How To Keep Visitors On Your Website

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Video Summary

In my book, Dominate The Top, I present the 7 components of an effective website.

The third component helps keep new visitors on your website, reducing the site’s bounce rate, and improving the chance of the visitor engaging with your business. It addresses the 3 questions that visitors to your website have, when they arrive at your site for the first time.

The 3 questions are:

1. Where am I?
2. What offer can I take advantage of?
3. Why should I choose you?

Answering these questions is important because you want those who make it to your website to stay, even though it’s really easy for them to hit the “back button” and choose another site or do another search.

The reality is that all new visitors to your website will make their initial impression of your site subconsciously in less than one second. Within a handful of seconds, they have already decided whether they like, or don’t like, your site. And within 10–20 seconds, at most, they have decided whether your site is worth looking at, or not, and they are taking action accordingly.

Therefore, you must be sure that the web page they land on addresses the reason they clicked the link to your site in the first place.

If your site answers these 3 questions, then it’s much more likely they stick around long enough for your business to make a favorable impression. And, if you do it right, they might even take the action you want them to take.

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Video Transcript

Hi, I’m Jeffrey Kirk.

I’m pulling today’s topic right out of my book, Dominate The Top – Simple Website Fixes To Rise In The Search Results and Crush Your Competition.

In the book I present 7 components of an effective website. The third component helps keep new visitors on your website, reducing the site’s bounce rate. It addresses the 3 questions that visitors to your website have, when they arrive at your site for the first time.

So, let’s say you have done everything correct up to this point. You did great keyword research, your site is unique and relevant, and it’s showing up in the search results. A searcher notices your listing among the various choices presented, and decides to click on the link to your website.

Now what happens? What do you want them to do now that you got them here?

My guess is that you want the visitor to take some kind of action. Perhaps you want them to call you, or buy something, or sign up on your mailing list.

But, you know what has to happen first, right after a visitor arrives?

The answer is pretty simple… That visitor has to decide to STAY on your website!

The back button is so easy, and the odds are stacked against you at this point. Captain Kirk said it well in the movie Star Trek: Generations. He said, “I take it the odds are against us, and the situation is grim.”

And for most websites that is the truth. This is because a visitor to your site makes their initial impression subconsciously in less than one second. Within a handful of seconds, they have already decided whether they like, or don’t like, your site. And within 10–20 seconds, at most, they have decided the site is worth looking at, or not, and they are taking action accordingly.

Therefore, you must be sure that the web page they land on addresses the reason they clicked through in the first place. And to do that, to set yourself up for success, you have to understand that searchers who do not know you are asking themselves, “what’s in it for me?” and “does this site solve my problem?”

Since you cannot directly answer those questions in the minds of your visitors, you have to focus on the questions you can answer, providing the answers that your visitors need in order to decide that your site IS the right site to visit.

So, what are those questions:

1. Where am I?
2. What offer can I take advantage of?
3. Why should I choose you?

Let’s look at each of these a little deeper.

The first question they are asking is, “where am I?” The searcher just clicked and went somewhere new. They have not seen your site before, and they don’t know what they will find, though they hope your site meets their expectations.

They are searching for something, and decided that YOUR site offered the potential to fulfill their needs. But now, as your site fills their browser window, they are momentarily disoriented. Can you relieve them of this disorientation by quickly showing that your site provides a solution to their problem?

The second question, “what offer can I take advantage of” gets to the heart of “what’s in it for me?” They came to your site for a specific reason, and you helped them overcome their initial disorientation.

This caused them to stay around long enough to see that your business has the potential to overcome their problem. Now they want to find what you specifically have to offer. So, what advice, knowledge, product, or service does your site offer that they can evaluate further?

Keep in mind that an offer can be something as simple as a link to another page with more details. Or an offer could be information about a specific product that solves their problem. An offer, in the sense of this question, is simply something that helps move visitors forward toward their desired goal.

And, after their disorientation is relieved, something on the page has to grab their attention so they believe that it’s worthwhile staying on your site a bit longer.

Finally, if your site makes it past the visitor’s first two questions, they quickly arrive at the third question and ask, “why should I choose you?” In other words, they are asking what evidence do you have that gets them comfortable enough to consider further engagement with your business?

You can easily blow it here because their internal credibility sensor is on high alert. You can lose your audience through two potential outcomes from this sensor. These negative outcomes are boredom and disbelief.

If your site is dull, creating no excitement, then there is no reason for visitors to take action before they leave. Your site appears to be the same as many other sites. And if you attempt to create too much excitement, it can be interpreted as hype, and your site loses believability.

You have to walk a fine line with your site content, providing the information they need, while offering just the right amount of excitement. Fortunately, there are other tools you can use to help create the perfect messaging on your site.

But for now, remember that your website must answer these three questions for all new visitors to your site.

1. Where am I?
2. What offer can I take advantage of?
3. And Why should I choose you?

Do that effectively and your visitors might stay around long enough to engage with your business.

For more about the 7 components of an effective website, see my other videos or pick up my book, Dominate The Top.

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Have a great day!