5 seconds to capture, 2 minutes to sell

My last article was about how you only have 5 seconds to grab a person's attention with marketing, and how that applies to websites as well. Five seconds may seem difficult, but what's worse is after they decide to stay on your site, you only have a couple of minutes to communicate with them. Whether it's to sell a product, inform, educate, or engage, most people won't remain on a website for more than two minutes according to this article. My own site stats are a little more favorable, indicating that visitors tend to stay on a site for a little over 3 minutes. The linked article below provides several ideas for how to maximize those 3 minutes.

http://www.bryaneisenberg.com/2011/02/the-2-minute-customer/#axzz1Gxb2BuE0

The tips provided fall into the "usability" category, something I emphasize when developing a site. Millions of sites are just a click away - you can't frustrate your customer or s/he will go somewhere else in the blink of a click. As an example, think of your own experience performing a search. Typically 10 site results are presented for your search. You click the first link, glance at the page, then hit the back button because either it wasn't what you wanted, the site didn't please you, or it took too long to give you the information you wanted. Your visitors are doing the same!