Effects of Registration 1

[FesterSXS]

Does anyone know of any online resource with details on the typical effects on a website of requiring users to register to gain access to content?

We have a large amount of useful information on our websites and management are keen to find out how badly our visitor figures will be affected if we lock this content behind a registration form.

thanks


Tony

 

[Foamcow]

Well it will, obviously, be instantly hidden from any search engines that come along trying to index content.

Other than that, I don't have (to hand) an stats regarding the issue. However I would guess that it does depend on the type of content.

Casual browsers may well be scared off whereas qualified traffic may be more inclined to register. However, I would also say that it is important to provide them with a very good idea of what content they are going to see when they have registered.

What would the benefits of forced registration be? I assume you are wanting to harvest email/marketing info?

Foamcow Heavy Industries - Web design and ranting
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[ca8msm]

I think you'll probably struggle to get any meaningful stats - even if you do find some previous cases, their target audience may have been different to yours. Just because a user may leave a site because they don't want to register, it doesn't mean that they would do the same when accessing your site (or vice-versa).


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[FesterSXS]

I and many others in my team are keen to keep the content freely available and to get contact details from visitors based on trust and confidence in the company's abilities (currently demonstrated by the very content that is to be protected). Our upper management are keen to get something in return before we provide all this information. They are basically after marketing info as you suggested.

The content is freely available now and we already get a lot of contact from customers. This will also hopefully increase soon as we are addressing the usability of the sites.

We have told them about the -ve effect regarding Search Engines but are also keen to show them the -ve impact it will have on visitor traffic. We would rather not have to force the registration and show its effects just to prove a point.

I agree that we may not have a choice though



Tony

 

[BabyJeffy]

I've been working on the DRM functionality for an information heavy site. They have introduced "barrier" pages that are shown to non-registered users. These barriers attempt to up-sell a subscription and make it easy to register right away. The barriers contain the first 2 paragraphs of the information at the very top... so the user can see what kind of information they are missing out on.

I know this doesn't give you any feedback on the impact of number usage... but it gives you some ideas about how you can still provide some content to the users whilst encouraging them to register for the "full deal".

Cheers,
Jeff

[tt]Jeff's Page @ Code Couch

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What is Javascript? FAQ216-6094

 

[ecobb]

Do you have any competitors offering the same information? If so, is theirs free or does it require registration? If they require registration and you don't, try to find out what kind of regular traffic they see vs. what your site sees. But, if their site is free and yours requires registration, you may just be pushing users over to your competition. This might be a point that management hasn't considered.

Another point (if you DON'T have any competition) is that if you start forcing registration, another company might put up a free site and take away your visitors. The reason I say this is, I've had plenty of ideas for stuff to put on the web, but after researching it I find that someone has already beat me to it and they're free. So, I don't bother with it. But, if I had a better (cheaper) solution to what was already out there....you get the idea.


Hope This Helps!

ECAR
ECAR Technologies

http://www.ecartech.com

"My work is a game, a very serious game." - M.C. Escher

 

[harrymossman]

Speaking personally, if your site required registration I would not use it unless I absolutely couldn't get the information/product/etc. elsewhere. Then I would lie or use

http://www.bugmenot.com,

and resent your company.

One of Jakob Nielsen's rants on the subject is at

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/990711.html.

Another good discussion is at

http://www.usabilitynews.com/news/article2629.asp.

Google on registration + usability.

 

[FesterSXS]

Thanks for all your comments - Even without finding hard evidence, we managed to convince the powers that be that blanket registration was a bad idea. We have told them that selective registration for areas of particular added value to the customer is a much more sensible option.

thanks again


Tony