Episode #11: Your homepage is irrelevant

TL;DR. Roughly 20-30% of website visitors first visit your home page. Have you forgotten about the other 70-80% of landing […]

The post Episode #11: Your homepage is irrelevant appeared first on Actionable Insights.

TL;DR.

Roughly 20-30% of website visitors first visit your home page. Have you forgotten about the other 70-80% of landing pages?Establish a pipeline from your customer service department. Find out how people find your products and what they have to say about your offering.Take advantage of multiplying your content: written, video, images. This 3x’s the opportunity that someone will come across your brand.

Meet Keenan Davis:

Connect with him on LinkedIn.

He has been in the digital marketing space for over 20 years. That’s back in the days of Yahoo! being “the star” search engine. And, you could use meta keywords to get to the top of that search engine (it was a big deal).Then, banner ads were all the rage… but Keenan got past that hype pretty quickly.

The internet today is a young adult’s age.

Especially when you compare it to newspapers (since 1690). Or when compared to the radio (since 1895). As such, it’s natural to see things come and go.

Side note: my (Joseph’s) daughter and son have gone through a phase where they love to push a stroller on walks.

Yes, there used to be Altavista, Lycos, MSN Search, Ask Jeeves(!), etc. Now, it’s pretty much Google. The rules of business hold true, and the one big market player is here. Bing is a distant second.

What is actually a visitors first impression?

If you look at your website’s analytics, you will probably see that the home page is the biggest entry point for traffic (often 20-30% of landing page traffic). But is that a visitor or potential prospect’s first impression of your brand?

Keenan suggest that we dig a layer deeper. Instead of looking at the 20% as being the biggest landing page (and in need of the most optimization), we should instead work on the other 80% of pages.

Your listing on Google, Bing or Yahoo is probably a more accurate representation of what the first impression really is.

Keenan Davis

If we marketers think of our entry point being a search engine, with the actual entry point to our website NOT being our homepage, we will see that our homepage is almost irrelevant. People are most likely to see our brand on Google, and then on a product page or an article.

They are least likely to type in our website directly into the URL bar and proceed there. They only do that if they know our brand.

Amazon is also key. If you are on Amazon, make sure your product pages have good, rich content. Make sure you use Amazon A+. Do your best to leverage reviews (see the end of this episode for a great idea).

The second largest search engine is YouTube. That was news to me. Are you taking advantage of search traffic here? For example, you must have a solid video strategy. Share your story through videos. Validate your expert status on YouTube. Make that personal connection.

The key is that they represent points of interaction before a visitor or prospects even lands on your website! When they do, it is likely not to be your home page.

Take advantage of the rest of your website.

Sadly, many corporations forget that they sell to consumers. They think they sell to themselves (if I, Joseph, could be so bold, many CEO’s are the most guilty here).

Keenan recommends putting yourself in your customers shoes. How do you find your products? What are the keywords you search for? Where do you search for it? What results come up first?

Talk to the customer service department. What questions do they field on a daily basis (we have talked about this in a number of episodes)?

Also, utilize paid search. If you are listed in the top 10 on the first page of search results, you are doing very well organically. But, if you pay for ads, you will now have two listings on that first page of Google. In your ad, make sure you list your phone number and your value proposition: free shipping, great return policy, 45 day free trial, etc.

Remember that people should see your value proposition before even landing on your website. This is your new home page. Optimize it.

Shift from corporate mode to consumer mode.

Keenan Davis

The meaning of words.

Just because you optimize one time for specific words does not mean that you are now set for the lifetime of your business.

In fact, you must consider that words and their meaning are constantly changing. Keenan talks about the usage of the word “swag”. Many of us think of swag as the truckloads of goodies we get at conferences.

“Swag” is now meaning style. If we are a merchant that customizes pens, USB chargers, and t-shirts then writing articles about “swag” is good, but also consider other words that people are using to find “swag”.

In other words, constantly review your search results and understand how people are interacting with your brand. Keenan also stated that 15-20 percent of searches are brand new—and have never been searched before.

Be proactive.

Use Google Trends to find search value for what you consider to be important to your business. Remember, that consumers are making these searches and consumers are the ones that will ultimately put food on your table.

Dig through the layers of jargon that is used in your industry. Oftentimes, consumers will use completely different verbiage. Write your website’s copy, Google Ads and all other touchpoints in your consumer’s language. Remember that these are the words which your visitors will use when they are looking for your products.

Also consider that voice searches likely have different phrasing than text searches. Keenan uses the example of speakers. We might say, “Hey Google, what is the best speaker for my living room?” We might type: “best speaker system for TV”.

Keenan suggests optimizing for both text and voice search. Consider asking questions in your content that mimic voice search queries. But, don’t forget that text search is still the most popular.

Searches now bring results for many destinations:

Your website (hopefully), thanks to rich contentVideos on YouTubeImages, like infographics

You must also ensure that the content appears well on mobile as many people are using mobile as a first means of discovery (you know, when we are locked inside a room and have nothing else to do).

Take advantage of all content forms.

Write a blog post / article. This should answer questions. It should be authentic and genuine for your target language. But also, it should contain keywords and phrases that people use to find similar content.

Create a video. This doesn’t have to be anything fancy. Some searchers will find your brand and hopefully a personal connection through seeing your face.

Consider an image. Infographics are powerful for visualizing information.

This has a multiplying effect. You might end up having three search listings for free! If you pay for search ads, you would have a fourth. In a day were the search results are congested, this can multiply your chances of getting that valuable “click”.

Remember to link all forms to their counterparts. The video should have a link to your blog post and the infographic. The blog post should have the video and infographic embedded.

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