Make every page on your web site look unique.

 

I’m not talking about making the whole page look different.

 

The header and navigation areas should remain the same, so people feel and know they are in the “same place”.

 

In fact, I feel uncomfortable on those sites where the basic page layout and design changes as soon as you get into the shopping cart. The switch in layout sends a danger signal to one’s brain, “Am I still in the right place?”

 

On the other hand, you do need to make each page appear unique, even if the basic design and typography remain the same.

 

Here’s why...

 

I was recently working on a retail site which sells thousands of different products.

 

But within each category, at the top of each page, they included the same “category graphic”.

 

This might have worked had the image been much smaller. But the graphic took up a significant part of the first screen of the page.

 

The result was that when you moved from one page to another within that category, at first sight it appeared as if you had simply opened the same page again.

 

It didn’t take me long to figure out what was happening. But as a visitor, I shouldn’t have to pause or hesitate in order to work out what the page designer has done.

 

This is an avoidable barrier that gets in the way of a visitor’s smooth passage through your site.

 

How to make each page unique

 

Sometimes this is easy. If each product looks different, simply add an image of the product on the first screen.

 

If your products all look pretty much the same, then take a photograph of the product in use. Even if the products look the same, you can vary the appearance of the images by showing the products being used.

 

If you sell a service, it’s a little harder. But it can still help if you can find an image or graphic that differentiates each page visually.

 

If you have pages of content, like articles, the headline will do. When browsing articles, people are used to focusing on the headline as the point of differentiation.

 

Concluding thoughts...

 

As I mentioned earlier, you don’t want to do anything that makes your visitor pause or hesitate. The moment you do that, you start to lower your conversion rates.

 

Sometimes it will take very little to make a visitor abandon your site altogether.

 

So make sure that while each page looks like it belongs to the one before, there is some relevant visual clue that identifies each page as being different.

Resource Reviews:

Michael Masterson's Accelerated Program for Six-Figure Copywriting

 

This is the course I always recommend for anyone who wants to learn how to write copy that generates results. Perfect for direct marketers, and also excellent for online copywriters who want to increase conversion rates. Read my review of Michael Masterson's copywriting course...

 

 

Secrets of Writing for the Business to Business Market

 

There are 8 million business-to-business companies out there. And they all need good sales copy. The opportunity in B2B copywriting is huge, and this 350+ page course tells you everything you need to know about getting your own slice of the market. Read my review and find out how...

 

 

 

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