If your goal is to bring people to your website, don’t immediately ask them to leave

An interesting trend I’ve noticed over the last few years is for websites to include links to their social media platforms at the very top of the site. It seems counter-productive to work hard to bring users to your website, only to immediately ask them to go off to Facebook or Instagram instead.

There are some cases where this makes sense. An example is a client of ours that is in the early planning stages of building a community of homes, so they’re trying to generate interest. Getting people to the site is great, but just getting them to follow on social media is awesome as well.

For the most part, though, including those links at the very top of your site is foolish.

If you’re writing content for SEO purposes, you’re trying to attract people to your site.

If you’re sharing great content on social media, you’re trying to attract people to your site.

If you put out a great email campaign, you’re trying to attract people to your site.

If you’re paying for ads on Google or via social media, you’re trying to attract people to your site.

When they arrive, don’t encourage them to leave right away!

We share this image with our clients to show our overall approach — build a fantastic site, and then work to attract people to visit and eventually convert.

The last sentence was key; with a “fantastic” website. If your website is subpar, then perhaps letting people dance around the edges is ok for now. When you really get serious, though, driving people to your site is often the best way to get them to become a new customer, so you should work to keep them there to discover how perfectly your services will fit their needs.

Social media is important for most businesses, and you shouldn’t hide your links. In fact, we include prominent links to social media in the footers of most websites that we build. If someone is intentionally trying to find your company on social media, by all means let them find you as it can be a great way to connect.

Just don’t start by pushing them off your site before they’ve had to chance to even dig in.