6 Things You Can Do to Engage Website Visitors
Plus 5 Features that Will Make Your Website Enjoyable To Visit
Does your site engage website visitors well enough?
FEATURE 1
Explain how your business is unique to better engage website visitors
In order to engage website visitors you need to meet their needs, build their trust, and give them a great user experience.
Think branding!
What sets you apart from everyone else? With the Internet, your website is only one click away from a competitor. Make your visitors want to stay and keep them engaged with compelling branding and your Unique Selling Proposition (USP).
Your website should …
Clearly tell a story about your company and brand. Set the tone for what a visitor can expect from your business in terms of quality, experience, guarantees, unique features, etc. Are your prices more competitive or can you do something faster or better? Remember your website is your 24/7 salesperson.
FEATURE 2
Update content to engage website visitors better
Make yourself relevant!
Have you ever visited a website that looks like it’s from the 90’s? Have you visited a website with their Christmas hours still posted in July? What about a website that looks like it was designed by the owner’s 14-year-old nephew? Outdated, irrelevant and an old-school web design can send the message that your business isn’t keeping up with the times. It could even send the message you have closed shop! …how will that engage website visitors?
Your website should …
Maintain a current appearance and portray a professional look. Keep adding new images to a product gallery, upload new customer testimonials, or write weekly (and relevant) blog posts. The goal is to show your visitors you are on top of your game and ready for their business. Adding and updating content can also have a positive return in terms of Search Engine Optimization.
FEATURE 3
Prove that what you offer meets their needs
Affirm that you’ll help solve their problem.
Marketing 101 will tell you to meet a need or solve a problem. What are your customer’s needs? To better engage website visitors you need to prove that your business is able to meet their need and overcome any buyer reluctance.
Your website should …
Outline all of your product or service offerings. Explain the benefits (not the features) of your products or services. Have FAQ pages about your products and services. Once you’ve sold the visitor on your product or service make sure you tell them what to do next (add calls-to-action or CTA) – call, email, purchase online, order online, download a PDF, etc. Don’t leave a visitor hanging!
FEATURE 4
Add clear navigation to find important pages easier
Make it easy for visitors to learn about you.
A disorganized website is like a grocery store where the bananas are beside the canned soup and many of items are hidden in the back stockroom. There are common navigational structures to all websites just like how most grocery stores will arrange their products in similar manners. Your visitors expect to find intuitive navigation on your website.
Your website should …
To engage website visitors better, have a main navigation across the top with important landing pages such as Home, Products, About Us, Contact. Use drop down menus or a sub navigation to outline deeper pages. Have main landing page links in the footer. Use a Sitemap to outline all of the pages in one glance. Use breadcrumbs to show visitors which page they are viewing.
FEATURE 5
Add contact information on every page to engage website visitors
Visitors want to reach you.
One of the most common reasons for visiting a website is to find the business’ phone number, address, or hours of business. Make it easy for your visitors to access this information. Plus, when you have your phone number, address, and business hours clearly stated on your website you give the Search Engines additional information they need to assess you.
Your website should have …
Contact Page
Contact Forms
A linked phone number in the top right of website (usually in the header)
Contact info in the Footer
Business hours
Directions or map to location
FEATURE 6
Provide assurance through 3rd-party validation
Instill confidence with testimonials
A visitor wants to know that you are a trusted business with happy customers. Think about the last time you searched for a new service provider or made a big purchase. You likely asked friends and read some reviews online. Why not have potential visitors start this research on your own website?
How to integrate third-party validation on your website:
Testimonials pages always work to better engage website visitors
Social Proof such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter, etc.
Awards and Certifications
Memberships
“As seen on” statements
3rd Party Reviews from Yelp, G+ and so on
BONUS 1
Optimize mobile to better engage website visitors
We are browsing more frequently from our mobile phones.
Most websites are seeing between 30-55% of their traffic coming from mobile devices and is has recently overtaken desktop search. In fact, at beginning of 2020, nearly 60% of all Google Searches were mobile. People expect your website to properly fit on their smaller screened tablet or phone. To ensure you engage website visitors on mobile properly your mobile website needs to be easy to navigate and very fast.
Look at your website from a tablet and phone.
You be the judge. Visit your website from your phone and tablet and navigate through your pages, enter the shopping cart or just try to find your contact info. You may quickly decide that your website needs to provide better viewing experience no matter what type of device the visitor is using. Do you have a mobile responsive website that simplifies itself to accommodate the smaller screen size and user behavior? Do you need mobile SEO?
BONUS 2
Improve page load times – your site must be really fast
Speed matters a lot.
If your website is slow customers are going to go elsewhere. Faster pages that are optimized not only engage website visitors but also improve retention and conversions. Google recognizes that users expect fast websites and account for page speed/ page load times in determining how you should rank. Google recommends that pages load in 3 seconds or less (preferably under 2 seconds) if possible. Load times over 5 seconds may be penalized.
You can expect your visitors to be patient.
Don’t let a slow loading page be the reason you lose a website visitor and potential customer. Implement page speed optimization to speed up your website and keep more visitors engaged and happy.
BONUS 3
Update your website to work in all browsers
What’s a web browser?
It’s impossible to engage website visitors if your website won’t open in the browser they are using. A web browser retrieves and presents information on the Internet. Common browsers your website must be compatible with include Internet Explorer (IE), Firefox, Chrome, and Safari.
Test your website in all browsers and make needed changes.
Not all browsers will display your website the same way and often functionality of your website can differ from browser to browser. In 2020, the most common browsers are Chrome (69%), Firefox (7.3%), Edge (7.8%), Internet Explorer (5.5%), and Safari (3.9%).
BONUS 4
Add a custom branded 404 page
What’s a 404 page?
A ‘404 Page Not Found’ page is an error page that is presented when a user or search engine clicks through to a page that does not exist.
Benefits of a good 404 page
Google recommends that you create a custom 404 page along with making sure to have the proper HTTP referrer. Most of the time visitors will give up on their search for the information and leave your website in search of a website that does have the information. Rather than letting your visitors leave you can turn your stock 404 page into a helpful page that directs visitors to a similar page they are looking for.
BONUS 5
Improve page layout so it’s easy to scan
Your visitors likely won’t read every word on your page.
Visitors are looking for easy to scan information and reassurance that the answer they are looking for is in your text before committing to read through all the text.
Use basic writing connotations.
Break up long content with headings, bullets and lists to make it easier for your visitors to scan your information. Headings in particular (such as H1, H2, H3 etc.) can also help the Search Engines understand your text.
Can your site pass the “Engage Website Visitors” test?
We also recommend that your website has a Privacy Policy page to keep both your visitors and Google informed. We’d be happy to talk to you more about your website and how you can better meet the needs of your customers and website visitors.
Download “Engage Website Visitors” as a PDF File
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