Your website should encourage people to act: June 17, 2002 issue of New Thinking

June 17, 2002 New Thinking:
Your website should encourage people to act

Website content management

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Gerry McGovern

Content Critical

Gaining competitive advantage through high-quality web content

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June 17, 2002

Your website should encourage people to act

By Gerry McGovern

The purpose of a website is to encourage action. A successful ecommerce website gets people to spend money. A successful intranet helps people do their work more productively. Your website should have as many calls to action as possible. The more a person acts on your website, the more likely your website is to succeed.

Developing an action-oriented website begins with your homepage. A reader will leave your homepage for two reasons. Firstly, they realize they're in the wrong place. Secondly, they feel there is nothing of interest to them on the rest of the website.

Have a look at the Microsoft homepage. Practically every piece of text on the page is written with the objective of bringing you deeper into the website. On June 15, 2002, the lead story read: "An Xbox on wheels – Enter to win a Cadillac Escalade with built in Xbox and 70 games." The next story had the heading: "10 great reasons to upgrade your Visual Basic .NET."

Does your classification encourage action? Are the words you use for your classifications clear and unambiguous? People will scan your classifications and decide in an instant whether there's something there for them. Remember, hypertext is an invitation to act (to click). Why should your customer or staff member click on that link?

A great website will allow people to act in a variety of ways. People should be encouraged to:

Buy your product or complete some other transaction with you
Get in touch with you
Contribute to a discussion forum
Subscribe to a newsletter
Fill out a form
Download something
Inform someone else about your website
Print out your content in a printer-friendly format
Link to you
Republish a selection of your content (where appropriate)

The above list describes 'action points' on your website. Wherever you design an action point, it should be thoroughly tested with target readers to ensure that it is as easy as possible to complete. Every action point should have a statement encouraging feedback, so as to ensure that it can be constantly refined. It should also be tested regularly, so as to ensure that it is still working properly.

We are used to receiving feedback as a result of our actions. If we touch something hot, it stings. If we pick up an item in a shop we get a ‘feel’ for it. Feedback reduces uncertainty. A great many people are unfamiliar with the Internet. Unfamiliarity results in nervousness and uncertainty. Good feedback can reduce this uncertainty.

For example, if a person has filled out a 30-field form and clicked on ‘Submit,’ the website should provide the following type of feedback: “Thank you. Your form has been completed successfully.” If, however, the form was not completed successfully, the feedback should isolate the particular error or mistake. It should not say: “Some fields in your form were not filled out correctly.” Rather, it should say: “It seems that your email address has not been entered correctly.”

If someone wants to act on your website you've done well. Help them to complete that action in a friendly, clear and simple manner. Then, and only then, is your website achieving its objectives.

Gerry McGovern

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If someone wants to act on your website you've done well. Help them to complete that action in a friendly, clear and simple manner. Then, and only then, is your website achieving its objectives.

Gerry McGovern's books are recommended reading at the following universities

Augustana College, United States
Brandeis University, United States
Drury University, United States
Dublin Institute of Technology, Ireland
Indiana University, United States
Monash University, Australia
Northeastern University, United States
University of Applied Sciences, Germany
University of Regina, Canada
University of Teesside, UK
Manchester Metropolitan University

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