Often I use analogies for SEO to communicate concepts for strategic execution. Today’s analogy is about the context of landing pages, call to action and value propositions and honing a unique selling point in comparison to a flashlight, a laser and a funnel. Read further to see the correlation of these seemingly unrelated objects (at least in conceptual form).
The Flashlight and Laser:
There are two ways to think about your main landing pages in your website; (1) are they like a flashlight, nebulous and diffused or (2) like a laser, efficient, lean and focused?
When approaching the cusp of consumer appeal and enlivening the value proposition, what separates your unique selling point from the competition, you only have 10 seconds to get your point across and pique the interest of a prospect that lands on your site.
If you understand that many of the people that visit your website may never return, perhaps then you would treat each impression with a new found respect and regard and offer them something to remember you by. This is where the funnel comes into play…
You only have one chance to either (a) make it inside their subjective “circle of trust” to get the subjective nod of approval such as “hmmm interesting”, “this is great” or “this is exactly what I was looking for” confirmation or (b) end up as another site that did not make the grade and back to the search engine they go, never to return.
The Funnel:
People look for clear signal or indicators to engage, if there are none, they simply ignore the stimuli, look for something to grab their attention and funnel it or relinquish the notion that they will find anything useful and abort.
You will know which pages are leaking attention because analytics can clearly indicate where their interest tapers off, or where the person’s attention is siphoned if your content lacks a call to action or appeal.
We know that based on standard rates for content consumption that a reader skims more than reads word for word. We also know that most people read about 200 words per minute and so, based on subtracting the amount of time on the page and determining an average, you can see at about which point a hook or conclusion would be ideal to inject.
There is no point in putting a page online if it does not a) serve a purpose b) define its purpose c) can help someone solve a problem d) can provide a solution or e) create some type of euphoric experience. If it cannot fire on any of those cylinders, it is essentially doomed to a dismal and lonely existence…
If five of my top landing pages had a bounce rate above 60% and they average time on the page was 90 seconds, then I would retool the first three paragraphs with one specific conversion objective and either funnel them to a secondary page that has continuity to reinforce conversion or facilitate option a,b,c,d,or e.
The funnel requires you to create a focal point, that after 200 words your first node of engagement is to create a spike of emotion to get them to take action. Also, employ scan able text, bullets or subheadings to break information up to draw more attention to your offer. Nothing like clutter, distractions or too many choices to stand in between you are your conversion objective.
If you make someone think, then sure you can get a mental “thumbs-up” with a “nice post”, “great article” or similar form of praise (which does not pay the bills); but if you make them “feel something” about the problem or solution, then you can have subscription after subscription, sale after sale or whatever your conversion objective is.
So, with that in mind what conversion funnels are in place on your key landing pages, what content supports your value added benefit to “their needs” and how do you convey your unique selling point? Like a flashlight or a laser?
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