Now, why would you want to hold your customer's attention hostage?

Well, for one, if they're on your website longer...there's more mischief and rabbit holes they can slide into. As they get to know your business more and more the deeper they'll go on your website. One thing could lead to another and they may even purchase something. Just a likely hypothesis. 

Here's another (technical) reason...bear with me. 

These Search Engines use "spiders" to crawl your website (i.e. Google, Yahoo, Ask Jeeves). This type of optimization process makes it easier for these Search Engines to index your website's content. Let's put it this way --if Google can index your website easier it helps achieve better ranking results. Better results equal more targeted traffic and more targeted traffic equals more hot leads.

Listen, the research has spoken 74% of customers feel frustrated when website content is not personalized (Source: Infosys, 2016) If you've been doing generic this whole time, what could that mean for your business? 

💡 related: 5 Sneaky Ways To Write Using Your Ideal Client's Words

Lucky for you, these 5 things are a simple fix and you might even have fun doing it. No promises, that's why I double dared you.

1. Your Flat Navigation Menu

Long gone are the days you keep your website navigation menu basic.

• Home
• About
• Blog
• Contact

It was never great advice and it also grouped you into the rest of everyone else online. PopSockets does a cool job of effectively naming the essentials.

If you're photographer your navigation menu can look like this. (Keeping with the generic format above I added a twist connected to what you do.)

Meet <your name>             Photo Lab             Editing Lab             Shoot  Me 

Think about it, your potential customers are there to find out how well you do your thing and if you can get them results. Cut to the chase.

Let's try another one, this time as a Graphic Designer.

Hi               Inspiration               Rough Draft               Hire Me

Last one, from the menu alone --guess this industry.

Meet an Agent               Buy/Sell               New Listings               List It

If you guessed Real Estate, you're smart.

As long as you use terminology your ideal customers are familiar with and identify where that click will take them, you can have fun with your navigation. Plus, menus are SEO friendly (meaning you can rank for those keywords in Google)...if that matters to you.

My navigation menu is centered around a Superhero theme (what my clients are AFTER they've worked with me). It's unrelated to what I do but I can get away with it, as it showcases my creative writing power. Think about how you can showcase what you do by how you navigate your customers through your website.

💡 related: CONVERSION VOODOO (WEBSITE AUDIT)

2. Your Stale Contact Form

Contact forms are the most underrated tool on your website but where people tend to spend the most time. Think about it --this form helps you to get customers. Yet you don't spend the time to make this experience interesting?! What makes you think a prospect should when filling it out? How does that work? Questions that need answers.

By filling in the "placeholder text" (aka where they enter information) as I did below, it becomes more interactive than generic.

Here's mine:

3. Your Ho-Hum Footer

This piece of real estate stationed at the bottom of your website, don't overlook it.

Aside from the usual: (office address, disclaimer, Business number, legal stuff, registered logo and social media channels) what could keep a customer's attention on your website longer? I have a few ideas, of course.

a. Highlight a navigation menu they may have overlooked

b. Showcase you are Proudly Canadian or Made in America (or wherever your pride resides)

c. Give a tip or show some wit 

4. Your Dull Call-to-action Button

The biggest culprit is your newsletter sign-up.

I'm guessing it says, Sign-up or Subscribe? How'd I know...well it's the generic out-of-the-box text applied for everyone. And most people will never change it. Then that trickles into the rest of the buttons on their website. Why do people make these things so uninteresting --then wonder why NOBODY IS SUBSCRIBING!

💡 related: Kill “Sign Up For My Newsletter”. It’s Lame

Here's a Tip: tell the user what the button is going to do AFTER they click or what they would say to your offer. Try it. (see live example below ⬇️)

5. Your Bland (Blog) Headline

This one is a bit tricky because it's not a one and done situation.

You will have to do this a few times depending on how often you update your blog.  Aside from stating clearly what the blog post is about, also, state your opinion in it too. The purpose of a blog headline is to grab attention immediately, speak to a benefit for the reader and push content that conveys your authority online. 

This is a bit harder to explain, so I'll show you a few examples:

💡related: How to Reclaim Your Time & Money Invested on Your Website

What other generic sins should be personalized? Triple dare me...