Latest / Talk Copy to Me | Content + Copywriting Podcast / 10 Often Overlooked Website Pages You May Need

Transcript

10 Often Overlooked Website Pages You May Need · Talk Copy to Me | Content + Copywriting Podcast

• 0:00
  Erin Ollila: One of the questions that I ask all of my new clients who come to me for website audits is whether or not they have all of the website pages that they need. I want to find out if they have any plans to delete pages or add pages in the future, because that information definitely helps me be able to give them the best audit possible. And what I generally find is that most people will say they have enough web pages. Sure, maybe they're going to delete some, but they're not too often adding anything. And when I audit their site, what I find, obviously, again, this is based on the business and their individual needs. But what I often find is that they've neglected the opportunity to have website pages that could really serve them, their leads and their customers, because they're not the most popular website pages.
• 0:55
  Erin Ollila: They are not what everyone thinks about when they think of getting a website copy project launched or updating their own current copy that they have. So for this episode, we're going to talk about some of these often overlooked pages that plays such a crucial role in user experience. So buckle in, and let's talk coffee. Hey, friends, welcome to the Top coffee to me podcast. Here. We empower small business owners to step into the spotlight with their marketing and messaging. I'm your host, Erin Ollila. Let's get started and talk copy.
• 1:35
  Erin Ollila: All right, the first thing we're going to talk about is the Google thank you page. And this page is often one of the most forgotten pages on any website.
• 1:40
  Erin Ollila: But if you sell things on your site, you absolutely need a thank you page. And I don't want you to tune out if you don't sell things on your site.
• 1:52
  Erin Ollila: Because there are other reasons why a thank you page can be helpful. But first, let's start by talking about why they're important. a thank you page acknowledges and appreciates the customer action that they've taken. It also provides you as the website owner or the small business, the opportunity to continue to engage with that audience member after they've made an action. So bringing it back again to sales or not sales, you can use a thank you page after someone has made a purchase. The Thank You page then appears and gives you an opportunity to include information about the sale or the next steps. Let's say you can also use thank you pages for non sales things. Think Like if someone registers for a webinar, a thank you page could or should appear after the registration is complete. Similarly, if someone signs up for an email newsletter, a thank you page can appear. So remember, it's not just for sales, but the way that you approach the content on the page may be different. And right now, you may be thinking, do I need multiple thank you pages?
• 3:03
  Erin Ollila: The answer could be yes. There's nothing to say that you can't have different thank you pages for different needs. For example, maybe you have one, if you do a lot of webinars, that is webinar specific. Maybe you have one just for joining the email list or for making sales.
• 3:25
  Erin Ollila: The key is just remembering that thank you pages are not our SEO heavy hitters. They're not going to help you when it comes to that regard. But they are going to help you with the user experience. So what goes on a thank you page? I mean, the most obvious answer is a sincere thank you, you want to thank the user for whatever action it is that they took, you also may want to use some language in there that kind of confirms whatever action that is. So if they join your email list, you could say, thank you so much for joining our email list and maybe give a little bit more information about what to expect. Next. You could say, you know, we email every Tuesday and Thursday, or whatever the cadence is in your emailing. And we'll be in your inbox very soon with more information. If someone purchases a thank you could say thank you so much for your sale. And then any information for example of digital product, will they get it immediately. If it's a physical product, how long does the shipping take? It's acknowledging the the the action that's taken. It's thanking them for that action, and it's giving them a few next steps on what to expect. You could potentially personalize the thank you page if you're using specific tech. I don't think you need to but depending on the type of business you have, especially if it's a product based business, it could be a great idea to personalize the message on the page. And remember, if you're not sure what to put if there are no specific next steps, you could include links to related products or or content that you'd like them to consume. You know, once someone takes an action on our site, we don't necessarily want to lose them, we may want to continue asking them to take actions to further nurture the relationship. So if you have a podcast as an example, you're listening to an in Europe podcast player right now. But if you have a podcast, you could say, you know, thanks so much for joining my email list, we'll send you new podcast episodes every Wednesday, when we you know, launch them. In the meantime, here, check out my three favorite podcast episodes, and then you can link to them, which encourages them to take another action on your site and not leave your your sphere yet.
