- Make your website’s interior pages work harder for you
Your lowliest webpage may serve as your introduction to the world. Most visitors—over half—arrive at your site on the home page. You knew that. That’s why you placed your critical messaging there. That’s why you displayed your most memorable brand imagery there, and why you may have even spent extra money on Flash effects. But did you also know that 25-50% of your site’s visitors will have missed your home page all together?- Search engines dig deep. Search engine users often are looking for something more specific than typical home page content, and the search engines understand this. That’s why when users search on more specific keyword phrases, engines will often list and display links to interior pages of company websites. Very few specific keyword phrases will trigger a listing that points to your home page. The keyword phrases that do are typically the most general terms for your business, industry, or generic product or service.
- The shortest path to success is just a few clicks away. Even if half the visitors to your site are missing your home page messaging and branding, don’t be discouraged. It can be a good thing when visitors arrive as searchers for a specific item. Usability studies suggest that the fewer clicks a user makes to get the actual content he or she wants, the better. Taking a visitor—who is interested in finding specifics—to a home page of generalized content is not the shortest path to success. To fully optimize your site, you want users searching on specific terms to go directly to pages that answer their questions or allow them to accomplish immediate goals quickly. Thanks to search engines, you can bring visitors directly to the precise information they are seeking on interior pages of your website. Visitors get what they want quickly, which helps create a satisfying experience with your site and your brand.
- How many users are bypassing your home page? Within your log file reports, there is typically a section titled “Pages.” In it, a subsection most often titled “Entry Pages” identifies every page used as an entry point to your website as well as the frequency with which each is used. Undoubtedly, your home page will be the page most often used as an entry page. However, you are likely to see dozens of other pages listed below the home page. These are the backdoors to your website. You can begin tracking this metric by periodically dividing the number of home page entries by the total number of entries for the entire site. If your website is not optimized, the typical percentage for your home page will be 80% or higher. But, if you are taking advantage of the ability of your interior pages to attract visitors, home page entries should approximate only around 50%.
- Here’s a quick exercise to determine optimization of your interior pages. Optimizing interior pages will increase search engine presence, but more importantly, will help improve conversions (converting a visit to a sale or other desired action) on your website. Is your site optimized to encourage conversions? Here’s how to check:
- Take a close look at your interior pages from a visitor’s viewpoint. Specifically, go to a deep page on your website. Next, determine a likely search phrase that would bring a user to this particular page. Now, assume a user has searched on that term and has been taken to this page. Assume this is your first time on the site and ask yourself the following questions:
- Why am I here?
Are there enough elements that quickly stand out on this page—such as the page title, bolded headlines above paragraphs, images, links, etc… that make a clear connection between your search term and this page? Remember, users don’t read, they SKIM! Could the connection be stronger, clearer, or more obvious? What other terms might bring a user to this particular page? Is there a clear connection for those terms as well? - Where am I?
Do you immediately know who owns this website? Is it clear that you are on a product or service page? Is it clear exactly how deep you are in the website? Does the content on the page and/or the navigation system give enough clues that you are well within the structure of the website? - Where do I go?
Assuming you are interested in getting more information or contacting someone, are the devices for taking action clear, easy to find and easy to use? e.g. a button that launches an email to a sales person or downloads a demo; or a link to a contact page with phone numbers, dealer addresses, or support contacts. Are there any links appropriate to this page that might facilitate cross-selling? - Don’t miss a trick. Ask a friend or a colleague to go through the exercise with you. You will be amazed at how differently each user interacts with a site, revealing that assumptions you’ve made may not be so obvious to others.
- Turn the road less traveled into your own information highway. Answering these questions is a great start to getting inside of the minds of search engine users who land deep in the interior of your website. To ensure that your site works as hard for you as possible, you need to provide a means for them to gain familiarity with your company on this page. Once your deep product pages are enhanced to serve as “surrogate home pages,” you are ready to drive traffic to them. An upcoming article in the MKTX Marketing Resources Series will discuss how to successfully use pay-per-click advertising to drive traffic to these interior pages and other key pages of your website.
- Of course, if you are impatient to know more NOW, feel free to contact us to discuss your particular situation. We’ll be happy to help. And this month, we’re offering a FREE web positions report, which will tell you exactly where you stand in search engine rankings—and where your competitors stand as well—for up to ten keyword phrases. Click here to request a report.
