The 3 Second Rule

The 3 Second Rule

How well does your website do with The 3 Second Rule? The 3 Second Rule is the first and biggest hurdle you must overcome in order to win over your visitors. This article is about how the 3 Second Rule works and 3 ways to use it to your advantage.

What I really like about SEO is that it makes us cut the clutter and get to the point.The 3 Second Rule is all about getting to the point, and most website visitors need you to get to the point ASAP!  When was the last time you had to do research on several dozens of companies? If you're like most poeple, you probably started by visiting their website. Did you find a lot of websites that didn't tell you almost anything you needed to know? Just like you, your visitors have a lot of websites to go through in their research, and if you don't make a great case for your company, product or service really fast, your visitor will leave and they will probably never return.

Here's how the "3 Second Rule" works. A visitor that lands on your site must be able to do at least 1 of the following within 3 seconds:

1. Find what they're looking for.
2. Find a way to get what they're looking for.
3. Find something more interesting than what they were looking for.

If your visitor cannot do one of these things in 3-10 seconds, you're probably off of their list of compaines to research. You could have the best product or service in your industry, but those prospects will never know.

If we want to win, we must respect the 3 Second Rule. Respecting the 3 Second Rule is really just respecting your prospect's time. Here's how to respect your prospect's time:

1. Make sure your site is easy to navigate. Your visitors can't do any of the 3 tasks they need to do if they can't figure out how your site works. This is one reason why flash website have falled out, they're all about "flash" and the website is almost an after thought. This very short video shows a great example of exactly the kind of thing that website navigation never be done.
2. Whitespace is good thing. You don't have to use every single pixel of your site, and cram everything together. In fact, that's how you get a crowded looking website. Who wants to spend time on a site that makes them feel clausterphobic?
   Why is Google the most popular website in the world? Is there ANY question as to what to do with Google's site? Does Google use EVERY single pixel on their website to cram in more content and links, or do they use all the empty whitespace on the page to draw attention to the single most important thing on the page? I guess what I'm saying is, don't worry about how much stuff you have on your page. Your page looks best when the things you want your visitors to do are given plenty of breathing room.
3. Drop the "classic" marketing talk. Newspapers used to give lots of cute and clever headlines in their papers. Newspapers are created for people who casually browser, but the internet is not made for casual browsing, it is made of people who are active searching for answers to very specific questions. Unless you use words in your title that are directly relevant, you will not come up in search results.
   
   For example: If a visitor is looking for a story about Mr. Potatohead, they'll probably search with words like "mr. potatohead". If you wrote the best story about Mr. Potatohead ever written, but gave it a headline like "The Spudman Sputters Out", there's a good chance the visitor will never find your article. Even if they do make it to your website, chances are, they will never notice the article because they're quickly scanning the page for "Mr. Potatohead". Your visitor will leave without reading your story. Why should they stick around when they still have 1,070,000 sites in their search results.

Being honest with ourselves about our own work is extremely difficult, because we're on the inside looking out. This is why getting 3rd party's opinion is invaluable. Getting someone who has never seen your site before and asking them to perform a task is a great way to find out how well your site is built.

In summary, respecting the 3 Second Rule is just respecting your visitor's time. If you just get to the point, make a site layout that is easy to use, and create good relevant content, your visitors are going to find your site, and they're going to love visiting your site! After all, if our site isn't for our visitors, then who is it for?