How To Instantly Know If Your Website Is Working
By Anna Johnson on July 14th, 2008Starting soon, we’ll begin critiquing some of the websites submitted to us by our newsletter subscribers. But before we begin, let me explain the formula we’ll be using to conduct these critiques.
We call it the “7W formula” and it’s a formula YOU can also use to critique both your own websites and other sites you come across.
It’s also a formula that is likely to be very familiar to you…
All good news articles convey the “who”, “what”, “why”, “how”, “when” and “where” of a given news story in the first paragraph. Similarly, given the short attention spans of most website visitors, a website, or more accurately a webpage, should also convey this key information within moments of someone landing on the page.
In other words, a webpage should almost instantly – and very clearly – convey the following 6 Ws (“how” ends in “w” okay?):
- Who – who the webpage is aimed at;
- What – what the visitor is supposed to do on the page;
- Why – why the visitor should take the desired action;
- How – how the visitor should perform that action;
- Where – where the visitor should perform the action;
- When – when they should perform the action.
However, it’s not enough to convey these 6 Ws, and that’s where the seventh W comes into play:
- Wow – what makes the visitor think “wow, this webpage has exactly what I’m looking for!”
Whether it’s the offer, the product or service, the headline, the functionality, the copy or something else (and probably all of those things), something needs to grab the visitor’s attention and compel them to at the very least, stay on the page and learn more, and at most, take the desired action e.g. buying, subscribing, reading, etc.
Different factors will have a “wow” effect depending on the target audience, the offer, the product or service, and other variables. For example, it’s not just a matter of having a bold headline, a talking head and a ream of testimonials. In fact, a sales letter style webpage will turn certain target markets away.
Indeed, practically everything depends on what the target market is looking for.
In any case, it will be easier to explain how the 7W formula applies when we critique some live websites. Look out for periodic critiques in upcoming issues, and if you haven’t submitted a webpage or ad for us to review yet, feel free to email your URL to me here.
