Top 20 Website Persuasion Techniques

So you’ve been lucky enough to land a few visitors to your site. How do you get this merry band of fickle users to stick around and accomplish both their goals and your own?

You’ll have spent time and money on “web design” and maybe even specifically on “user experience design” and solid “information architecture,” but if you want people to buy, subscribe and enlist, you must be persuasive.

Here’s a great checklist to print out and abide by when trying to be persuasive online.

1. Provide a starting point.

• Your users need to start somewhere, or they’ll just click X.
• Whatever the landing page – make it easy for a user to jump right into your content or move on to something else.

2. Cover the basics

• Who are you? Your people, organisation.
• What do you do?
• Where do you do it?
• Why do you do what you do?

3. Explain who you are across the whole site

• A huge portion of your visitors won’t come to your site for the first time on the homepage.
• Use a universal header, footer or sidebar to have the same content across your site for reference.

4. Show us the proof – Back up your claims

• Portfolios
• Case studies
• Testimonials

5. Make Your Navigation Show How Great You Are

• Show off your value through clear labeling.
• Be original in how you label content – users will want to know more.
• These work for SEO too, remember.

6. Link to Related Content

• Use buzzwords as hyperlinks around your content.
• Make text within copy link to further reading.

7. Offer Site-Wide Search

• Search is synonymous with the experience of browsing the web.
• Don’t make users search the Google bar in their browser instead of in your site.
• Make it easy for users to browse more and more of your site.

8. Use a Great Headline on Every Page

• It’s the hook to get your visitors to read the rest of the page.
• It could be a call to action.
• It’s powerful search engine juice.

9. Keep the Copy Brief

• We read 25% more slowly online.
• We scan more than read (79% vs. 16%)
• As a rule of thumb, use half the amount of blurb as you would in print.
• Express one idea per paragraph
• Link succinct comments to more detailed copy

10. Be Consistent With Your Calls-To-Action

• As users navigate through your site, don’t upset their journey with inconsistencies.
• Repetition will work in your favour when they do choose to subscribe or buy.

11. Use Permission Marketing Everywhere

• This refers to opt-in requests to sign up for newsletters or more information.
• Place it prominently across the whole site – you will dramatically increase sign-up.

12. Make The Contact Page Usable

• Make sure all your contact details are here, clearly laid out.
• Make sure you use a HTML contact form
  • It’s the easiest way for you to be reached from your site
  • Some corporates will block email links
  • You can prompt users to select a category of enquiry for easy management

13. Provide an Effective Site Map

• Clearly show the categories of your content and how they are inter-related.
• Easy to submit to search engines & directories for maximum exposure.

14. Answer Your Users’ Questions in Advance with a FAQ Section

• Save on your customer service
• Make the process of conversion as smooth as possible

15. Be Honest

• Be upfront about your offering and its price.
• Make it easy for people to see what they’re getting.
• Provide useful notes where confusion may arise.

16. Keep it Personal

• Avoid bland, detached corporatespeak.
• Use a customer-centric style of writing.
• Be conversational – involve your users.

17. Overcome User Anxiety

• What might your users fear on your site?
• Is there too much on the screen during crucial payment stages?
• Keep the distractions down.
• Keep it simple.

18. Let Your Users Know It’s Safe to Use Your Site

• Especially if you’re asking for their financial details – they need to have peace of mind.
• Let visitors know that you do everything possible to ensure safety and privacy.

19. Don’t let site registration get in the way

• Putting up a registration wall around your content could drive away valuable traffic.
• Using this as a prerequisite to shopping online could lose you customers – leave it til check-out.

20. Good SEO everywhere.

• Leave no stone unturned.
• Metadata, page titles, headers, images, links and copy should all be optimised for search engine crawlers.