A visitor decides whether to stay almost immediately — understanding what they're actually evaluating helps explain why they leave.
The very first thing a visitor checks is whether they've landed somewhere relevant to what they were looking for — if that's unclear, they leave immediately.
Visual polish, professional design, and an absence of obvious red flags all factor into a nearly instant, mostly unconscious trust judgment.
Even a visitor who's confirmed relevance and trust will leave if there's no clear indication of what to do next.
Everything below the fold only matters if the first screen has already convinced the visitor to keep looking.
Find out what your own first screen is actually communicating.
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