This you DO NOT want to miss: The newest report out on "seeing" what people look at when they browse through your site and how they react to certain layouts, headlines, images, and text formats.

Do you really want to know what people see when they visit your site? You think you're ready for harsh reality?

The project managers of EYETRACK III team, Steve Outing and Laura Ruel seem to have done quite a bit of work and I want to thank them for their findings.

So how do we utilize this new found information ? Knowledge is only power, unless it is applied.

Applying Knowledge: Homepage Layout

Quoted From: http://www.poynterextra.org/eyetrack2004/main.htm

"The eyes most often fixated first in upper left of page, then hovered in that area before going left to right. Only after perusing top portion of page for some time did their eyes explore further down page."

It is mentioned all throughout those articles that people they tested and had EyeTracker III track their movements, and they repeatedly looked towards upper left hand corner first. The logical reason for that would be because many people in world read left-to-right. Only certain people can read right-to-left.

That would be another explanation why they even tested sites that used their menu on right and why most of people tested, seemed to be drawn to menus on right.

Pay Attention As To What You Add On The Top Left Hand Corner!

Msn does this so perfectly, here's what you can find at top of MSN, MSN Home, My MSN, Hotmail, Web Search, Shopping, Money, People & Chat .

The study shows that with having important links at top, people will gravitate to those links first. First impressions are huge, even more than most of us consider sometimes.

Things you can add at top to maximize space:

- Add a link To Their Favorites button - Tell a friend link - Search function - Company specials - Site Map - Contact Us - Log-In - Print Page - Newsletter Subscription - Daily News Report

How To Improve Your Content For More Exposure:

If you have information or news that you want read right away, try to implement and position that information near top. The study shows that by adding a small "caption" of article, people will generally read caption more than if there were only a headline to article.

On other hand, it doesn’t mean that people will read entire article more but ... You may attract readers to that article that may have just brushed headline off.

The key to your content is flow:

If you want people to scroll down and view content that you have near bottom of page, make sure that ALL of your content flows towards bottom. Try not to break it in any way. The more flow you have, more people will browse down.

Many aspects of web sites functionality is sub-conscious. Implementing more and more tested strategies will increase your chances at a successful and powerful website.

It even surprised me.

Yes, even though I have been pointing out possibility since July, I was shocked when I heard news as well.

You see, I was sure we were at least a year off from this glorious day.

The News

Yahoo has had a little facelift, which you've probably read about by now. The real news is more important for your site - “My Yahoo!” page looks different too.

On September 28, 2004, surfers who logged in to their personalized Yahoo area saw an announcement explaining RSS and Atom files that show updated information to a website as content feeds, effectively pushing news feeds into mainstream.

The new look to this section of Yahoo was presented as a full page ad to every single account holder upon first log in that day, and even now, there remains a notice posted.

When I logged into my page in "My Yahoo!" section, I saw a big difference in number of feeds left to choose from, as well as in way they were presented.

Currently, RSS module boasts "150,000 sources". If your site isn't one of them, its crucial that you act now. If you have one and you’re not getting results you’d like from your set-up, there are small changes you can implement that will make a huge difference in your listing.

Best results aren’t as easy as submitting your feed now, but you’re still within window of opportunity - if you do it properly.

What News Could Mean For Your Site If You Act Now

One of my clients recently called this "the back door into Yahoo". Whether that statement is accurate as far as getting included, or receiving an increase in rankings within Yahoo's search engine via your feed, depends on your site, and whether you create your feed correctly.

But many feed publishers are reporting that submitting your feed prompts Yahoo spider to crawl your site as well.

If you could use a daily stream of traffic from even a small portion of Yahoo's estimated 20 million users, this could be your final wake-up call. You’ll want to learn how to create a feed that gets well listed immediately.

This is because Yahoo will still need hundreds, perhaps thousands more, even if it only intends to list “creme de la creme” of submissions it gets. Being in that group is as easy as submitting your feed.