After years of clients wanting fancy sites with flash animation home pages, downloadable videos and bckground music, I’m pleased to say that things are getting simpler – For the surfer that is. At one point it seemed like every site had to use the full colour palette to be noticed – if we’ve got 256 colours why weren’t  we using them!

For many years and for many site owners , the online world appeared to be image obsessed, to the detriment of content.

Of course what the client wants is important – but surely the surfer claims a higher priority? After all they are the potential customer and the site’s target audience.

These days I reckon  even the newbie surfer is more savvy than previous generations – they come to the web looking for one thing and one thing only – Information!

If your site loads quickly and is clearly what they are looking for, you are in with a chance – after all the average eyeball time on the web is 4.7 secs – that’s how long it takes for the surfer to decide whether or not they’ve got the right page, prior to clicking away!

In google analytics terms this number is measured by the ‘Bounce Rate’ statistic – The lower the number the less folk are getting away quickly ! If you survive the eyeball test, your site now has to provide useful content that is arranged in a structured way, in other words you must have a navigation system that is easy to use and understand.

This is where our new generation of Wordpress sites come into their own – they load very quickly indeed, display information in a clear, easy to understand way and the menu systems are extremely easy to understand. That’s why they convert at twice the rate of regular websites that rely on fixed html pages.

By the way – they score well in google too – often increasing traffic levels by around 200%

For the first time in at least 6 years, I opened my copy of the local yellow pages last week.  I needed a number, we had an internet issue andd I’d left my phone in the office – Otherwise I would have just Googled my enquiry as usual!

I know it’s that long  since I used them because this particular volume  travelled with us from our old home when we moved in 2003/4!

Two things struck me immeduiately! – firstly that the thing was still wrapped in it’s polythene packaging, pristine as the day it arrived, so clearly I wasn’t the onl;y person in the house who had not needed of it for that length of time, and secondly I was amazed at the size of it – it seemed to be much slimmer than I remembered it!

It doesn’t seem that long ago that tearing up telephone directories was sport for the more aggressive types amongst us, these days I reckon almost anyone could get into it!

And here’s another thought – even though that book is a lot slimmer than it used to be, it doesn’t cost any less to get an entry in it – in fact paper directory charges continue to rise whilst their usage declines – how does that work?

So – if people don’t use these directories to either promote themselves, or find goods and services they need – why do business  phones keep  ringing?

My theory is that pretty much everyone in business, and a huge percentage of consumers too, will  use Google as their yellow pages substitute.

I also think that whilst a percentage of  surfers will email or fill in a form from websites that interest them,  it’s pretty likely a larger number of them will simply pick up the phone and call the company concerned – I know I do.

If Google is becoming the new Yellow Pages, it’s important that your site has contact details on every single page – and that must include your phone number – miss that out and you could be missing out on the lions share of the available business.

If you’ve moved from paper Yellow pages to an online directory such as Yell.com you may be in for a nasty shock when you check out your website analytics – in amost all cases where I have clients using Yell or other web based directories, they contribute only a tiny number of visitors – I believe this is because the directory lists your competitors next to you, and lets face it 0  it’s just too easy to click and visit them too!