Putting Out the Website Welcome Mat
July 22nd, 2008 by Linda JenkinsonWelcome to (fill-in-the-blank)!
That’s a sentence that’s like a billboard across the World Wide Web and one that Vincent Flanders says makes web pages that suck! While I think that’s a little too drastic, there are many better ways to make your website visitors feel welcome; one of the best is to show your website visitors that you want them to return often!
Keep Your Website Updates in Plain Sight
Frequently update your web content and make sure your visitors know that your website is frequently updated. Blogs are especially good ways to display updated content, since all of your posts are dated. On a traditional website, just putting a bolded “updated (date)” lets your visitors know that your website is open and active.
If you plan to do weekly or monthly updates of certain sections of your website, do add that information to your home page and other high traffic pages. If you’re worried about integrating it with your content, put it in a text box near your sidebar navigation and use a background color to increase its visibility.
Of course, the word “New” emphasized with color or bolded is also a way to let your visitors know that your website is alive and kickin’! However, don’t tell visitors, “Coming Soon!” Tell your visitors when soon is and make sure you stick to it!
On Site Bookmarking
Consider adding a “bookmark this page” script to your site. Make a bookmark invitation beginning with a simple block of javascript. Insert the following into the head of your html document or in an external script file:
Then in your page body where you want the bookmark to appear:
Replace “Add to Your Favorites” with any text you want to use for your bookmark link.
RSS Feeds & Social Bookmarking
Put your content into an RSS feed that your website visitors can put on their Google homepage or offer them tags to active social networking websites like Stumble Upon (my favorite!). Social networking websites not only help your visitors remember your page, but additionally give your site more exposure to other members of the site.
All in all, making your visitors feel welcome is one of the best forms of promoting your site and increasing your website traffic. Make your website visitors feel welcome by letting them know that you’re glad they visited your website. Show them that you want them to come back… and they will!