Boiling user behavior in any situation down to a simple list of rules is tough. And often, incomplete. That said, The Page Paradigm misses very little in its two step process:
-
For every Web page, visitors will either
- Click something that gets them closer to their goal.
- Click the back button (or otherwise leave)
This is a pretty powerful–and easy–question to ask about each of your pages. Answering the question might be tough. If it is, chances are you have more to discover about your site and your visitors.
My friend Mike Duffy, who turned me on to this concept, has incorporated it into what he calls visitor effectiveness. He focuses on winery websites, but your site likely has audience segments you need to consider separately.
I especially liked the “zombie visitor” mention. I’m assuming the randomly clicking web designer or developer would fall into that category!