10 Costly Assumptions
“Never assume.” – These 2 words represent the greatest advice ever given to me on the topic of website optimization. Here’s a list of 10 assumptions site owners make (myself included) that could cost you a ton of business.
Assumption #1: People will know how to find your website
We often assume that people have memorized or bookmarked our web address. But what happens when people forget, or are using a different computer and don’t have access to bookmarks? In addition to ranking on Google for your brand/company name, do you rank for common misspellings and variations? One company I work with uses uses pay per click to bid on at least a dozen variations / typos of their brand name, which is often misunderstood when spoken. What about your domain name? Especially if your URL contains dashes (example-url.com) or a top level domain of anything besides “.com”, consider buying up every reasonable variation you can afford, and redirecting it to the correct address.
Assumption #2: People know what you sell
How many times have you landed on the homepage of a website, and were unable to understand the primary purpose, product, or service? We often neglect to succinctly inform our customers about our product or service, which leads to a prompt bounce from visitors.
Assumption #3 : Everything will go as planned
Here’s an experiment. Try going through your website conversion funnel (checkout process, contact us form, etc) and do everything wrong. For example, enter an invalid zip code, click on things that weren’t meant to be clicked on, click the back, forward, and refresh buttons on your browser excessively. You might be surprised what you see. How well does your site handle errors? When people stray off the beaten path, can they get back?
Assumption #4: People know where to click
Don’t assume that because you know where to click, everyone knows where to click. Creative can be beautiful and attention grabbing, yet completely worthless if people don’t know what to do next. The power of a strong call to action button on a landing page is priceless.
Assumption #5: People know how to get home
Yes, most people know that clicking the company logo will take them to the homepage, but not everyone. Recently, I performed a test on a website and found that 45% of visitors preferred clicking on a link that actually said “Home” instead of the company logo. Even worse is when interior pages offer no link at all back to the homepage.
Assumption #6: People know where they are
People don’t always start on your homepage, and navigate step by step to their destination. Maybe they landed on an interior page from a search engine, and they have no idea where to go next. Breadcrumb navigation helps orient visitors, and establishes a navigational hierarchy.
Assumption #7: People know how to buy
This one is quite common, unfortunately. Many eCommerce sites assume the visitor will be on the shopping cart page to checkout. However, my experience has found that customers will look for a “checkout” button from any page of a site whenever they are ready to complete a purchase. If it’s not painfully obvious where to go, you might just lose a sale.
Assumption #8: People will volunteer loads of personal information
It’s important to think like a customer when building registration forms or checkout pages. Is the information you’re asking for so important that you’re willing to lose a customer because of it? The truth is, you will lose a certain percentage of customers for every additional piece of unnecessary information you ask for.
Assumption #9: People will contact customer service if they have a question or problem
Actually no, they will probably just leave and never return. In my experience, one customer question or complaint usually represents at least 10 other unspoken ones of the same nature. It’s best not to count on customers to tell you about problems, but rather to discover them yourself.
Assumption #10: People will come back
Even if people love your site, don’t assume they’ll be back unless you give them a good reason. This is why it’s so crucial to capture an email address, since it provides a proactive follow up mechanism. Other tactics to help bring in repeat visitors include having an RSS feed, a section highlighting what’s new, and constantly updated, fresh content. I can’t tell you how many incredible sites I’ve visited and completely forgotten about. When a do remember them, I often can’t remember the url or brand name. (see assumption #1)
To follow my own advice, I’m not going to assume that you’ve already subscribed to the Palmer Web Marketing feed. If you haven’t, why not subscribe now?
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August 7th, 2008 at 12:55 am
I really like that idea of doing PPC for all kinds of misspelling of the domain or company name.
Those are typically some of the highest converting keywords and you would HATE to miss any of them.
Assumption #11 – Assume your customer will use your site the same way you would. Everyone has their own particular ways of using the internet – try to have your site adapt to your customers and not the other way around!
August 7th, 2008 at 10:14 am
@ Tim,
I love your #11. That’s why tracking other “mini-conversions” on websites is fruitful, because people will use it for so many other purposes besides making a purchase, filling out a form, etc.
Justin
August 8th, 2008 at 6:16 am
[...] we’re on the topic of overspending, Justin Palmer writes of 10 Costly Assumptions that impact your ecommerce [...]
August 8th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
This is spot-on! Especially #2. It’s very frustrating to land on a site and not find out what the site is for.
Also, there are sites where I want to convert. I want to sign up for newsletters, join, buy, etc… but at every turn the site gets in my way.
