Re: Web Page Stickiness

**"* F* <c*@mail.com>**

 Doreen,
Put me down as one more who thinks music is REALLY ANNOYING.  Since I often find myself checking email in coffee shops when I'm on the road, it is annoying to me and to those around me to suddenly have unexpected sound coming from my computer.  Ditto for those surfing in public libraries.  When at home I often listen to radio on-line while working the net, and these website blast over the radio program, creating a chaotic muddle.  I leave websites that have unexpected sound immediately.

I think that the most important thing is to have important information "above the fold" - for garden writers, I agree with Doug that graphics are important: flowers or a pretty garden.  Also, all important words that you want search engines to pick up should be at the top of the page - "author" "garden writer" "speaker" etc.  The title for your splash page article should be above the fold as well - and your most important links.  It's like the newspaper in the box outside the diner...you want what shows through the window to be interesting enough to get them to buy the paper, or in this case, bookmark your website.

Recently I took part in a phone seminar sponsored by NSA where several of us submitted our websites and then a panel of professional publicists looked at them and gave us comments in the teleseminar.  Having a compelling graphic look "above the fold" so that people didn't immediately have to scroll down, was one comment they made about many of the sites including my own.  (I changed my site right after the call!)  Another was how difficult many of the sites made it to contact the person.  We were all surprised that on many sites (all professional speakers) it took four or five clicks just to find contact information!  The publicists said that they, and most publications, work quickly - if the contact information isn't on the splash page, they go onto the next site.  I was agast when they pointed out that although my contact link was right on the splash page, I'd neglected to put my phone number on the contact page. "Media people are often on a deadline." they told me. "They a
 re looking for someone to interview right now, and they want a phone number not an email address."

All this might not apply to what you're doing, but I thought I'd pass it on.

all the best,
C.L.
C.L. Fornari
www.gardenlady.com

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