That’s right. Linking to your website to social media sites is bad… Sometimes. Think about it. Each link to your Facebook page, LinkedIn profile, Twitter profile, YouTube channel, Flickr gallery, and even your RSS feed is a link OFF of your website…
Each link I am showing below is an opportunity for you to LEAVE my website!
You work so hard to drive traffic to your website and get your audience to visit your website. Then, once they get there, you’re giving them multiple opportunities to leave your site – and if you’re selling something, each link to a social networking site is an opportunity to lose a sale.
Linking your website to social media sites provides the visitors you worked so hard to recruit multiple opportunities to leave without opting-in, signing up, or buying
Now I’m not saying the links shouldn’t be there at all… But I want to reinforce how important it is for you to think about where your social media links are on your website and how you use them.
You need to take into consideration the placement of your social networking and social media profile links…
On Your Blog:
Your blog is a place for education, conversation, engagement, and interaction with your audience. Your blog showcases who you are, and provides a place where you can share your opinion and build relationships with your readers. It’s a place on your website where people can get to know you. Displaying your social networking and social media profile links prominently on your blog pages is a natural fit because it encourages visitors to keep the conversation going on other platforms.
On Your Standard Website Pages:
Your standard web pages are pages like your Home page, About page, Contact Page, Testimonials Page, etc. These pages are necessary to communicate what it is that you do, who you are, and what they can expect. Links to your different social media profiles need to be present, but not as in your face as on your blog pages.
On Your Money Pages
Think twice before including your social networking links on any page of your website that makes a sales offer or has to do with you making money. You definitely do not want to distract the prospect with opportunities to abandon the sale or leave your site. This is why we commonly see plain sales pages used with no navigation and no links to leave the page. Remember, each link off your money pages is an opportunity to lose the sale.
When it comes to displaying social networking icons and links to your social media profiles, think about the goal of the web page. Does it make sense to have the link in the header or at the top of the sidebar? Or would it be better to include them at the bottom of the sidebar?
More often than not, a single sidebar isn’t good enough for the savvy marketer’s website. To create a site that provides the most flexibility, produces the results you want, and is still valuable for your audience, you will need at minimum two different sidebars and a full width template (with no sidebar).
While you can’t see all of them (some are for new sections we’re working on), our website is built to leverage ten different WordPress templates and five different sidebars.
If you have a WordPress website this can be done fairly simply. And, lucky for you, we can help you with that – As a custom WordPress website design company, multiple sidebars and a full width template come standard in all of our custom websites.
Now – what do you think of the idea of multiple sidebars and templates?
Share you thoughts and comments below!
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Funny reading this article as I’ve been looking at my social media buttons towards the bottom of the sidebar and think they need to be moved up. I also remember our discussion about placing the free offer signup box at the top of the sidebar, and that’s where you’ve put yours on the new site.
Glad this article got you thinking! Front and center isn’t always best for social media buttons. I understand the desire to build your communities there, but building up your numbers on a Facebook page (which you don’t own) should always come secondary to building a community on your own website – which is what you’re doing for women home owners!
Ahhhh! I’m so all over the place building my business-is so much! This article was very helpful-very direct & gave me exactly what I needed to know. Thank you very much:)