The Best Welcoming Strategies for Your Website

The lifeblood of a website is the number of visits it gets every month—one of the number one priorities of any website owner is to make visitors feel welcome. Website visitors need to be treated like guests who feel happy and valued, and below are the best welcoming strategies in order to accomplish just that.

Revamp your website so that any problems – whether aesthetic or navigational – can be addressed. The key to doing this is to view your website through the eyes of a visitor. Ask yourself if what you see will leave a very good first impression. If there are any aspects that are less than stellar, make the necessary changes to remedy those.

To do this, run any tools that will fix and address usability or architectural issues. Check broken links, incomplete or confusing forms, and pages that are hard to access and fix all of them.

A good host will want to have things at the ready for anything his guests might need, and the same is true of a website. Since every guest will have differing needs, it is your job to find out what those needs are. The best way to turn this into a website welcoming strategy is to build optimized landing pages so you can cover everything.

To do this, create attractive content that is specifically targeted to meet your visitors’ needs. Go over your landing pages and ensure they are optimized so that guests will easily be able to find what they need and then move on from there.

Even if you are in the middle of revamp, your guests still need a warm welcome. The last thing anyone wants is to be bombarded with so sign up requests, pop-up ads, or suggestions to get your ebook within seconds of landing on your front door. All of these will just make them feel like they are attending a multilevel marketing seminar, where their individual presence doesn’t matter as your focus is more on how you present your products.

To do this, eliminate ad overlays that appear too early into the visit. Include clear messaging that informs your visitor of the page content, so they can be sure that they are where they want to be within your site.

This is especially useful for first-time visitors who will appreciate seeing highlighted sections they can click onto right away if those prove to be within their areas of interest.

To do this, make your navigation very clear and clean so visitors understand where to go straight away. Consider using textual links, as these will allow your visitors to find what they’re looking for all the while staying thoroughly engaged with your content. Add calls to action as a way to help visitors have an idea of what they should do next.

Trust is one of the most important welcoming strategies for your website. When you have a guest, it is important that you make them feel as comfortable as they can all throughout their stay. This can only be accomplished when they know they are in a secure place.

To do this, use trust symbols like badges that show organization memberships as a way of showcasing your expertise in your field. Include enough contact information and opportunities for your guests to reach out to you, and have them know more about you and your team by including short bios that give them an idea of the people they work with.

Always treat the end of your guest’s visit as a prelude to the next one. This is easy to assure when they have made satisfactory purchases – happy with their new stuff, but still keeping an eye out for new arrivals or anything that may pique their interest. The trick is to sustain engagement, so even if your guest has no choice but to leave he will continue the conversation in other channels or would want to get back right away.

To do this, encourage them to sign up for your newsletter or offer a free ebook – but do so without nagging, or this will be a turn off. Remember to invite them back through remarketing strategies, or by sending coupons or special deals after their order via email.

When implemented, these welcoming strategies will surely do a lot to make repeat visitors out of your guests – so much that at some point (for as long as you continue to offer relevant products and stellar services) they will come to see your website as a place where they are always welcome.

Well, you’ll want to read our top eCommerce Promotion Techniques, or maybe our guide to creating eCommerce product videos. And hey, you’re already here, why not talk to us about getting some eCommerce development done? We have eCommerce specialists on three continents, and over five years’ experience making online stores incredible. Get in touch today!