What Your Site Visitors are Really Looking for… Right Now

Have you ever wondered what your web site visitors are looking for? I mean really wondered… thought deeply about their motivations?

Are they curious about your business, your product/service, your  helpful articles? Maybe, but not necessarily. The answer is quite simple.

They have a problem they want solved NOW! Let’s have a look at how this works.

The Process

Imagine someone types “best small dome tents” into Google. What are they looking for? Most likely, they’re thinking of buying a small dome tent and are researching what’s available.

Someone else types “buy coleman dome tent”. This person has different needs. They’ve decided what they want and are ready to buy.

Now imagine you sell Coleman dome tents on your online store. You have a fantastic article on the best small dome tents, comparing models, features and other really useful information. This page is not a sales pages as such. Rather you’re giving away lots of useful information.

If this page is optimised for SEO, it’s likely the person who typed “best small dome tents” will find it. Then you’ll have a link to a sales page for Coleman dome tents at the end of the article, just in case they’re ready to buy.

Now, imagine the sales page for Coleman dome tents is also optimised for SEO. This time, you’ve sprinkled the keyphrase “buy coleman dome tent” into the content. So the second person finds your sales page directly via a Google search.

So what just happened here? Well, you solved the first person’s problem. They wanted to find out about the best small dome tents and you solved their problem.

And you solved the second person’s problem. They wanted to buy a tent and found your sales page via a Google search.

Fantastic, well done!

Now let’s look at what happens all too often.

The Proud Owner

Now let’s say you’re the proud owner of Andrew’s Tents. You started this 20 years ago, selling from your garage. You quickly grew the business from nothing and now you have 20 stores around the country. You specialise in selling the best small dome tents money can buy. Your Home page proudly explains all of this in great detail… groan.

What happens if our site visitor who’s researching small dome tents lands on your Andrew’s Tents home page, only to be confronted by your life history? They’ll have a quick scan, think, “Nope, this isn’t what I’m looking for”, click the back button… and be gone forever.

Unfortunately, this scenario is common. And don’t think small companies are the main culprits. It seems the larger the company, the larger the corporate ego.

Even large international companies are self-absorbed. Sure, learning a little about the company you’re potentially dealing with can be a positive thing. But there’s a place for this.

It’s called the “About” page… and the “What Others Say” page.

These two pages say a little bit about the company. But they should say a lot about how the company will help you and solve your problems. The “About” page humanises the company, while the “What Other Say” page gives the company credibility.

Both pages re-assure the site visitor and promote trust.

So What’s the Right Approach?

Simple. Solve your visitor’s problem. Notice I say visitor, not visitors.

You are dealing with individuals, not some vague lump of humanity. This is easy to forget. You must focus on providing the very best information to each visitor, every time.

If you had a physical store selling small dome tents, you wouldn’t regale every customer with the company’s full history… well, I hope not, anyway! They would run a mile and never return.

However if you had a selection of small dome tents set up on the shop floor and gently explained the benefits of each, then you may just make a sale. Even if you don’t, the customer will have a positive experience and likely return to your store. And when their friend is looking for a tent, guess who they’ll recommend?

The same applies online.

The entire experience for the site visitor should be positive. “Great, they have an article on the best small dome tents. Wow, this is excellent, it tells me everything I need to know”.

And maybe at the end of the article, this person will click on the link to the Sales page, share the article on social media or send the article link to a friend.

Your Takeaway

When writing web content, always write for your site visitors.

• What problems do they have that you can solve?
• What information do they need to make a purchasing decision?
• How do you make it easy for them to make a purchase?
• How do you lead them to the sale without hype and pushy sales techniques?
• What persuasive, conversational content will lead your prospects gently towards a sale?

Always keep in mind, the visitor doesn’t care about you or your business. They just want you to solve their problem.

If you’d like your web content to focus on helping site visitors, I can help you. Go here to contact me about reviewing your website.

Andrew Murray