Does your blog/website suffer from Information Overload?
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This is something that really bugs me and it just happened to me, again, so I ran over here to write about it real quick!
Don’t clutter your blog or website with so much information that you overwhelm your reader.
I just left a website that was so cluttered with different information that I quickly ran off screaming and waving my arms in the air (okay, maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration but the little person in my head did just that!) And it might have actually been a decent site! It looked like there may have been some good information there but there was just way too much different content all over the place that I had no idea what was going on and I don’t have the patience to sit down and try to figure it out! (I’m sure many of us are the same in that we are a bit A.D.D. and if we have to battle to figure out what is what, we’ll just leave instead – which means you potentially lose a reader, a buyer, an evangelist and more)
I’m not going to reference the site because that would just be a total insult. But, they had 3 columns (and I’m actually a big fan of 3 columns because you can include more information and even have space to include your social stuff, which is important) but it was such an unorganized mess and they had SO MUCH various information in each column that I literally wasn’t even sure the overall purpose/point of the blog. This is called information overload and it’s NOT a good thing!
Sometimes it’s hard for us to be objective because we know exactly what the purpose is and we know what’s what because we put it all together, but that doesn’t mean that your reader will feel the same way. Ask a few people to take a look at it for you and give you their thoughts – you’ll be surprised at how much people like to help! If you’re on Twitter, send out a Tweet asking for opinions, you’ll likely get some responses.
I understand wanting to have all of your products, ebooks, links, etc. right on the front page in the hopes of getting more sales, readers, downloads and clicks but you’re actually probably reducing those chances when you enter the realm of information overload. If you have a lot of stuff, try picking a few that you most want clicks on and put them on the front page. Then spread the other stuff about or add tabs at the top for different products/sections so that people can navigate there and have a very clear view of what’s there.
Be organized, you can get everything you want on your site without it being a total mess (and nightmare for your potential reader). You don’t have to have it all on one page – and you reduce effectiveness if you try.
Make your pages clean looking, not cluttered like a house that you would walk in and trip and break your neck! Let your readers be focused on whatever the main content is rather than forcing their brain to go in so many directions that they run like hell to get out because it hurts!
Okay, off to continue what I was doing (searching for specific types of blogs – they won’t be on my list because I suffered IO (information overload) during my visit!).
Social Media Maniac,
@areaK
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2 comments to “Does your blog/website suffer from Information Overload?”
August 8th, 2009 at 8:49 am
Hey Karen, I saw you posted some interesting comments in John Chow’s site so I came to check your posts and this one really had me thinking and pondering for awhile.
You’re right when you said that a site needs to be focused into something or a topic that is not only interrelated but it has to be organized and I’m afraid I need to work on that on my other blog! Well sometimes thoughts just flood and can’t help writing about them..haha.
You have very interesting and informative posts that’s why I really like it I think I will keep on coming back.
August 11th, 2009 at 1:04 am
What happens in my experience is you need to add more and more and more and more “stuff” for people to do on your website if you want them to stick around. Sometimes you do it with massive amounts of information that just clutters everything up and drives them away even faster. I used to do that and then I discovered the power of videos, that is to say the power of embedding other people’s videos on my site. Takes away from the information overload and keeps people on my site longer.