Photography: Grab hold! by jpockele

This is the second post in a series on the ‘Simple Web’ philosophy I subscribe to. It’s a philosophy of completing only the actions that grow your site and cutting out those that don’t. You’ll get the most out of this post by reading the introduction to the series.

If your site — and I use this to mean blog or website — isn’t gripping, readers aren’t going to engage with your content. If they don’t engage with your content, they’ll forget about you.

If your site isn’t gripping, your other actions are wasted. Your articles might be top-notch, but if few visitors are gripped enough to read them from start to finish, you’ll never see the rewards those articles deserve. I don’t mean to sound dire, but a failure to ‘grip’ readers is something I often see crippling otherwise excellent sites.

The key question is: how can I make sure every element of my site is gripping, and how can I remove the elements that aren’t?

Building a gripping layout

1. Make it memorable. How distinctive is your site? Do you have your own logo, or a unique header? People remember visuals much more strongly than names — that’s why big brands place such an emphasis on their logo.

2. Use eye-catching headline presentation. We’re not yet talking about the content of those headlines, but simply how they’re presented. Are they eye-catching, distinctive, and do they stand out from your content? [See it: Cornwall SEO]

3. Put your best foot forward. Work your best content into your design. Are your most popular, or favorite posts, highlighted enough that the average visitor will see them? A ‘Popular Posts’ widget is more gripping than a ‘Recent Posts’ widget. If visitors were looking to find your most recent posts, they’d be scrolling down the page.

4. Work images into your articles. As Robert Scoble said when explaining how he reads feeds, images slow the eye down. They’re magnetic when it comes to eye contact, and do a lot to encourage readers to focus on your articles.

Repairing non-gripping layout elements

1. Simplify down only to the elements that will grip visitors. MyBlogLog widgets, Recent Comments, long Archive lists and blogrolls in the sidebar, too many (or boring) ads and other unessential layout elements all fail to grip visitors. Gripping layout elements provide concise doorways to essential functions and content. Non-gripping elements distract from what is essential, and can work to make the rest of your site less gripping.

Build gripping content

1. Craft attention-grabbing or interesting headlines. I like to think of each headline as the sign on a door you want readers to open. If the sign promises something good/interesting in the room ahead, readers will peek inside. If not, they’ll move on to the next door.

If you feel like too much of a sell-out going for the jugular with big-numbered headlines then you might simply settle for ‘interesting’ — a headline which works to pique interest in a subtle way. I’d recommend switching between the two strategies so neither overstay their welcome.

Attention-grabbing:
Get Off Your Butt: 16 Ways to Get Motivated When You’re In a Slump

Interesting:
The finger moustache virus

2. Create content with your ‘Most Popular’ list in mind. Build a collection of 5 or so really impressive posts with headlines that promise immense value and display them somewhere highly visible on your site (preferable ‘above the fold’). These posts will be magnetic to new visitors, and instantly communicate that your site is packed with value.

3. Tell them what you’re going to tell them. If your headline is good or relevant, readers will ‘open the door’. Before stepping completely inside they’ll take a peek at what the article has to offer. This peek is your first few paragraphs — or better, your first paragraph.

Don’t be afraid to ’spoil’ your readers. If your article was a short story, you’d start with telling the reader what happens in the end. Why? Because the value doesn’t lie in the what, it lies in the how. If a potential reader is clear on what she stands to gain by finishing the article, she’s more likely to do so. And that’s what we want — reading, not scanning.

4. Write for the new visitor. Would your article be gripping to someone who had never visited your site before? Is it likely to be submitted to social media? Articles that don’t make sense without background information generally have little success on social media services, where content needs to be self-sustaining. If it’s not self-sustaining, new visitors are unlikely to be gripped by it.

5. Write for your target audience. Who is the ideal visitor to your site, and what kind of content would they want? What answers would they be searching for? One thing to note as that you are (probably) part of your target audience. Most of us write for those with the same interests and goals as us. What kinds of articles would you most love to read? What kind of site would you most wish to discover? The next step in the process is to start creating a site that resembles the ideal. Chances are others in your target audience will appreciate it, too.

6. Create an About page that promises value. A good About page explains what kinds of topics you write on and why you’re qualified to write about them. A great About page explains what visitors to your site stand to gain by reading its content.

Repairing non-gripping content

1. Change what isn’t working. If a particular type of content consistently generates little interest, either change the way you do it or do something else. Uninteresting content doesn’t merely sit there, neutral, neither adding nor detracting from your site. If a great article is a +1, a boring one is a -1. Boring articles have the potential to outweigh the benefits of good ones.

You often won’t know an article is boring until you hear the chirping of crickets in the comments section. It’s a distinctive and valuable message: don’t do the same thing again.

2. If in doubt, don’t publish it. It’s better to not post (which has a neutral effect on your site), than post something sub-standard merely to show signs of life, or because you should.

How this ties into the ‘Simple Web’

Simplify down to the design elements and content that will grip your readers. If it’s not gripping, it’s distracting, or boring — the opposite of gripping.

Allowing non-gripping elements to stand, or non-gripping actions to continue, is often mistaken as being harmless — as neither hurting nor harming your site. This isn’t the case. Every boring, distracting or irrelevant inch of your site and its content will weaken what is gripping about it.

Ask yourself: is this element/action +1, or -1? If it’s not one, it’s the other. The belief in zero, in certain things being neither one nor the other, and therefore acceptable, causes us to waste time and visitor attention on actions and elements that simply don’t contribute to the growth of your site.

A challenge, if you’d like to try it: Eliminate every zero or -1 action from yourself and your site.

In the third post in the series I’ll be explaining how you can ensure every inch of both your layout and content resonates with new and regular visitors, and how you can eliminate -1 and zero actions in that area.