Okay, pipe down in the back. It’s got nothing to do with bedroom antics, unless that’s where you or your customers like to surf from. But it’s got everything to do with customers.

Three seconds is the time users will give a site to convince them it’s worth exploring or they’re better off elsewhere.

Three seconds. That’s it. The time to took to read this line.

Not long, is it? Even the best salespeople in the world need longer than three seconds. I’ll explain, in a moment, what you can do to make customers stay on your site. But first of all, let’s look at why users give sites such short shrift.

In short, because they are ‘in control’. They control the surfing experience. And control is liberating and addictive. For our entire existence as a race we’ve been entertained to and we’ve had to sit there and take it. Okay, you can walk out of a cinema, you can turn the dial on a radio, you can switch channels, but it all takes effort and, even if you move on to something else, you’re at the mercy of the radio or television planners and what they think you want to see elsewhere, not what you want to see.

Now, the web is different. The tables have turned. We are in charge of what entertains us, not the programmers or planners. At the click of the mouse, a user can turn their back on one site and effortlessly visit another. And power is infectious. You start to understand why the kings of old (and some of recent times, too) turned into power crazed morons. Once you start controlling what you see, it’s hard to stop. Just yesterday, I spoke of users becoming more ruthless. Users are putting greater demands on sites to provide what they are after, and provide it quick.

So, how do you, as a web site owner, appease these new kings of media? In short, it depends on what you are offering but the fundamentals remain the same regardless;

1. Fast loading site (No splash pages, please. No long flash loads, please)
2. Clear message of what you offer and who you are (Notice ‘what you offer’ comes before who you are. Unless you are an elite brand from whom people will buy regardless, get your core offering clearly in place.)
3. Demonstrate clear range or bespoke quality (’After 1960s Spiderman comics? Certainly! We have them all beautifully categorised and accessible here.’ ‘After handmade pocket watches? Look what our big title says? They very same!’)
4. Title says a thousand words. (Don’t rely on images. In IBM usability tests I ran at the backend of the 1990s, time and time again users ignored anything graphical and looked for a big title to guide them.)
5. Simplicity. (Keep the page simple. Whilst users will ignore ‘noise’ on the page whilst looking for the ‘title’, if the title is right, they will then look to see where to go next. A long navigation or complicated page layout will eventually dissuade even the most ardent of searchers.

Surprising how much the brain can consider and calculate within just three seconds, eh?