A lot of the posts we publish here on the Ghost Blog Writers Blog are about getting traffic to your site. They’re about new visitors and getting people to discover your business.
From there it’s obviously about getting the people engaged with your brand, which really means getting them to discover more about you. Then getting them interested in what you can offer them and making a sale.
So instead of focusing on getting people to your site in this post we’re going to talk about some of the things you can do to make sure that the right people stay on your site once you get them there.
Here is the thought process we use at GBW and the process we use with our clients. And it’s also a process we’ve picked up from other successful websites and businesses.
Point Of Entry: Blog Post
When you invest in a blogging strategy you’re going to start getting incoming traffic from organic search, social media and a couple other direct channels.
Much of the time that traffic to the blog posts will be the point of entry to your website. It’ll be brand new visitors seeing your website and your brand for the first time. It’s important to remember this because one strategy I would call somewhat of a mistake is to ask people to contact you right away on a blog post.
You’re meeting this person for the first time. You don’t want to jump the gun. You wouldn’t ask someone to marry you on the first date.
A good first step to take to keep visitors engaged with your site from blog posts include:
- Email Signup
- More Content
- Homepage
- About Page
- Services Page
The idea here is to give the visitor something they’ll naturally want as a next step.
With an email signup they’re getting to see more content.
With more content you can share additional posts with them or even something like an ebook. Something like, “If you liked this post would like this one too.”
With your homepage you start showing them what you’re all about. Same with the About page, which most don’t think about, but people generally want to learn about you and the About page is a good place to do that.
And your services page is a little deeper, but can still work.
Point Of Entry: Homepage
What I’ve noticed is that the more you do with your content like blogging, guest blogging, guesting on podcasts and more that the overall authority of your site improves. It seems to correlate with your social media efforts too, but I’m not sure on that.
Anyway, over time your authority will grow and your homepage will start to rank for key industry terms. And you’ll get traffic this way. And people will refer your site to others and link to your homepage.
The keys to keeping people on your website when they enter from the homepage include:
- Instant Understanding
- What’s In It For Them
- Step By Step Description
- Answer Most Common Questions
It’s surprising, but many website homepages are confusing. You get on the site and you’re not sure what they do or what they provide.
I think a good rule of thumb is to get this point across in the first heading on the site. Tell the person what you offer and what’s in it for them.
Then give a step by step description of what you do in more detail also focusing on what’s in it for them.
And also start answering some of the early questions you get when you talk to new clients in person.
For example, I used to not have the prices for blog posts on the GBW website, but I got this question so often that I put it on the site.
People stopped asking me and I got better inquiries and the sales process was faster on my end. The website took care of many of the questions.
Point Of Entry: Services Page
I don’t find that too many people come in through the Services page, but it does happen. The page, like the homepage, has built an authority to rank for a few industry terms.
On the Services page I like to again provide a quick understanding of what we offer. I don’t want to confuse any new visitors.
When someone gets to your Services page they’re pretty far into the sales process. You’ll want to answer just about all the early sales questions that you answer to people in person. Let your website do the early selling and get the person comfortable with you so they want to contact you to order or to learn just a little bit more.
Also on this page I would include the secondary calls to action of your about page. Some will read about your services, but before they contact you they’ll want to learn a bit about your values and things like that. So send them to your About page. Don’t make it the main CTA, but a secondary one.
Final Thought
Think of your website like an online salesperson. Think about the process you use when you’re talking to new people in person. They might have a general question and over the conversation you move deeper and deeper into what you can provide them. Do the same with your website.
When you give people the right information for where they are in your sales cycle they will stay engaged with your website.