6 Tips to Make a Great First Impression
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Image by HAM Guy This is a guest post by Hans. Visit his blog, Catchtheposts.com, for more blogging tips, or you can subscribe to his feed here.
We used to hear that content is King. I agree with the fact that creating original and valuable content is a critical element to succeed online.
However, I would like to add my 2 cents: content is King but the container – the web space design – is not far behind! I really like metaphor, because it often helps us understand what the concerns really are. So let me bring you into the following metaphor.
Let’s say you are single for a moment. You hope to meet the perfect girl. You already have in mind ALL the characteristics that make that person special and perfect for you! So you decide to go to a bar. The lights and the music are just great! You take a seat at the bar and you drink your glass of vodka. Then, you see her: she is perfect! Just like she was in your most beautiful dreams!
We will stop the tape here and take few minutes to really understand what happened. The magic words are: you see her. This is a normal and natural reaction; to base our thoughts and behaviors on external stimulus. Maybe your perfect girlfriend has several characteristics, e.g. to be loving, smart and active. I know, this is the most important for you! However, the fact is that you have to be attracted by somebody before beginning to learn more about who she is and how amazing her personality is!
Your blog is the same; if your design is clean and attractive you’ll be able to catch the attention of your visitors. This is a critical moment you have to take care of. Then, you’ll be able to reveal your personality and give your visitors an excellent reason to subscribe to your blog!
The first thing to admit is that perception is, by nature, subjective. This is true for both your blog design and your content. Beautiful and attractive design is not the same for everyone. And again, original and valuable content is not the same for everybody. However, one thing is sure; you must do something you’ll be proud of! Then you’ll find that promoting your blog will be easier.
Let’s clearly define what will influence the first impression of your visitors:
- Appearance. This is the cosmetic part of your blog. The biggest challenge is to make it attractive! The appearance of your blog includes your logo, the colors, the fonts, and many other elements. This is a part of your design that will require lots of time, but it’s worth the extra effort.
- Usability. The more usable your blog is, the better the browsing experience will be. A usable blog is user friendly. If your blog is well presented and well structured, they won’t have to search anything and you will win points! :smile:
- Clarity. Remember that a confused visitor won’t stay on your blog for a long period of time. Being clear is very important. Try to be explicit when you are presenting something on your blog. For example, insure that your section titles match with the content of those sections. This is something very basic, but so important!
- Headlines. The headlines of your articles could be read very quickly. Be sure that your headlines are relevant to the content. If your headlines are catchy, they will hopefully hold the attention of your visitors. This will prick their curiosity and they will start to read your work.
- Language. When reading your content, your visitors may notice some language mistakes. Doing few mistakes could be normal but if there is a big quantity of mistake, your blog may be discarded by many visitors. To avoid that, write your posts on a text editor with a spell checker or ask somebody to review it before you submit it.
- Authority. Your authority can be easily judged by your visitors based on the comment counts and the subscriber count. The comment counts could quickly be found by browsing your blog. However, your subscriber count (feed readers) won’t be available unless you integrate the Feedburner chicklet. I would recommend integrating it when you reach 500 or more subscribers.
In summary, don’t forget that you never have 2 chances to make a good first impression. Catching the attention of your visitor is not an easy task, but if you spend some time to pass through that list above, you will increase your chances to retain them. Note that this is also a matter of experimentation and it may be dependant on your niche. Give yourself the time to experiment and to learn more about the overall design concepts.
From Michael: I’ve written before about what a user needs to see from a first impression, and how you can use the fold to achieve that. Hans has listed 6 more factors that influence a first impression. What else influences your opinion of a blog on first page load?
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About the Author
Michael Martin
Michael Martin is the founder of Pro Blog Design. He works as a freelance web designer, loves WordPress, and has an unhealthy addiction to smilies.
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Nice Article!
Good points. I completely agree, but it seems as if many people underestimate good design. For me as a designer I feel as if it is mainly designers that realize quite how much of an impact a good/bad design will make.
This is a good point that might not have been employed for this article? You probably want to ensure your section titles match… unless you’ve taken out some kind of reader satisfaction insurance that provides a pay out when content doesn’t match up.
Perhaps I’m being too picky… I know I’ve made my fair share of spelling and grammar errors. I hope they’ve decreased since I’ve learnt the value of proof reading. The ideas behind the article are spot on.
I really have a high consideration for those bloggers who have the generosity to publish other blogger’s articles. I would like tosay a special thanks to Michael who kindly accept to publish this article. I hope you’ll make a little jump on my blog if you enjoy your reading. :-)
@Michael: Thanks for your generosity! :-)
@kuldeep: Thanks for your comment!
@Tom: I really think that many people underestimate the power of a good design. Mine isn’t perfect, but I feel good with it. I think that we really must be proud of what we do; especially our blog design. I appreciate your comment! Thanks.
@kristarella: I did ask for a review, but there could be some mistakes left; sorry for that. I’m glad if you enjoy the general ideas. Thanks for your comment! :-)
Hans, glad you could take my comment in a good spirit :)
I think your site design is usable and makes sense in the ways you’ve endorsed in this article. :)
Tom,
That could well be true. On the other hand, perhaps a design has less impact on a designer because they can see through the common tricks? It takes more to impress them.
