Internet Marketing is about two things, plain and simple: Traffic & Conversions

You can’t increase conversions until you can anticipate your site visitors’ thoughts and actions. Then you will be able to model your site in a way that converts.

There are things you can do to increase conversions but don’t expect a miracle. It takes conscious thought and you need to make smart choices.

Below you’ll see three heat maps of different web pages based on where people’s eye movements go when viewing the page.

Red areas are the most highly scanned areas of the page, followed by yellow and then blue.

Grey areas are pretty much ignored.

reading pattern eyetracking 15 Must Know Facts on How People View Websites

You will notice that as people’s eyes move down the page, they begin to trail off and start thinking more about tacos and surfing.

So, be sure to put your most juicy stuff near the top of the page.

Here are 15 facts you should know about how people look at your website.

  1. Text attracts more attention than images.
  2. People’s eyes immediately go to the top left corner of your page.
  3. Banners get very little eyeball lovin’.
  4. Fancy fonts, though fancy, aren’t doing much else for ya.
  5. People get lazy as they move lower down the page. Put your best stuff up above the fold.
  6. People read short paragraphs. People scan big paragraphs.
  7. Ads placed on the top or left side of your page get more views.
  8. Ads placed within or directly underneath fascinating content, get more views.
  9. Big pictures are more attractive than small images.
  10. Headlines draw a lot of attention.
  11. People spend more time looking at menus and buttons than any other area of a page.
  12. When possible, replace large paragraphs with a list. People love lists but hate big paragraphs.
  13. Some people totally ignore huge text blocks. Don’t be too wordy. I know it’s hard. See, you almost decided not to read the rest of this sentence.
  14. White space rocks!
  15. Menus work best when placed near the top of the page.

So, the next time you sit down to write up some super sexilicious content, or you set out to begin building your next site, don’t forget these scientifically proven points.

Life is knowledge – now, use it!

Sources:

BBC News | directcreative | GoogleBlog