It's not just your Home page, either. Google or another search engine may deliver visitors to any page on your site. That means that every page on your site must be designed with visitor retention in mind. Wherever a visitor lands, you have that same short time to keep that visitor on your site or lose him or her, probably forever.
Design, content, and focus all play critical roles in visitor retention. And make no mistake - your sales and leads depend almost completely on keeping site visitors around long enough for your message to convert them into leads and customers. Here are some of the key tools that successful websites use to retain visitors:
- Identification - It's crucial that the site identify with the visitor immediately. That means putting the focus on your visitors first, rather than on your company. Showing visitors that you know who they are and why they came to your site is the first step in retention. Your content must send that message instantly and on every page of your site. "You" is a far more powerful word than "We."
- Navigation - Your goal is always to convince visitors to click through to more than one page on your site. Typically, if a visitor visits three or more pages on your site, the odds are very high that he or she will make contact with you. Your site's navigation design should be logical, visible, and accessible at a glance. Clever graphics and gimmicks are far less effective than keywords in navigation links.
- Information - Every visitor to your site comes there hungry for information. What that information is depends on your site's focus, but that's why visitors are there. Feed that hunger and provide the information clearly, succinctly, and accurately. Make the information easy to access and always pertinent and timely.
- Call to Action - At any point during a visit, your visitors may decide to act. Keep your marketing message and contact tools always available. Every page should ask for action and your contact information should always be close at hand. Never make a visitor look for a way to contact you.
Creating excellent website designs and effective web content are not amateur activities. Every aspect of website design and every word and image that make up your website's content are crucially important to visitor retention and conversion. How both work separately and together isn't an obvious thing. Success demands professional expertise in both areas.
Email Me for a free evaluation of your web site's content. I'll be happy to help you understand how expertly-written and effective content can help your website retain your visitors and convert them into leads and sales. If you also need web design and SEO services, I can recommend a powerful website design company with a proven track record of SEO results. See the sites linked on the left for samples of what we have done together.
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