A new movie is coming out; let’s say it is a Transformer’s movie. You love Transformer’s so you are looking forward to this movie. When the movie comes out, you are there opening day. Popcorn, candy and drink in hand, you settle in to watch the movie.
It sucks.
You leave the movie disappointed. There was so much potential, the plot wasn’t consistent and the elements you love about Transformer’s were missing. Your phone rings, it’s your friend asking how the movie was, and you are honest and tell your friend the movie sucked.
Everyone eventually has an experience like that. The hope he or she will have a good time and instead ends up being disappointed. Of course the scenario could be switched. Replace movie for a date, replace a date for a job interview, replace a job interview for launching a new business, replace a business launch for buying a new car…all of these events have hope for success but could end in failure.
Just like someone coming to your blog expecting one thing and receiving something else.
When you go to a movie you have expectations. Clean theatre, decent food options, good movie, etc. and if any of those things do not meet your expectations it can damper your experience. When someone comes to your site, he or she has expectations. If they are coming from a search engine he or she will expect the article matches the information being sought. The person expects a design pleasing to the eye. A well-written, informative article or if the reader is looking for something entertaining (instead of informative) the person will expect to be entertained (laugh at something funny for example). Instead of finding what the reader expects, the reader finds a design that is blinding to the eye because it is so bright. Or the reader finds the article is only a summary of someone else’s article (not giving the reader the information/entertainment he or she is looking for).
Perhaps there are a ton of ads on the page distracting the reader from reading the article. Worse, a stream of entries that has no logic to them, more like a brain dump the reader cannot begin to follow, since he or she is not in your head. If the reader encounters any of the above and does not like it, the reader will leave your site with a negative perception of your site.
And of you.
