Online Success and The 3 Minute Principle©
After many years of observation and hard data, Multimediums has created something called The Three Minute Principle. If you can convince users to stay on your page for half a minute, there’s a good chance that they’ll stay much longer — often 2 minutes or more, which is an eternity on the Web.
So, roughly speaking, there are two cases here:
- bad pages, which get the axe in a few seconds; and
- good pages, which might get a few minutes of their attention.
03 SECONDS
The first 3 seconds are critical for users’ decision to stay or leave. The probability of leaving is high during these first few seconds because users are extremely skeptical, having suffered countless poorly designed Web pages in the past.
30 SECONDS
If the Web page survives this first — extremely harsh — 3-second judgment, users will look around a bit. However, they’re still highly likely to leave during the subsequent 20 seconds of their visit.
03 MINUTES
Only after people have stayed on a page for about 30 seconds does the curve become relatively flat. People continue to leave every second, but at a much slower rate than during the first 30 seconds.
Applying The Principle
Every site that we design or optimize is measured against this principlebefore we launch anything. It is important that the company you choose to build (or fix) your web site understands this process, and what it means. Additionally, there are three principles, or motivators, that motivate web site visitors:
Factors that Users Judge You By
Design: The look of your site is what first tells a user a lot about you. An ugly site speaks volumes about the pride you have in your company, and by proxy the level of professionalism they should expect from you.
Speed / Function: Similar to design/appearance, if the site is slow to load or anything is broken – links, flash content, copy – then your potential client is likely to leave. On the Internet, the user can leave in a split second. You must convince them that you are the best choice for them.
Usability: How easy is it to find what I am looking for on your site? If the user can’t find what they are looking for in 10 seconds, they’ll go back to Google and find it elsewhere. It is also crucial that a web site be scannable - that is, a user can quickly find what they are looking for with a quick glance. As much as you would love your users to read 5,000 words about your widget, it’s just not going to happen.
Twitch, Ditch, and Hitch
Three phases of a first time user:
The Twitch: This is the first 3-5 seconds when a user makes a quick, knee-jerk reaction based on your site. This is largely based on a combination of the design of the site as well as the primary headlines on the page. More abandon the site in this phase than any other. The way to reduce this is to have a more professional appearance and better quality headlines.
The Ditch: This is the time period from 3 seconds to 30 seconds where the user generally makes the decision that they will “probably” find what they are looking for on this page. During this time, users are scanning more of the copy beyond the headlines, and further sizing you up. Better graphic design helps in this phase, as does a faster download. By the end of this time segment, the page should be completely downloaded.
The Hitch: Once the user has been on the page for 30 seconds, the chances of them staying longer flattens out. This is extremely important because this means the user is a potential customer or returning user. This is when the make a decision about the usability and utility of the site. If they get this far, you have a better chance of “hitching” the user.
The Goal of the 3 Minute Principle
Overall, the goal is to get the user to stay on your site for three minutes. Three minutes is the average amount of time that the average user spends on a web site, total, across all web sites in all categories. In fact, three minutes is at the high end of the average. So, if you get a user to spend three minutes on your site, the chances you’ve got their attention – and therefore their business – is very good.
How Multimediums Uses the 3 Minute Principle to Get Results
We design and develop everything with the Three Minute Principle in mind. We install analytics on the site and watch for users that spend less time on the site, and figure out why they left – where they came from, what they were searching for before they arrived, technical issues perhaps. Often our sites perform extremely well from the beginning, averaging 2 to 3 minutes or more time spent on site.
Of course, some sites, like news sites for example, have an average time on site of 7 minutes, 9 minutes, or more. One of our sites had an average time on site of 14 minutes. So, there are exceptions, but the goal is to get the user invested in you… and that’s what we do best.