10,9,8,7,6,5...

When we started talking about the concept of landing pages it was on the back of stats around attention times and bounce rates which started appearing and transformed a lot of our thinking about the way web sites worked. The first number that struck a chord was 8 seconds, if you're page did not make an impression in that time you were rejected by the web-savvy browsing punter.

I now read that it's down to 5 seconds! No surprise that this number has gone down over the years but it's interesting to think that average internet speeds have probably quadrupled in that time, so actually browser's attention span has probably gone up in reality. There are many factors which influence this as well as speed of access, such as relevance, improved search results, optimised graphics, cleaner code and the increased experience of the browsing public.

On that basis check out this interesting new service: fivesecondtest.com. 

On fivesecondtest.com, you can post a screen shot of your landing page. Visitors who go to that testing site get five seconds to perform a test. Currently, fivesecondtest.com offers two kinds of tests:

• Memory test. The visitor gets five seconds and then has to type what he can remember.
• Click test. The visitor gets five seconds to click on areas of interest, and then must describe them.

You get a limited number of free responses. If you pay a small amount of money ($5 to $15), you get more responses and greater ability to customize your test. The downside is that the people who respond will not necessarily be in your target demographic, so if your business is a very, very specialized one, this tool may not help you. On the other hand, it costs no money and almost no time. It is a wonderful way to start getting feedback on your site.

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