Why should I register on your website?
I have seen a number of websites that would like to collect
details of their visitors, simply asking people to register or
sign up on their website. These links are usually text links put
across the site. These websites believe that people who see this
link will click on the link and register on their site. Let me
ask you this if you were to walk into a shop and someone in the
shop asked you to fill out a form would you spend the time to
fill out the form? Would give away your personal details without
knowing why they want it in the first place?
Then ask yourself the same question why would someone who visits
your website and sees a register link or a sign up link click on
the link and provide you with his or her personal details
without knowing why you want it in the first place?
One example of our recent client who came to us with the similar
problem. His website had been up for 3 months and was getting
over 1500 visitors every day through various advertising
campaigns but only 1 - 2 people would end up registering on his
website. He was thoroughly frustrated as he was seeing thousands
of dollars spent towards advertising the site to drive traffic
to the website go waste as not enough people where registering
on his website. He had prominently put up the registration link
on the top navigation bar throughout the site so that it was
clearly visible to every visitor no matter which page they
entered the site from (his site has over 750 pages) yet only 1
or 2 people per day would register on his site.
We reviewed his website and realized that there was nowhere he
was mentioning the benefits to the visitor for registering on
his website. Not on a single page where the link for "Register"
mentioned on the site have any information what the user would
get by registering on the website or what the site was offering
him or her in return for registering on the site. Although the
placement of the link was correct on the site the question was
not answered as to why someone should register on the site.
What we did was to a put a banner on every page, which mentioned
that anyone who registered on the site would be entitled free
invitation for the next show organized by the client. This
banner was linked to the registration page and was placed right
below the link for registration on the navigation bar on the
top. In this way we insured that anyone who saw the link to
register on the site also saw the benefit of registering on the
site. As an added caution we also linked the banner to the
registration page as some visitors have a tendency to click on
the banner.
What happened next made the client jump in joy. As soon as the
banner was made live throughout his website the number of
registrations on his site jumped by 400%. He was now getting the
registrations he wanted.
Which goes to prove that if you answer the question of the
visitor "Why should I register on your website?" with a proper
message giving the benefit he could derive by doing so, you are
sure that the user would register. Coming back to the example of
a shop where you walked in and someone came up to you and asked
you fill up a form so that you can be entered into a contest to
win a brand new car, would you fill up the form?
As with the registration link one must also take care for other
links on the site and make sure that it tells the visitor what
he or she can expect from clicking on that link and what he or
she is going to get. The visitor always wants to know what to
expect and feels comfortable knowing this and can therefore
gradually navigate through your website.
Another important point to mention on registration pages is to
inform the user that you shall not be giving out their personal
details to any other website (as long as you really not giving
out the same to your partner companies). Like you and me every
visitor hates spam and would not like to receive the same. Hence
it goes a long way if you reassure the user that his or her
details will not be shared with any other partner sites and that
he or she will only receive information that you would be
sending him or her about your company.