• 5:42
  Erin Ollila: There's another thing to think about. And that's whether or not you want to use your thank you page to send them off site. Now, again, like I said, there's a lot of valid reason why you want them to continue to stay within your own little sphere, but you may want to encourage them to leave, you're still nurturing them don't think I'm telling you to have them run away yet. And that's really two things that come to the top of my mind right now, actually, three, one, a community, if you are sending them to a community that you have, let's say if you have a circle community, or a Facebook group, too, you're sending them to a learning platform. As an example, if they purchased a product, and you want them to register for their student portal, or click to take the course that they just purchased in three, if you want to move them to your social media channels, that's the one that I'm a little iffy about, because I have strong feelings on the fact that once we get people to our websites, we want to keep them there, if not the email list, we don't necessarily want them to stray and go on social media, because it's a lot harder to hold their attention on you in your business, when there's so many things flashing in, in their face on social media. So those are potential things that you could ask people to do. On your thank you page. Again, the real point is just thanking them for their business or their the action that they've taken to continue to stay in your sphere.
• 7:12
  Erin Ollila: Let's move on to a new page, we talked about that one for a little while. The next one is an opt out page. This page isn't necessarily if you're asking for someone to like leave your ecosystem. But this page is a page that they will be redirected to, if they do, in fact, ask to not be included in some type of marketing activity.
• 7:33
  Erin Ollila: A really easy example is an email newsletter. If you are emailing about a promotion or a launch that is coming up, you very may likely have a link in your email, preferably at the top of the email that says, hey, if you don't want to hear anything else about this promotion, but you do want to stay on my list, you know, click here and will opt you out of this email series. If you're using in your email service provider, they're going to do all that technical stuff in the back for you by removing the tag or however you have it set up in your email system. But you can within that same system, redirect them to a page, kind of just like that, thank you page that acknowledges the action that they've taken, what you're doing is you're demonstrating that the transparency in your business that and you're also showcasing that you respect your end users choices. So it's not that they click something and they're left wondering, oh gosh, am I going to receive this promotion, you're confirming that you've you've heard them loud and clear and that you respect the action that they're asking you to take in your you're going to comply with it.
• 8:46
  Erin Ollila: an opt out page could also potentially include some information about how to opt out of communications, or what people can expect from your communications. This, I think is a little less important because people don't generally seek out these pages. They're often hidden pages on a website, and they're not front and center.
• 9:13
  Erin Ollila: Another similar page, and I won't really go into detail because it's acting in the same way is a you clicked page.
• 9:22
  Erin Ollila: Again, if you're doing an email series where you're asking people to click and make a choice within your email content. For example, maybe you're trying to segment your list based on the type of business owners that follow you or the audience in general that follows you. And you ask them to choose a link. You want to redirect them to a page that acknowledges the action that they've taken. It's set up similarly to how you've had a thank you an opt out, or the you clicked page and if it's helpful, I have some very basic pages like that on my site. I will put the examples of them in the show notes so you can see them. But you want to keep it, keep it clear, let people know what's happened that you've acknowledging that they've clicked, thank them for doing that to give you more information, and then redirect them to a new resource, like a podcast or a YouTube videos or your services page, somewhere where they could kind of stay within your, your, your sphere, I think that's the word I used before and learn more about you and your business. Not moving too far away. And one of my favorite pages to talk about is a 404 page. I don't know why so many small businesses do not have a 404 page. It's specially because they don't have ginormous website teams that are taking care of their website at all time, there's more of a chance that a small business website is going to error out, then a large brand who has a very large network of people who are keeping their website safe, secure and current at all times.
• 11:05
  Erin Ollila: But alas, a 404 page is really important. I like to try to get my clients to shift their mindset around it to think of it as a way that it can help them in their business and not be seen as a failure. If you're not familiar with what a 404 pages, it's basically a page that the end user gets if they click a link, or they end up somewhere within an error. So instead of allowing your end user to feel frustrated, you can use a 404 page to redirect them. So you have control over the message that you share on your 404 page.
• 11:45
  Erin Ollila: It's another place to have some brand personality, or to offer education, let's say. But it isn't a failure. If someone gets a 404 page, I highly recommend customizing the page to again, like I said, align with your brand voice, show some personality. If possible, the number one thing to go on a 404 page could be a search bar that searched your entire website so that they'd at least have options for whatever it is that they're specifically looking for. If you cannot put a search bar on your 404 page, just by providing them a link to maybe the most popular places or directing them to where you think they should go, you know, hey, check out my services, hey, here's my contact form. So sorry, you for Oh, Ford, contact me and I'll help you with whatever you need. Right. So there's lots of ways to kind of redirect the person who finds their way to a 404 page without literally just having them land on a page that says 404 on it.
• 12:50
  Erin Ollila: Alright, so we're going to talk about a page. That's next.
