Do you have a website or about to get one?  Than you need to understand the 15 second rule, or at least ensure your web design company does.

The 15 Second Rule is essentially how long you have to convey to website visitors:

1. What you do or what you have to offer
2. How professional your site is
3. How easy it is to navigate your site

5 years ago this wasn’t so much an issue but many search engine users know that when searching not all the results are valid and therefore over time an “evaluation” behaviour has evolved where searchers evaluate a website within 10 to 15 seconds to determine if the site does or has what they are looking for and also looks at the overall design for appeal.

What does this mean in terms of your website’s design?

It means that visually with graphics, images and large font text you need to communicate the general products or services you offer visitors that can be looked at and processed in less than 10 to 15 seconds.  It means you need an uncluttered page, well labelled navigation and photos, graphics and text that very clearly reflect the topic of that page. Remember this doesn’t just apply to the home page but all pages, since every page of your site can be used in the search engines to drive relevant traffic to your site. 

Do’s

• A good banner/header that is visual and clearly shows your business name and a related slogan
• All images and graphics reflect the topic of that page
• A main title sentence bolded and in bigger font at the top of the page that describes that page
• Bullet point text instead of long drawn out paragraphs
• Break text up in sections and put a header title to each paragraph
• Have a visible, well labeled navigation and use a drop down navigation to easily group pages together instead of using top and side navigations
• Make sure everything on your site works the way it is supposed to work

Dont’s

• Have a cluttered home page with lots of little boxes of different information
• Have too many images as it makes it hard to scan the whole page an absorb the over all message
• Have too many different navigations - some sites have a navigation bar across the site, plus a side vertical navigation bar and then also put a navigation above their header or down at the bottom with the copyright text. 
• Have lots of text in a small font or one long page, instead break it into a few pages

Lastly what it means for your site is that you need a current and update design.  Your website makes such an incredibly strong first impression of your business that having an outdated design from even 3 or more years ago is the same as having a brick and morter location in a run down strip mall on the wrong side of town.  It’s functional and affordable, but doesn’t leave a great impression. 

This doesn’t mean you have to break the bank and redesign your site every 2 years.  What it does mean is that you need a professional design, time lasting design with professional looking graphics, buttons and navigations.  When designing or redesigning your site don’t go for the latest trend stick with a design that is true to your business, that acts as graphical representation of your business.  Don’t design in the latest trends. 3 years ago black/dark coloured sites were all the rage, now it’s beiges with blues or beiges and pinks with big thick borders.  But what has happened to the black/dark websites - they now look outdated.  Equate web design to car designs, that Grand Prix, Camery or Intrepid that looked so cool 5 years ago looks so outdated now doesn’t it? The same happens with website trends and this can reflect negatively on your business.

Lastly, make sure everything works!  So many sites have missing graphics, broken links, mis-aligned graphics or buttons or have different fonts on different pages.  All these things will deter a visitor and reflects very poorly and usually causes a visitor to leave instantly.

 Have site now and want to know how to tell if it meets the 15 second rule?

Usually your website visitor statistics can give you a good clue.  How long does the average visitor stay on your site, what are the average number of page views, what is your site’s bounce rate (number of people who leave after only visiting one page).  There is no definitive average that shows your site is doing well or not but if you don’t have more than 2 or 3 average page views and have a bound rate higher than 60% and the majority of visitors spend less than 30 seconds on your site you may need to re-evaluate your site and consider fixing it up.

Don’t have these stats?  Sign up for a Google Analytics account which is free and they will provide you all this great information and more.
 

Before approaching a website design company you should have a good idea of the kind of website you need to ensure you get a proper price and no hidden or surprising fees during the course of the design work.

The types of websites that exist:

Informational:

An informational site is essentially a website that provides information on your business, company, services without selling any products online.  Examples of informational sites would be realtors, restaurants and even web design companies as they aren’t actually selling a product but bringing about awareness of their services and products they offer.

An informational website is open to the creative freedom of any design you want and use of any mixture of technologies such as flash, DHTML, java script, RSS, PHP, ASP and more. To keep a site SEO friendly it’s best to build a website in HTML, PHP or ASP but not all flash or frames.

Typically sites are built in HTML and the other technologies enhance the look and experience for your visitors.

• Flash can be used to animate and liven up a website or used to convey an important message. 
• DHTML and flash navigations allow for professional and customizable menus that can include drop down and slide out options to organize your site in an easy to navigate, attractive package.
• Java Script drives mouse over effects, photo rotations and other basic functions to more complex features that allow an interactive site.
• RSS can be used to pull in news feeds and other information that will update automatically.
• PHP and ASP are technologies that run databases.  Should your site need a database to store and show information dynamically such as lists, products, locations and other information that would normally require a large number of pages.

Ecommerce:

Should you wish to sell products on your website you will need an ecommerce website. Ecommerce websites are growing at staggering rates and so are online sales.  More and more businesses are seeing the values of selling online.

There are many ecommerce solutions to choose from, including open source software, paid software, custom designs and monthly plans.  Each option has its pros and cons and will be dependant on your budget, design requirements and size of store.

• Open source software is the least expensive option, however is limited in designs and functions.
• For a one time fee you can purchase ecommerce software that typically includes some design templates but will usually need the design work or at least finishing touches of a web designer.
• Customer websites can be designed allowing the most flexibility of any ecommerce solution.  These options are becoming more and more affordable with the new technologies a custom ecommerce site is an option to consider.
• There are many companies offering monthly subscription solutions.  The monthly fee typically covers the use of the software, hosting and support.  These options usually include basic templates and design work would be additional.   

To determine what is the best option for your ecommerce store you will need to determine your budget, design needs, right down to how many products you intend to sell.  Again, like the informational websites you need to ensure your solution is SEO friendly, although most ecommerce softwares are now ensuring they are SEO friendly.  

Blogs:

Blogs, like this very site are growing in popularity daily.  There are 2 blog solutions each with their own pros and cons.  

The first is with a blogging software there are free and paid softwares all with their own pros and cons.  Most come with a standard design but there are the options of buying a template or having a custom design made. 

The second option is with a 3^rd party blogs.  With these blogs you simply sign up for an account, choose from a selection of templates and start your blogging.  These are usually very simple to use but leave very little room for customization or personalization of the blog.

With either choice the customization of a blog is limited, but is a great addition to any site or a great site on its own.

Understanding what you are looking for and what you will need will help ensure a web design company will understand what you want as well as ensure they provide you proper pricing and lastly that they have the capabilities of building what you want.