simple
      'peace of paper' carrying your words.

      If you use a minisite with 'killer graphics', wanting to
      increase your conversion ratio by impressing the visitor
      visually, then 800px would be fine.
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  • Profile picture of the author Paul Hancox
    Hi Jamie

    I'm getting closer to the 900 mark... but to me, what matters is how much text
    there is per line. I am going with about 60 characters per line, because that's
    about how much the human brain can take.
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    • Profile picture of the author Loren Woirhaye
      Originally Posted by Paul Hancox View Post

      Hi Jamie

      I'm getting closer to the 900 mark... but to me, what matters is how much text
      there is per line. I am going with about 60 characters per line, because that's
      about how much the human brain can take.
      Yeah. That's what makes sense to me too - bump up the page
      width if you want but bump up the font size too or add stuff
      to the side so it still reads like a normal book page (not a legal
      book or a medical book with tiny type).
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      • Profile picture of the author koolphoto
        I use anywhere from 700 to 750px. Believe it or not I still know people who are using the older screen dimensions of 800px. I am not interested in having my visitors scroll from left to right. So I prefer to be on the safe side when creating sales pages.

        Ken
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        • Profile picture of the author The Oilman
          I think I heard that 550 is the best -- but I may be wrong. I think I heard that from Perry Belcher.
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  • Profile picture of the author colmodwyer
    Booyah! -> Browser Display Statistics

    3-4% is still a pretty significant number if you're marketing to the masses. Personally I'd try my best to stay at 800 webpage width maximum, having copy within 550 - 650 because every cent counts.

    Although it shouldn't be too long before 800 goes the way of the dodo.

    Colm
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  • Profile picture of the author SteveJohnson
    Even on a 960px-wide layout, the content column is rarely over 600px, usually in the 500px neighborhood. Here is an interesting opinion on the matter:
    The ideal line length for text layout is based on the physiology of the human eye... At normal reading distance the arc of the visual field is only a few inches - about the width of a well-designed column of text, or about 12 words per line. Research shows that reading slows and retention rates fall as line length begins to exceed the ideal width, because the reader then needs to use the muscles of the eye and neck to track from the end of one line to the beginning of the next line. If the eye must traverse great distances on the page, the reader is easily lost and must hunt for the beginning of the next line. Quantitative studies show that moderate line lengths significantly increase the legibility of text


    Web Style Guide - Basic Design Principles for Creating Website
    Patrick J. Lynch and Sarah Horton
    2nd edition, page 97.
    So the basics are that optimal line-length for reading is 10-12 words, or 50-60 characters. Assuming a 10px font-size, that works out to 500px-600px for the content column.

    Needless to say, use fonts designed for web reading (Verdana, Tahoma, Arial) especially on a sales page.
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  • Profile picture of the author WareTime
    One thing to think about. A person may have a 1280 x 1024 resolution, that doesn't mean they open their browser to full screen. I have a monitor that is 1920 x 1200. I don't maximize windows generally. A lot of times I can have two browser windows open side by side.

    Also as others have said. Readability. Your eyes can't track wide columns as well as thin ones.

    Also I'll be that sometimes you want to get a hook phrase all on one line. Having a wider column allows you to put more words in, possibly watering down things rather than hitting as hard as you could in fewer words.

    Congrats and thanks to Jamie Iaconis for actually testing and being kind enough to share the results. The results could well vary by niche. Selling to seniors or those with poor vision, a wider column is not going to win you points. Bigger fonts will, though.
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  • Profile picture of the author Slippy
    Test test test test.... and uh... TEST.

    Best way to figure this out is to use google website optimizer and set up 2-3 pages each with different widths but the rest the same.

    Also consider WHO you are targeting, if you targeting an older crowd they could be using grandpa resolutions with huge fonts.

    Cheers,
    Nick
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