I’m sure some people pay a 3rd party to design the site, then they are afraid of touching it and just assume everything’s going according to plan.
August 8th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
“At least a dozen variations / typos of their brand name, which is often misunderstood when spoken”
The real mistake was picking such a ridiculous brand name, imho. lol
@ the break everything test – It’s great, and I regularly use it when testing. Fun too
.
August 8th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Assumption #9 is right on the money (or lack thereof). Whenever you get a customer service call with a usability or check out problem, you can assume (ought oh) that everyone else with that particular browser/operating system combination is having the same problem. Then you know it’s time to do some research into what’s broken and fix it as quickly as possible.
August 8th, 2008 at 6:00 pm
This is a nice and informative post..thanks for sharing these misconceptions about website usability…I’m pretty lots of newbie like me were enlightened..^^
August 9th, 2008 at 1:35 am
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August 11th, 2008 at 8:47 pm
[...] 8th August – Top Website Usability Mistakes – 10 Costly Assumptions (DaveDavis) Website owners and internet marketers often find it hard to take a step back from their site and look at it as a first time visitor might. Unfortunately in list format, the advice is simplistic although this shouldn’t neglect from the fact that the factors covered are often overlooked. Direct Link: PalmerWebMarketing [...]
August 12th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
[...] clues us in on ten costly assumptions webmasters make about website [...]
August 14th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
[...] 10 Costly Assumptions, point #10 touched on a topic I’d like to explore in more depth: attracting repeat traffic. [...]
August 23rd, 2008 at 11:34 am
[...] came across this article a while ago and thought that it was worth sharing with you guys. It basically covers 10 assumptions [...]
August 23rd, 2008 at 5:05 pm
[...] Artigo original [...]
August 24th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
Great piece! I found your blog and website from the Daily Blog Tips link to your article. Just wanted to say that I love that you have “Christian SEO Company” on your website and offer discounted fees to help these ministries grow. Keep up the great work and great blog!!
New Reader – Tonya @ Atlanta Marketing Concepts, LLC
http://www.linkedin.com/in/tonyacashmktgatl
August 25th, 2008 at 2:00 am
I found your post at DailyBlogTips and I am glad I did. This list is every helpful to me as I am aspiring to be a professional blogger someday.
By the way, no need to assume that I already subscribe to you because I ust did.
Thanks for sharing this.
August 29th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
[...] 10 Costly Assumptions [...]
September 4th, 2008 at 8:32 am
[...] article that I found through the Daily Blog Tips blog before you get started. It’s a list of 10 Assumptions that people make when developing their websites that can end up becoming costly mistakes. Some of [...]
September 8th, 2008 at 6:55 am
[...] 8, 2008 · No Comments Palmer Web Marketing wrote an interesting article about 10 assumptions that must be considered when developing a website. [...]
September 20th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
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[...] Palmer Web Marketing: 10 Costly Assumptions [...]
September 27th, 2008 at 12:03 am
[...] Palmer Web Marketing: 10 Costly Assumptions [...]
October 1st, 2008 at 1:16 am
[...] Palmerwebmarketing.com? Ich denke, mein favorisierter Artikel auf Palmerwebmarketing.com ist “10 costly assumptions”, den ich vor ein paar Wochen geschrieben habe. Dieser Artikel fasst ganz gut zusammen, welche [...]
December 8th, 2008 at 11:15 pm
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February 6th, 2009 at 11:59 pm
[...] 10 Costly Assumptions on PalmerWebMarketing. Here is a list of 10 assumptions site owners make which may be their website usability mistake. [...]
April 17th, 2009 at 5:48 pm
Great analysis for #9. Very similar to the old adage that you tell more people about a bad experience than a good one. In this case they are telling you by never coming back.
April 18th, 2009 at 9:11 pm
Justin,
Thank you so much for this list. I need to work on #3 and make a “few mistakes” on my website and see what happens.
April 20th, 2009 at 11:28 am
Great article.
April 20th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
To ASSUME makes an ASS out of U and ME.
June 13th, 2009 at 12:08 am
[...] 10 Costly Assumptions [...]
August 30th, 2009 at 5:28 pm
After reading this blog makes me want to start my own
November 12th, 2009 at 5:57 pm
I have to disagree with the first statement about dashes. My website address is Alpha-USB.com , but it still goes up in Bing and Google pretty well.
December 3rd, 2009 at 11:47 am
Thanks! I will recommend this to all my friends.