The URL is http://www.findportablesolarpower.com

As the name implies it was originally only for portable solar power, but it grew out of its domain name and … to late to turn back now! Now it’s just solar power in general and people will have to live with that. (Lesson: never start a site with a domain name it might grow out of). Its actually the first website I ever made, and now I am fixing it up, bit by bit.

I want to continue to simplify the home page. I’m watching the overlay and stats to see what to trash next. I will probably get rid of that little slideshow when I am ready to put in my opt in for a free eBook (which is being written right now). And I’ve been planning to email you about that eBook too, when its done!

That is awesome! Thank you for the summation and case study. I’d have absolutely no problem with you sharing the link to the site in discussion.

I’m so glad you found something useful from the post. Just from reading about the changes, I think you did the right thing. Very cool. Would love to see your work, by the way

I was revamping one of my sites, and during the process of testing different layout changes, there were a few days when the home page had two prominent links both leading to the site’s store.

I read this article on eye trail and I removed one of the “store” links.

Result:

1. I was finally able to look at my own website without feeling sensations of physical pain.
2. The bounce rate of the home page improved
3. The overal click-through rate to the store increased from 6.2% to 9.7%, after I removed one of the links to it. Ie, fewer links to the store, more clicks to the store.
4. The income of the site improved

I can add that using the Google Analytics Site Overlay tool in conjunction with what you wrote above is very useful -

For example, right now I simply watch the overlay regularly and replace or remove the items and links that my visitors are obviously the least interested in. Where I have ads on the page, I keep track of their earnings separately, and just remove the ones that are not performing well.

This helps me decide what to lose and what to keep. It makes the overall clean-up of the page much easier. I think pack-rat inclinations are sometimes caused by an inability to evaluate importances.

It follows with what you said above:

“Having a million things to focus on does not create more focus. It does the exact opposite and gives everything a monotone of importance.”

Cleaning up the page obviously helps with site load times as well – another benefit. And I have reason to believe that improved page load time indirectly effects search engine rankings as well.

I just wanted you to know that the article was very helpful and useful. Thank you!

I’m trying to improve the bounce rate on one of my site’s home pages and … I think I have a “Yahoo” site … (blush). But since I’m right in the middle of it, this was a great time to come across this post. You provide really useful information!

I had eye-trail disease for a while in college, I remember, and a little of each disease I picked up then stayed with me. That’s why I’m a per-fess-unal now, so I can put all those little tidbits together to do good for others.

Except thinking I have everything in the psych books. I’m over that now, and it wouldn’t do anyone else any good!

Until later,

Kelly

The girl with the shoes! Hello again!

Yup yup, Satriani knows what he’s doing for sure. I’m a closet butt-rocker and semi-serious guitar player and he’s one of the good ones. Yngwie Malmsteen…not so much.

But…back to the subject at hand. Eye trails are awesome, indeed. It’s sort of strange that since I wrote this and started picking them apart, I see them everywhere. Newspapers and magazine ads…it’s crazy. It’s some sort of graphic designer mental illness.

I know I’m really late to the party. Turkey hangover, forgive me.

“On your Charfish site, my eye path was banner, top navigation line, blue image in post. Skipped the RSS completely.” Yup. Me, too. Ditto James’ view of Google.

Because I use Yahoo exclusively, my eye path there was logo, search box, mail button. But believe me, I know that that’s Pavlovian, not their excellent design.

“In music, a guitar player who plays super fast all the time actually reduces the impact of those fast passages.” I was gonna say “Joe Satriani,” but then I read the second sentence. Okay, good ones do slow down, speed up, to give flow to the music. I agree. I wish Yahoo knew that.

Excellent look at one of my favorite subjects. I love eyetracking info, and you did the subject proud.

Regards,

Kelly

Indeed. As I said to Anthony above, the end of the eye trail is the important bit. It’s cool that while you took a different path through the eye trails, you wound up at the proper end in each case.

This of course is just further proof that Yahoo! should come begging for me to redo their homepage. And they’ll pay me big bucks, which is good ’cause I’ll need it when Google sues me for copying them.

On your Charfish site, my eye path was banner, top navigation line, blue image in post. Skipped the RSS completely. But that’s just me.

On Google, my eye path was logo, search box. Pretty darned effective, that one. (Again, just me. Didn’t even notice their navigation.)

Grey boxes – Now this one’s tricky, because the top and vertical grey boxes ate up the grey headline, so I didn’t even see it. My eye path was banner, small notice of sidebar and head to the content lines.

Yahoo’s just a fucking disaster. My eye path was, “OH GOD!” CLICKAWAYFAST.

Yeah. You go, Yahoo.

Wow, that was a fast comment! And it’s also very astute of you to notice what you did. I was wondering if anyone would pick up on that, and I’m glad you did as the explanation is pretty important.

What you said about the eye trails being somewhat instinctive is spot on, and there is in fact a reason why the eye trail on my site is stronger than Yahoo!’s, even though both headlines are ranked at #4.

First, just because something is ON the eye trail is no reason the eye will STOP there. On Yahoo! your eye may stop briefly on the headline, but it is very easily dragged away toward the sidebar and other bits of clutter that are battling for importance.

On Charfish, the headline is really the last element and there’s nowhere else to go. I’ve left you no choice but to read the content or get the hell out.

So, basic rule of thumb, having a eye trail is useless if the trail doesn’t stop somewhere.

And the second reason brings up a very important rule for all types of art, writing and even music. If there is too much happening overall and too much clutter, the ability to focus goes away, as does contrast. Having a million things to focus on does not create more focus. It does the exact opposite and gives everything a monotone of importance.

In music, a guitar player who plays super fast all the time actually reduces the impact of those fast passages. He’d have more impact by playing slow for a bit and then blasting out a ripping phrase.

In writing, trying to be funny or sad all the time gets tiresome and reduces focus. It’s more effective to change moods and then surprise the hell out of your audience.

And, incidentally, this is why hanging out with some comedians is the most aggravating thing ever. They’re just funny. All the time. It’s tiresome and too predictable to be interesting for very long.

I really appreciate the comment, Anthony. Good to see you here again, and if you’re always saying such intelligent stuff, you’re welcome any time.