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What are your psychological tips to stop first-time visitors from clicking away?

by simontip
15 replies
I'm considering making changes to some of my sites and I'm wondering if I should pay more attention to the psychological angle in my site design. I've read a lot of research and articles over the years about the propensity of human beings, when visiting a website for the first time, to make up their minds in milliseconds about whether they're going to stay or click away. The two articles below are a case in point:

Five psychology tips for web design | Graham Jones | Internet PsychologistGraham Jones | Internet Psychologist

Creating User-friendly Websites Based On Visitor Psychology | InstantShift

I'm wondering if any warriors have insight into this? In particular do you have any psychological tricks or tips that you know have worked on your own sites to encourage a first-time visitor to stay around? Or is there anything in accepted psychological thinking on this matter that you're convinced is absolute bunkum?
#clicking #firsttime #psychological #stop #tips #visitors
  • Profile picture of the author ceenote100
    Promote your product with a sense of urgency. Let prospects know that whatever you're offering them is for a limited time only. People don't like missing out on something.
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    • Profile picture of the author jaypoole
      Funny - I just read this and was going to reply saying that I read Graham Jones too. Clicked through to the article you posted and I see myself staring back in the comments on the page you chose.!

      My feeling is that it very much depends on why they're there. If they are searching for something specific - an answer to a problem they've just google for, then congruency would be the first thing. 1. Am I in the right place. 2. Does the look/quality of the page I'm on give me confidence that this is an authority site to invest more time reading.

      If on the other hand the person is just cruising.. Then curiosity is much more of a magnet. For this then two things - a very interesting/controversial/unusual photograph, and an equally inspiring headline that provides the hook. The secret is to then keep the person reading, and clicking through to more information and eventually drive them to whatever call to action you want them to take.
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      • Profile picture of the author jaypoole
        I should also add that iIf people see something on the page (right in the primary eye ball level), that looks like it can be prodded, poked, pushed, spun, written on, manipulated in order to effect a change then people will do it. People love to interact.
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      • Profile picture of the author simontip
        Originally Posted by jaypoole View Post

        Funny - I just read this and was going to reply saying that I read Graham Jones too. Clicked through to the article you posted and I see myself staring back in the comments on the page you chose.!

        My feeling is that it very much depends on why they're there. If they are searching for something specific - an answer to a problem they've just google for, then congruency would be the first thing. 1. Am I in the right place. 2. Does the look/quality of the page I'm on give me confidence that this is an authority site to invest more time reading.

        If on the other hand the person is just cruising.. Then curiosity is much more of a magnet. For this then two things - a very interesting/controversial/unusual photograph, and an equally inspiring headline that provides the hook. The secret is to then keep the person reading, and clicking through to more information and eventually drive them to whatever call to action you want them to take.
        Originally Posted by jaypoole View Post

        I should also add that iIf people see something on the page (right in the primary eye ball level), that looks like it can be prodded, poked, pushed, spun, written on, manipulated in order to effect a change then people will do it. People love to interact.
        I've just been back to the page and seen your comment! Graham Jones is very interesting isn't he? I don't always agree with what he says but I always find his articles interesting and thought-provoking.

        Thank you also for your other advice. It gives me something more to work on.
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    • Profile picture of the author simontip
      Originally Posted by ceenote100 View Post

      Promote your product with a sense of urgency. Let prospects know that whatever you're offering them is for a limited time only. People don't like missing out on something.
      Thank you for the advice. I don't know that I could do that with this product but I'll bear it strongly in mind for anything else that I promote in the future.
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  • Profile picture of the author travlinguy
    Before looking for psychological tricks why not optimize the page itself? You've got a large header space with nothing in it other than your pic and title. That's prime real estate.

    You might consider putting up a compelling catch phrase or slogan that screams benefits to your visitor. As it stands the site is pretty vanilla. What exactly is an Internet psychologist and why should people care? Tell them in a way that will make them want to know more. Lots of room for improvement here without reaching into the psych bag. Good luck.
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    • Profile picture of the author simontip
      Originally Posted by travlinguy View Post

      Before looking for psychological tricks why not optimize the page itself? You've got a large header space with nothing in it other than your pic and title. That's prime real estate.

      You might consider putting up a compelling catch phrase or slogan that screams benefits to your visitor. As it stands the site is pretty vanilla. What exactly is an Internet psychologist and why should people care? Tell them in a way that will make them want to know more. Lots of room for improvement here without reaching into the psych bag. Good luck.
      Thanks for your reply but I think you were looking at one of the pages I supplied as an example of the current thinking about the psychology of web visitors and assumed it was mine! I don't have any connection to Graham Jones, apart from both of us being based in England :-)

      But I'm grateful for your observations and I'll take them into account when I redesign my own sites.
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  • Profile picture of the author serryjw
    Simon...I was a 1/3 down the page and I wanted to click off. The page is WAY to long...MUST be spit into multiple optimize pages. YOU must offer them a free ebook to grab their email address, then you can re-target those that don't order.
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    • Profile picture of the author Charles Goodnight
      Originally Posted by serryjw View Post

      Simon...I was a 1/3 down the page and I wanted to click off. The page is WAY to long...
      Agreed. While I did make it down to the bottom of the page...if I had stumbled across it on my own, I'm not sure I would have made it.

      While you do use plenty of images...there is a lot of copy...try to pair it down a bit. IMO, you should be able to make your pitch in half of the text you do now.

      -MC
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    • Profile picture of the author simontip
      Originally Posted by serryjw View Post

      Simon...I was a 1/3 down the page and I wanted to click off. The page is WAY to long...MUST be spit into multiple optimize pages. YOU must offer them a free ebook to grab their email address, then you can re-target those that don't order.
      Originally Posted by Charles Goodnight View Post

      Agreed. While I did make it down to the bottom of the page...if I had stumbled across it on my own, I'm not sure I would have made it.

      While you do use plenty of images...there is a lot of copy...try to pair it down a bit. IMO, you should be able to make your pitch in half of the text you do now.

      -MC
      Thank you both for your observations. They're very interesting and are along the lines of what I was thinking myself. It's good to have some feedback about it. I think I'll have to go back to the drawing board quite urgently on these points.
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  • Profile picture of the author Brando95
    You have a pretty sweet mustache
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    • Profile picture of the author simontip
      Originally Posted by Brando95 View Post

      You have a pretty sweet mustache
      Thank you...although when it rains I end up looking like a walrus :-)
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      • Profile picture of the author Brando95
        Originally Posted by simontip View Post

        Thank you...although when it rains I end up looking like a walrus :-)
        Hahaha that's hilarious
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        • Profile picture of the author cainbrian
          There are 2 MAIN things you want to hit:

          1. You need a way to 'break state' because people are inundated with 10 million other things and you need a way to capture their full attention quickly (to the point they are like, "what's going on here")

          2. You need a 'hook' so that you can keep people around for your full message. This requires understanding your target market and knowing exactly what they want (usually speaking to the pain points they have and an available solution)

          hope that helps.
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          • Profile picture of the author simontip
            Originally Posted by cainbrian View Post

            There are 2 MAIN things you want to hit:

            1. You need a way to 'break state' because people are inundated with 10 million other things and you need a way to capture their full attention quickly (to the point they are like, "what's going on here")

            2. You need a 'hook' so that you can keep people around for your full message. This requires understanding your target market and knowing exactly what they want (usually speaking to the pain points they have and an available solution)

            hope that helps.
            Thank you. I presume the headline is the only real place to address those issues?
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