Are You Guilty As Charged?

You know that feeling you get when you walk into a store to browse, and one salesman after another approaches you to ask if they can help you? God, I hate that feeling. I feel bombarded. I just want to be left alone and go find what I am looking for, OK?!

In some stores they not only bombard you with too many salesmen, but they also make it difficult to find what you are looking for. Imagine that! How frustrating! I don’t know about you, but when this happens to me I turn around and walk out. That's a lost sale for the store.

Well, guess what? Most web sites are designed the exact same way. They bombard you with too many ads, links, and graphics. And then they make it difficult to find what you are looking for. Net result: you leave the site without finding what you want. That's a lost sale for the webmaster.

These are two of the biggest reasons why people abandon web sites within the first 15 seconds of their arrival:

• Too much garbage distracting you
• Lack of simple site navigation

How does your web site measure up? Are you guilty as charged? Check out The Big Picture for a solution.