David Fiske Affiliate marketing & web development musings from Fiske Towers

I love psychology. I am a very analytical person and like to interpret view and opinions of others and relate them back to practical aspects of their life.

Whilst reading Web Copy That Sells: The Revolutionary Formula for Creating Killer Copy Every Time last night, I stumbled across a chapter that was right up my street - the psychology of visitors.

Compare Sat Nav has a clean layout but it still isn't converting anywhere near the 1% I had hoped.
 
Here is what the site looks like:



What's wrong with this? Nothing much. It is what was below this that was the problem - the top half of the site looked clean and crisp. The bottom looked cluttered and jumbled around. There were extra links that were distracting my visitors:



The price comparison page is designed as a funnel. The top has vague information about the product but as you go further down the page, the prices are specific details. Users should click on these and buy or research further. But the miscellaneous links below these (for various magazines and spares and accessories) were distracting users. Instead of clicking on the sat nav links, they were clicking on the miscellaneous links but not purchasing anything.

Hence, I have removed all of the non-profitable links from the bottom of the page.

The "related items" section is contentious too. I think it is another distraction so I have removed it. The reason is that if my visitor is set on buying a TomTom Go 910 and a related item is a model £200 cheaper, they may choose the cheaper model or worse still, they may choose neither as they are now confused.

The footer text is too dark and a distraction too. This has been lightened up:

The resulting result (?!) is:



The difference is quite an improvement which suggests less really can be more!

Several more changes are on the way. I think the menu may need to be altered slightly and the header section of the site needs 'tweaking'. The logo has already shrunk slightly but there are more changes required to help create the desired 'flow' down the funnel.