Get Your Website Visitors Clicking
Your small business website can be one of your most
powerful lead generation tools. Manage your prospects, deals, and
clients with the help of a simple CRM like Base.
The goal of most website content is to get a customer to follow a desired call to action. Sometimes that desired action is that you want people to pick up a phone and call your office. But more often in the 21st century, you want them to click something on the page.
You might want them to click a ‘buy now’ button. You might want them to click a ‘subscribe’ button. Or you may want them to click a social media button so that they follow you online or share your content with their own social media followers. Whatever the case is, there are many ways to increase the chances that people will actually click.
Whether doing organic SEO or a pay per click campaign, Google does measure what happens after the visitor lands on your site. It measures how long they stayed on the site and whether or not they completed any actions after arriving. If people click at least once, this tells Google that people did find something worthy and that perceived worthiness could help you get more traffic from search engines in the future.
Google will perceive a high ‘bounce’ rate (people leaving the same page they entered on) as a need to re-assess whether or not a site should be receiving traffic via specific search terms. If you’re doing paid advertising, a low bounce rate / high click-thru rate can also equate to better ad placement and lower ad costs.
Note: Don’t resort to pop-up marketing tactics. If you seem like you’re trying to trick people into clicking, then you won’t have very much online success!
P.S: Even if you do want them to just pick up the phone and call you, a click counts, too. You worked hard to get that traffic to your site. Why not do your best to open the door wide and increase chances that you will get to deal with them in the future? Getting visitors to fill out a contact form, to subscribe to a newsletter, or to follow you on Facebook or Twitter increases your opportunities for future success.
The goal of most website content is to get a customer to follow a desired call to action. Sometimes that desired action is that you want people to pick up a phone and call your office. But more often in the 21st century, you want them to click something on the page.
You might want them to click a ‘buy now’ button. You might want them to click a ‘subscribe’ button. Or you may want them to click a social media button so that they follow you online or share your content with their own social media followers. Whatever the case is, there are many ways to increase the chances that people will actually click.
Clicks Matter for SEO Too
Beyond wanting people to do something on your site, you also want to ‘tell’ Google (or other search engines) that they were right to send traffic to your site in the first place.Whether doing organic SEO or a pay per click campaign, Google does measure what happens after the visitor lands on your site. It measures how long they stayed on the site and whether or not they completed any actions after arriving. If people click at least once, this tells Google that people did find something worthy and that perceived worthiness could help you get more traffic from search engines in the future.
Google will perceive a high ‘bounce’ rate (people leaving the same page they entered on) as a need to re-assess whether or not a site should be receiving traffic via specific search terms. If you’re doing paid advertising, a low bounce rate / high click-thru rate can also equate to better ad placement and lower ad costs.
Here are some ways to encourage clicks:
- Include links in your text to other content on your site. Present that link as interesting or useful (and relevant to the topic at hand) to get people to want to click.
- Include a social media bookmarking plug-in on your blog and encourage people to share your content.
- End your posts with an open-ended question to start some conversation. People may click to leave a comment. Make sure the comment supports subscribing to the conversation, too, so people can be alerted via email when new replies come in.
- Offer something free for a sign-up bonus. Getting people to sign up for a newsletter or to sign up with an email address to receive something electronically (such as a coupon, e-book, e-course, or other promotional bit of info).
- Create slideshow content. It’s a great way to provide interactive and visual content for your visitors and at the end of each page there’s a place for the reader to click to get to the next slide.
- Write a series. You could do a 5-part series on a specific subject, for instance. At the end of each piece of content, link through to the next piece in the series.
- Sidebar content on blogs and websites that looks interesting, informative, or potentially rewarding can encourage clicks to other areas of your site, too.
Note: Don’t resort to pop-up marketing tactics. If you seem like you’re trying to trick people into clicking, then you won’t have very much online success!
P.S: Even if you do want them to just pick up the phone and call you, a click counts, too. You worked hard to get that traffic to your site. Why not do your best to open the door wide and increase chances that you will get to deal with them in the future? Getting visitors to fill out a contact form, to subscribe to a newsletter, or to follow you on Facebook or Twitter increases your opportunities for future success.
is fundamental. You are selling yourself as much as your time and services. Everything you do is marketing.
) is full of good marketing advice for freelance consultants and professionals.