• 12:55
  Erin Ollila: That's very specific to product based businesses, specifically businesses that don't sell digital products, and that is the shipping page. I don't know why more businesses don't have shipping pages. Because every business has different shipping rules. It's very important to have a shipping page because it sets clear expectations for things such as delivery time, as well as delivery cost. And a shipping page can not only be a resource that someone goes to after a sale, but it could also be a page that influences a purchasing decision. So for example, if you're creating a shipping page now, and you're wondering what to put on it, you can start by putting shipping rates and delivery times for the locations that you you ship your products to location itself, I probably should have said that first is a key thing to put, if you don't ship your products globally, you're going to want to put the key areas that you do ship your products, and any information that you can share.
• 14:03
  Erin Ollila: Obviously that's not individualized but information about tracking orders how your customer can track their orders, how you as a business will handle things such as delays, problems with shipping, maybe if the item is broken, similar page to the shipping page. And for some businesses this can be combined is a returns page. You know returns pages are often never even put on any website until a business has had an issue that's kind of woken them up and decided okay, this is a page that we really need. A returns page works very similar to the shipping page. It's going to build the the trust with the end user by outlining that there is a return process. It's going to ease some of that customer anxiety about potential issues they may experience with the purchase. And it's also going to kind of set some rules on and boundaries as to how the return process works for your individual business. So when you create the page, you absolutely want clear instructions on the return process, as well as information on timeline, what the return timeline looks like, return policy that you have. And again, one quick thing on timeline, you're also going to want to talk about how a return works and may work differently.
• 15:28
  Erin Ollila: For physical or digital products, you're going to want this page to be as simple to understand as possible, because unlike shipping, for the most part, the people who are viewing this page are the people who are already experiencing a problem.
• 15:44
  Erin Ollila: So they may come to the page feeling frustrated. And if it's too overwritten, they may, I don't know kind of just stone wall and not read the key information that you have accessible to them. One key thing I want to point out to you, though, is that whatever information you put on a return page needs to also mirror what is within the policies that you have on your website. Because there was terms and conditions or conditions of sales or privacy policy, all of these legal documents that we have on our website, very often indicate things like how returns are processed and in business. And we do not want a website page to be written differently or have different information than a legal document on our website.
• 16:33
  Erin Ollila: So definitely make sure that these pages are matching, and you have the correct information. And if you need to make updates, let's say if maybe your privacy policy is a bit out of date, definitely take the information to a lawyer who can check it for you and make sure that both the page with this content, and your policies have the right information to protect your business. All right, so one page that I do see often, but the this poor page is always just not current, it is the Events page. And events page is an awesome page and resource for a business who wants to connect with their audience most often in person, but could also be virtually, however, no one tends to update their events pages, because we as businesses would like our websites to be as set and forget as possible. And if you are a business that does regular events, like if you're having a webinar every month, or if you're maybe having a weekly mini networking event and in local location, you may forget to add these new dates into your calendar at all times. And if your website user comes and they want to see when they can connect with you next, and it hasn't been updated in eight months, they're going to question whether you're still in business, whether you're doing any more events. And we don't want to make anyone be confused at all. So if you have an events page, I always tell remind people to maybe set a reminder on their calendar to put new events in, or to be very clear on what events are important enough to end up on this page.
• 18:19
  Erin Ollila: So that we don't have to worry about losing or confusing people, when they come to our events page, I probably should have said this one a little bit closer to shipping and returns.
