Placement, Heat Maps, & CrazyEgg

If you’re of the opinion that the placement of various elements on your pages work themselves out naturally, there is more to the art of layout that needs discovering!

If you were a starving cross-country road tripper pulling off the freeway to get something to eat, most likely you’d choose one of the closest fast-food restaurants right off the exit. For that reason, those lots on by the freeway exit are probably much more expensive than land a few miles into the countryside.

Just as a realtor would notice the value difference for land lots, you should consider the space on your website to be very unequal.

Tools like heat maps visually track mouse movements so you can instantly see where on the page viewers are most prone to click. Crazy Egg has devised some really nifty innovations that track related indicators to help webmasters use their page “real estate” wisely.

Here’s also a great basic little map created by Google that shows general trends of places on pages that the eye goes to first. It’s crucial that you use the prime space with warm colors to specifically and succinctly have your purpose noticed.

Some areas of a site are noticed, and some aren’t. Marketing is all about being noticed. Therefore, it’s essential to take a step back and ask, “What is the purpose of this page?” If you know your purpose, it’s easier to make it a priority.

When dealing with purpose, there are three main steps:

1. Identify.
2. Prioritize.
3. Place.

To use your most valuable space on your website for the most important parts of your cause, consider what exactly you want to have happen. Do you want viewers to buy something? Do you want them to sign up for an auto-responder so you have their contact info? Do you want to draw emotional support for your cause? Or do you want to highlight a few products on your home page to link customers to other areas of your site, etc? Do you want to come across as looking professional?

Then, decide what the most important elements are and organize accordingly!

Sure, if you saw a sign or some kind of promising indication that your favorite restaurant was only a mile down the road, the extra time spent might be worth satisfying your hunger appropriately, but that’s a big ‘might’ in the face of immediate gratification. Web surfers need that same instant gratification, so if you want them to notice it—make it instantly available!

Backing up your computer

For many of us, the memory on our computers can seem more crucial than the memory in our brains.

Hoping that’s a stretch and you all have meaningful personal lives outside the world of technology . . . still . . . one crash, one system failure, one freak accident of nature (like the time in college when my attic room’s ceiling broke open and torrents of rain washed out my laptop) can make you wish you had planned ahead.

It’s a good idea to not only back up files from My Documents, your Desktop, etc. on a regular basis, but also crucial bits of information that make your life run smoothly:

• Bookmarks (Manage Bookmarks > Export)
• Passwords saved by your browser (Tools > Options > Security > Passwords)
• Files used by your FTP Client
• Installation files for programs on your computer
• A list of programs on your computer (and any usernames, directions, contacts, etc. you may need to reinstall them later)

The way you save the info doesn’t matter as much as the fact that you do it. Find some space on a flash drive, an external hard drive, your kid’s xbox . . . or burn a few DVDs from time to time. Each time, organize your files and save your new backup info on top of what you have before so you’re not cluttering valuable space.

This is a great way to reduce stress, clean up your life, and to help you keep your calm a little more the next time your computer has a run-in with baseballs, electrical storms, over-zealous children, or just plain old-age.