Ignore Your Sub-Pages At Your Peril | Varn

Insights

23 July 2014

Ignore Your Sub-Pages At Your Peril

It’s common to think of visiting a website in terms of a journey. Understanding and influencing the customer journey through a website is indeed one of the most treasured business skills, as it is seen as the way to influence conversions to sale.

If we have a journey into a website our minds automatically think it should start at the homepage, the front door of the site, the place that is designed specifically to give the customer a first impression. This is the natural start place to walkthrough the site, a hub where navigation will come instinctively. Unfortunately, for this way of thinking – there is a potential problem.

Greeting Your Website In The Middle

Many people who visit your homepage may already know you – they may type in your business name for instance. Otherwise – they may have very specific search terms matching your business. The chances are higher however, that if someone arrives on a landing page within your website, they don’t know you and they have come to that page on your website via a link or keyword in search. If you offer many services on your website then the searcher may be sent directly to a page with one service, bypassing the introductory homepage.

Take Another Look At Your Web Pages

Look at all the pages and ask yourself these key questions:

  1. Is it obvious what your company is offering? Is there a slogan or Unique Value Proposition near the logo – even more importantly – is your logo on there?
  2. Is there a clear path from that page? Is there a Call to Action – are there contact details? Is the page practical enough to be effective to a new user?
  3. Is the first impression good? Every page needs to look polished. If an ‘after-thought’ page becomes a landing page and it has not had the care and attention of other pages this will reflect on your business brand.

These days it is important to ensure that every page of your website is in itself enough to keep a new user interested to stay there.

Landing In The Right Spot Is A Good Thing!

The truth is that if all your visitors land on your homepage then there is something wrong with your website, unless you have a very niche and limited offering.

Most companies have services and products to choose from – a search should hone in on the specifics, if the website is optimised well.

It’s important to understand how a search matches your answer to that search. If you sell for instance web design and also E-Marketing as two different services, then you would want the search terms to pull up the right page for each of these services to shorten the journey to the sale for the potential customer.

For help and advice with website design, SEO and making the right first impressions for your business, contact Varn.

Article by: Tom, CEO of Varn More articles by Tom

Share this article:

Sign up for the latest SEO insights

Stay up to date with the very latest search marketing insights and news from Varn

Perform Better

Sign Up for Varn Insights
Sign Up for Latest Insights

Keep up to date with the latest search marketing news, insights, algorithm changes and research