• 18:30
  Erin Ollila: But a customer support page is a really great page for you know, businesses that work digitally or in person or with shipping, you could combine your shipping page and your returns page into one very clear Customer Support page. But what yours Customer Support page does is that it's one demonstrating that you're you're committed to customer service, because you have a clear pathway that they can take for, let's say problem resolution. If you have a customer support chatbot that they can use. If you have an FAQ section that they can look for quick answers. Definitely put that on their page. Maybe you have the page set up to have real time assistance, or at least as close as possible to real time assistance. If you're not responding immediately, which if you're a tiny team, you're probably not. But if you're not responding immediately, you need to be very clear on what your response times are. That sets up a positive next step for customer experience. So if someone is coming to you for customer support, it's generally because they need help, or they're not having the best experience so far. If you don't provide them the right details or specific enough information. They're going to continue a bad experience. So it's your opportunity to kind of change that and set a new tone on what they can expect. Extra time you and your business, if you want to combine all these pages, and have your customer support page also like host your shipping and returns policies go for it, I would suggest segmenting the page so that the top of the page has your very general customer support information, you know how someone could get in touch with you what any key quick things are such as, you know, like your, your return policy is 14 days, let's say or, you know, you ship things out within five days of manufacturing them, whatever it is, you can throw that on the top of the page. And underneath, you can have new rows or columns that have the key details of your shipping, annual returns policy. So anything that would really help an end user solve the problem on their own, could go on a Customer Support page. All right, let's move on. So we don't keep you here forever. A how to page or a tutorial page is one that I don't see often enough, but it could really be a very helpful page when especially as it comes to user experience, but also business practices. If you have a lot of people contacting you or your customer service agents for small things like how do I log on to the learning platform? Or how can I change information in my in your email newsletter, like how do I change my email address, things like that, you can have a how to page that provides information to them on how they can go about doing things on their own. So maybe it's step by step tutorials, I was just reading one of my new clients, previous websites. And I found a really interesting section that she had created a tutorial on how to leave a podcast rating and review on both Apple and Spotify. You know, I think a lot of the times we assume our website, viewers know how to do things, because they may feel obvious to us when in fact it is a new action for them. Or it is a new thing that they have to learn to do. So even you know those few bullet points of indicating the steps they should take or where they should look on the webpage could really help the website, user or the customer be able to better do what you're asking them to do or what they like to do. But you can also think about a how to or or tutorial page as a great place to house multimedia content. So if you've ever filmed videos, especially first step things before working with you, a tutorial page is great for that. Let's say you're a website designer, and you've done a lot of onboarding, work to set up great processes. So you get the best information from your customers. You're collecting the website, copy drafts, you're collecting their branding materials. Sometimes you have to film videos that showcase how the customer should get you that information. So maybe it's just a quick screen recording of you showing them how to put files into a Google Drive. Or maybe it's that you have a client portal and you're doing a screen share on how to log into their client portal, you could put this information on a hidden how to page to make it easier for them and make them feel a lot more confident in taking the steps that they need to take. It will make them move through the actions you're asking them to take quicker. But it's also helpful. So you don't have to explain the same thing over and over again, or you don't have to get on video conference calls to actually walk them through these steps for each and every client. All right, I think the final page that really needs to go in this episode is the opt in page or landing page. What I see done often is the opt in page is often very much over written.
• 24:11
  Erin Ollila: But as a landing page, what we want people to do is have them land there and take an action.
• 24:21
  Erin Ollila: We do not want it to be a sales page or like a sales page, in that we have to convince them of something. We want them to be able to take an action as soon as they get there. So if you have an opt in page, I want you to consider making it as easy as possible to get them to take an action whether that be signing up for an email newsletter or purchasing a webinar or joining a training things like that. You want to give them the right information but not too much. So think that maybe you'll have one heading and maybe a sub heading on the page, one to two teeny tiny paragraphs and then either Have a form that they can complete in order to sign up for something that's not paid, or a small checkout area for something that is paid. That's it? Well, unless you need to put some type of disclaimer on the page, obviously, for legal reasons, you could definitely include that. But you do not want to treat your opt in pages like you would treat sales page.
• 25:18
  Erin Ollila: And I've mentioned this a few times. But I do, I'm not going to talk about it here. But I really do want to remind you to always have a terms and conditions and a privacy policy on your website. Alright, so that's it. All of these pages play a very unique role in shaping that positive user experience.
• 25:40
  Erin Ollila: And if you're listening, and you're thinking to yourself, like, Ah, I don't have whatever page, take a deep breath, because you may not need this page at all. You know, I mentioned these as being often overlooked or forgotten about pages. But just because they are important does not mean your website specifically needs them.
• 25:58
  Erin Ollila: For example, in my business, I don't have a shipping page. I don't really ship things in my business. So I don't need a shipping page. If I started a business where I was shipping physical products, yes, I would probably create a shipping page that had more details on that process and that cost and that timeline. But I don't need one now. And you might not either.
• 26:19
  Erin Ollila: So hopefully this episode was helpful in regard to helping you make a decision on what pages you do need, and what pages you don't need, as well as kind of guiding you through what information you need to put on the pages to make them as helpful as possible to you and your client. All right, friend.
• 26:39
  Erin Ollila: That's it for this week's episode. I hope you come back and join me next week who will keep talking coffee. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Top copy to me. If you enjoyed spending your time with me today. I would be so honored if you could subscribe to the show and leave a review.
• 26:56
  Erin Ollila: Want to continue the conversation. Head on over to Instagram and follow me at Erin Ollila. Until next time friends