Are Visitors Seeing What You Want Them to See?

Are Your Website Visitors Seeing What You Want Them to See?

If you’re a web designer, today’s article might have you sitting there going ‘puhleeaasse.’

Especially when you realize you’ve just spent two minutes reading about something you learned back in rookie camp. (do they have rookie camps for web designers?)

Anyway, for some of us, this might be an eye opener.

Google has many tools to help us measure the overall effectiveness of our website marketing. And this one I’ll tell you about in a sec is a bit of a sleeper that could have you rethinking a few things today.

Business owners are always on the lookout for more effective ways to engage readers on their website and convert them into profitable clients.

Now, I don’t know about you but where I come from, conventional logic suggests that someone is more likely to do something, buy something or take action IF they are aware of it.

Maybe you offer a free report. Or you’re soliciting donations. Perhaps you offer a free trial.

Because people use various browser settings, monitor sizes and screen resolutions, it can be tough to know when a key button, like a “Donate” or “Subscribe” is visible and easily reachable by your users.

Well, Google has taken a lot of the guesswork out of the equation.

Google Browser Size overlays a transparent image on top of any website, displaying what percentage of users (on average) will see your content without scrolling.

And the operative words are ‘without scrolling.’ Most visitors to your site are going to make a snap decision in a few seconds to decide whether to stick around or click away – from the screen they can see without making the tremendous effort of actually moving the cursor and scrolling down.  

That’s why I preach an “above the fold” approach which sees as much selling horsepower as possible in the upper part of the home page.  

Here’s how this tool works:

When you enter your site URL in the box, you’ll see the overlay.

On the top and left are numbers depicting the length and width of the screen, in pixels. In the middle you’ll notice an array of colors and percentages. Based on research Google did, they were able to extrapolate at what pixel height and width Internet surfers could see the page without scrolling, from 99 percent to essentially 0 percent.

If your sales ammunition is out of view for too high a percentage of readers, you’re not going to get the conversions you could.

I see this all the time. No benefit headline which is what the reader should always see first. Hidden testimonials. Huge graphics at the top and no copy. Credentials buried down below. Newsletter offer at the bottom

A lot this stuff is out of view – and, therefore, out of mind.

See how your site stacks up.

If your most compelling sales story isn’t hitting your visitor right between the eyes, might be time for a little chess.