Does Your Website Point Prospects In The Right Direction?

We talk a lot about website design. In fact, we’ve devoted an entire article to it this month. But with all the talk about colors, graphics, and images, what sometimes gets overlooked is your site’s navigation. It’s not as exciting, but this side of website development is just as important when it comes to converting visitors into leads as attractive design.

Navigation is how people travel through your website using the links you’ve provided. Successful navigation makes it almost effortless for visitors to find the information they’re looking for.

Problem is, most insurance websites fail to plot out the most effective course for their visitors to take. As a result conversion suffers.

Nuts And Bolts Of Navigation

The average website takes a bare bones approach to navigation. You’ve got some links at the top and in a left or right hand column to take people to company and product line info. And there’s the big fat “Get Quotes Now” button near the top.

That’s good enough, right? Not so fast.

Think about your first visit to a company’s website to do business. Is the shopping cart the first place you head for? Or do you browse through the site to learn more about the product or service you’re considering?

It’s unrealistic to expect every single visitor to take you up on your offer after viewing just one page. And poor navigation stalls these info-seekers in their tracks.

It’s your job to keep the forward momentum alive. And to do that you need to make “what’s next” as obvious as possible.

Do an informal navigation test on your website. Click around the way you imagine a prospect would. Can you get “lost”? Once a visitor has their fill of educational content, can they seamlessly move on to your opt-in page?

Navigation rule of thumb: when you make people work to get to the information that’s important to them, your conversion sinks. And even though it doesn’t seem like much, just a few unnecessary clicks can be enough to turn off a prospect for good.

Navigation Pointers

• Make sure every page has a “primary” link at the bottom. Don’t abandon people at the end of a page and force them to scroll around. A primary link answers the question, “What do I do next?” It could be an invitation to learn more. Most likely, it will be a link that directs visitors to your “Get a Quote” or other offer page.

• You can do better than “Click Here”.
  The words “click here” are not a persuasive call to action. Write a sentence or two that gives your visitor a compelling reason to take action. The actual link should highlight what you want your prospect to do.
  
  Here’s an example:
  Ready to compare rates on HMO plans? Get instant online quotes now.

• Don’t make people guess which link to click on.
  People who visit your site are in different stages of the sales process. Your navigation needs to serve both the casual shoppers and the motivated prospects at the same time. When your navigation isn’t clear, your prospects are forced to guess which link to click on. They might just give up on your site altogether.
  
  For the casual shoppers: give them links within the copy of each page to take them to educational pages. This helps answer their questions, and builds their trust in you as a professional.
  
  For motivated prospects: Give them a clear pathway to the final page in your lead generation process. Let them get to their goal as easily as possible.

Don’t leave your visitors hanging. Make these quick navigational fixes on your website so no one has to work to become your lead.