Hans,
No problem, and thanks for writing this. Sorry that I didn’t pick out all the mistakes. I made a pretty big number of changes, and thought I was already on the limits of overstepping my authority. xD
Kristarella,
lol – Good to have someone like you about to keep us on our toes. I’ll have to be very careful with the next article :D
Great advice, as usual. I would hope I’m following it. Unfortunately I haven’t been receiving all that many comments lately, which seems to imply a lack of authority. I hope that isn’t necessarily the case … but in any event it’s not a good thing, and it’s a signal that should be payed attention to.In completely unrelated news, your comment form doesn’t work under IE 8 ( beta ). A lot of things don’t work in IE 8 at this point, but I thought I’d let you know.
Forrest,
If you’re looking for more comments, you could try commenting loads on other blogs in your niche? A lot of bloggers will reciprocate the comment, and leave one on your blog (It works best with smaller blogs, where the blogger has the time to leave all those comments :) ).
And thanks for letting me know. I’m thinking of scrapping the comment form now. It doesn’t work on Opera either, and it’s dodgy on IE6!
off-topic:@Micheal (comment #8)Your comment form doesn’t work that buggy in Opera, at least not in Opera 9.24. Some strange (horrible!) javascript errors make it impossible to get it the way I want. I think that you have to rewrite (if you made it!) the whole javascript..!
Some important points which you forgot in my opinion:
1. If you make a home page, you should make clear on a page what your visitor can expect. If you have freebies on your site, a running project, free scripts or whatever that a person may be looking for, display it on the home page! Highlighting some good posts is also very nice. People will instandly know what they can find on the site.
2. A nice clear lay-out helps to get a good first impression, but that’s
all. It’s immediately clear on a site like this one how the navigation
works, that is much importanter. ;) Your site has a high level of usubility.I think that these two points are important.
off-topic:My English is hopefully not too bad! I’m still learning at school . ;)
Sorry for my last comment… I’m not getting the point! This comment editor works quite buggy!
“For example, insure that your section titles match with the content of those sections.”How much would that insurance cost? Oh right, you meant ENSURE.
Why don’t people read the other comments before commenting?
this post was really helpful. I have not thought much about the design. I like things to look nice, but I really like the way you look at usability and clarity. The posts you link to are really helpful too.
Noonoo,
Two very good points, which I agree with. That level of clarity is crucial for a reader’s first visit. :)
Icheb,
Kristarella pointed out the same thing. But don’t worry; the next time I take on a guest post, I’ll be ruthless with checking it over first. :D
Lindsay,
Looking nice is a good start, but websites aren’t paintings. They have to do much more than just give you something to look at; which is where all the usability and such come into play. :)
Good article. And what are the next steps when you’ve found that perfect girl?
Haha Edwin. My first step would be to disprove that annoying, old “Nobody’s perfect” line!
Good points, but on authority I want to add also that, it doesn’t just depend on how many comments you get on your posts, but how intelligent they sound. If most people sound immature or spammy you might be attracting some bad apples. And some people will be turned off by them, and maybe even lose interest in your blog.
@JustChris: You’re right! The quality of the comments are important also. The blogger must be able to manage the comments carefully. In fact, I think that the overall quality of your blog may have an impact. Thanks for your comment!
JustChris,
That’s true. I’ve been seeing more and more of the useless “Good post, thanks” type comments all over my blog.
Sometimes you can see that a person is sincere, but a lot of the time, they’re just promoting their blog.
I delete those comments here, but it still means that anyone subscribed to updates by email gets an annoying email. :(
I do not totally agree with that. I think it’s good to say it when somebody wrote a good article. I think it stimulates them to write more then if there weren’t those comments at all. I think it’s a good thing to give reguarly a compliment.
Edwin,
In theory, I agree, but too many spammers abuse it now.
If you truly enjoyed an article on any blog, I would really recommend adding a line that somehow shows that you actually did read the article.
Anyone can paste “Good post, well done” or whatever into every comment form they see.
e.g. On this post, if they just changed that to “Good post. Headlines can be hard to write, but I agree they’re really important.” then I would know they had actually read it (Or scanned it!) so their comment would mean so much more.
very authorative article great stuff
@DazzleCat: Thanks for your comment! :) I appreciate it!
Amazing!!
Thank you Hans for such a great article.
Thanks, theres some really great tips mentioned there.
Hi,
Very good points you covered, As I am a usability & Interface Designer, its very useful to make 1st impression will be SIMPLE AS MUCH POSSIBLE, but it should not be actually.
— THNAKS —-
Great article! Usability is such an important aspect of websites so I am happy to see it high on the list.
I think one of the biggest mistakes a webmaster can make is to have wonderful content but a less than appealing header on his site. The first impression is got by what stands out, and before a visitor starts to read through the text he needs to be attracted to the site.
Your right establishing a first impression to others is just once so give it your best shot.
Excellent post … SO true. Often times, if you do not make a good first impression, that visitor is gone FOR GOOD. If you take some time to make an impressive site, you can develop long-term, returning visitors.
I am very interested in your article, thank you!
All the six tips are exactly useful but it will still depend on your self confidence and self esteem if you really want others to have a good impression at you.
it think it should be added avoiding Advertising overload.
Excellent points and in the correct order.
I couldn’t agree more, partially swayed by your excellent analogy. Another important part of getting and keeping subscribers is continuity. By that, I mean regularly added content, as well as follow-ups and returns to previously discussed topics. People have no need to subscribe if you don’t update your blog regularly while re-visiting old blog posts and discussing similar subject matter has the potential to both attract new readers as well as confirm to your subscribers that they’ve made the right decision in subscribing because you continue to discuss the things that first attracted them.