This topic has intrigued me since I begun my research on PB4. With attention spans being shorter than ever, how can content creators ensure to keep people interested once they click to their page? A lot of media creators offer deals/giveaways, advertise on bit social media pages or tag famous people/videos in order to draw in the crowd, but if the attention span has become so brief, how can these creators actually retain the audience they have drawn in?
One thing that has been studied more and more recently is eye movements while web browsing. Seeing where the eye is drawn to on the screen, and where to place the most important information on your website in order to get it to the consumer as quickly as possible. If you only have a few seconds to capture the interest of your reader, you need to get the important information in front of their eyes immediately after the page loads. You don’t want them searching for the info because if it isn’t found extremely quickly, they will move on.
Another way to solve this problem is spending the money and time on a good, clean interface. People who frequent the web can tell if a site is easy to navigate almost immediately and, going off my own experience, will just leave to find something else to browse almost immediately if either its difficult to find what they are looking for, or even if the site is just a bit rough on the eyes. When every second counts from the get go, first impressions are hugely important. It can make or break a websites ability to retain eyes for extended periods, thereby being a more attractive prospect to advertisers.