The
sad truth about many websites is that a lot of their visitors never
get beyond the homepage. Further, these same visitors often leave the
site altogether after mere seconds with no intention of ever returning.
If this is the case with your website, you’re losing a lot of
visitors and, in the case of Internet advertising for plastic
surgeons, a lot of potential patients. The following are effective
tips that can be applied to your website to help avoid the exodus and
get your visitors beyond your homepage:
Testimonials. Include one or two of your best patient
testimonials right on your homepage along with a ‘Read more testimonials’
link. Testimonials are one of the most effective marketing tools and
are often able to speak more for your practice than even the best written
copy. Further, they greatly increase your credibility.
Before-And-After Photos. Like testimonials, before-and-after
photos of previous patients can be very powerful. They allow the visitor
to see what can be achieved for themselves. And, again, they also increase
your credibility. Include one or two of your best before-and-after patient
photos on your homepage along with a ‘View more patient photos’
link.
Headlines. Make sure that you use headlines on your
homepage that stand out and grab the visitor’s attention. Use
a large font type and, but be sure to keep headlines hype-freed. Ideally,
they should entice the visitor to learn more about you and your services.
Copy. Your words, and your message, are particularly
important on your homepage. What you say must encourage visitors to
trust you and to want to learn more, and it must be done quickly and
efficiently.
Links. Make sure that you keep your links to a minimum
so as not to overwhelm your visitors. This is true for both your navigation
bar and any other links you have throughout your site. It’s best
to minimize your visitors’ choices in order to guide them toward
the actions you want them to take.
Bookmarks. Add a simple graphic to your pages asking
visitors to bookmark your site. They won’t be offended and it
will help them to find you again.
External Links. Don’t have any external links,
or links that direct visitors off of your site, on your homepage. Include
only internal links, or links that direct visitors to other pages on
your site. Another good tip is to have any external links open in a
new window.
Banners. Your homepage is not the place for banners,
so don’t use them. In fact, you might want to consider keeping
them off of your site altogether. Banners take up too much space and
tend to slow down your load times.
The
sad truth about many websites is that a lot of their visitors never
get beyond the homepage. Further, these same visitors often leave the
site altogether after mere seconds with no intention of ever returning.
If this is the case with your website, you’re losing a lot of
visitors and, in the case of 