How to Guide Visitors from Hello to Heck Yes

Most websites are designed like digital brochures. 

Pretty. Informative. Full of stuff. 

But not persuasive. 

If your visitors have to figure out where to go or what to do next, you’re losing them. 

In today’s episode, I’m showing you how to create conversion paths — intentional flows through your site that guide people from “hello” to “heck yes, I’m in.” 

Whether your goal is to get people to sign up, book a call, or make a purchase — this will change how you think about your site forever. 

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Chapters

• 1:24 From Brochure To Converter
• 2:40 Defining Conversion Paths
• 3:46 Core Path Types That Work
• 4:56 Why Visitors Drop Off
• 6:12 The 10-Minute Mapping Exercise
• 8:05 Store Layouts As A Website Model
• 9:17 Test And Tighten Your Path
• 10:04 Closing And Subscriber Ask

Transcript

Carrie Saunders: 0:42

Most websites are designed like digital brochures. Pretty, informative, full of fluff and stuff, but not persuasive. If your visitors have to figure out where to go or what to do next, you are losing them. In today's episode, I'm showing you how to create conversion paths, internal flows through your site that guide people from hello to heck yes, I am in. Whether your goal is to get people to sign up, to book a call, or to make a purchase, this will change how you think about your website forever. And don't worry, I'll walk you through a real life example of a simple conversion path that you can map out in about 10 minutes or less. So let's dive in. Struggling to turn website traffic into real sales, you're not alone and you don't have to figure it out all yourself. Welcome to Smarter Online Business, the podcast for course creators, coaches, and e-commerce entrepreneurs who want their websites to convert visitors into buyers without the tech overwhelm. I'm your host, Carrie Saunders, a website strategist and conversion expert with over 20 years of experience. Each episode delivers simple, proven strategies to help you generate more revenue and make your website your smartest sales tool. Welcome back to the episode. So let's start off with what is a conversion path and why do you need one? You may have heard me here say that in the intro, and you might have been thinking, what is that, Carrie? So a conversion path is an intentional journey someone takes through your website that leads them towards a goal. So it's not just random clicks, it's designed. It's a flow that you design. Think of it like breadcrumbs that lead people from curiosity to clarity to commitment. Most websites drop people on the homepage hoping that they will figure it out. Smart sites lead people step by step through the decision-making process because we don't want to think. As consumers, we just don't want to think. We want to be told what to do. Even if that might not be a conscious thing, our primal brains just want to be told what to do. So your website isn't just showing what you offer, it should be guiding people to take action. It should be guiding them on that path. So, what are the types of conversion paths you should have? So the first one is you're going to want to have a home page to your freebie, to your email welcome, or to your offer. Or say your e-commerce and you don't have a freebie, you may want to guide them from your home page to your email, which welcomes them into your offer. This is perfect for nurturing and list building and getting people comfortable with you and your business. You might also have one where it's a home page to a service page, contact or book a call. So let's say you are a service provider or coach. This might be a great path for your type of website. Or maybe your conversion path could be they land on your blog post. They decide to get a related freebie or product from it, and then they go to your sales page and check out. This is ideal for most content creators, and this is also great for search engine strategy or nurturing a slow burn traffic. So the traffic that's a little bit slower to commit. So note you don't need all of these right away. Start with the primary path that makes the most sense for your business and make sure it's clear and easy to follow. So let's talk about why do people drop off and how to keep them moving. So people leave websites for several different reasons. When they hit a dead end and they don't know where to go next, and they have to think and they get too confused and they're bored, their brain goes, Oh, let's go do something else, right? They might be overwhelmed. So there might be too many options to do on your website. And they might not understand what's in it for them. This is one of the fastest ways for people to leave is they don't understand what is in it for them on your website. So to fix this, we want to make sure every page has one clear call to action. One thing you want them to do, even though you might sell or provide many different types of wonderful things out there, each page is designed for one task. So use buttons, internal links, and visual cues to guide their journey to this one clear path that you're starting on for this page. And keep your message focused and benefit driven. They want to know what's in it for them. That's just who we are, human nature. We want to know what's in it for them. Even if we aren't super self-centered, our primal self still wants to know what's in it for them. We're all busy, we don't have a whole lot of time, and we want to make sure we're using our time wisely. So I want to go into that 10-minute conversion path mapping exercise. That's a bit of a mouthful that I promised you earlier. I want you to choose one goal. What is your goal? Do you want to get someone to download your Phoebe? Do you want them to sign up for your newsletter? Do you want them to ask a question about a product you have on your website? What is the goal? And then ask yourself, what page do they end up landing on first? And then what is the next logical step? And then what? So now go to add a button or a link on each page that you think needs this conversion to create that path. So let me repeat that path again. First, where are they starting? What page are they landing on first? What's that next logical step? And then what should they do? So think about that. So this 10-minute conversion path mapping exercise is something that I teach in my course, the converting website. And it's just something that I find when my students learn the customer journey. We call it the customer journey, and they're when they learn about the customer journey, they're like, whoa, I never really thought about that. I just put stuff on my website I thought was important. I never thought about how are they going to go through my website. It's kind of like if you go into a grocery store or a shop and you walk in and everything's haphazardly everywhere, you're going to probably turn around and leave. Most stores are designed for you to walk in and have a certain path to go through them. Think about the last time you went to Kroger or Walmart or Aldi or wherever, whatever type of grocery store you have in your area. You probably walked in the front door. You probably walked through the fresh fruits and the fresh vegetables first, right? And then there might have been like a meat section. And then you may have had like all the aisles of processed foods. And then eventually you end up in the dairy and the frozen foods. And then what do they do in those stores too? They put little the end caps, that's the end of the aisles. Those are there on purpose. Those are interrupts. Those are too, there's like a click me by here button. So those interrupt your brain, and you're like, oh wait, I wasn't looking for this, but I kind of really want this thing. And so then they, you know, you might pick it up and you're putting in your grocery cart, right? So when we would think about our website and our website pages, we need to think about how are we guiding that person through the website? We don't want to be having a brochure website. We don't want to be having something that's just in their face. We want something that guides that visitor throughout your website to do the actions that you want. And that's something that my students absolutely love when we do the exercise in the converting website course that we have. So what I want you to do next is I want you to test your conversion pass today. Even if you can't do it right at this moment, maybe you're driving or maybe you're walking your dog, et cetera, make an appointment on your calendar for later today or tomorrow at the latest. And I want you to test your conversion pass. I want you to pick one of your offers, your freebies, your products. And I want you to ask if someone landed on my homepage right now, how many steps would it take for them to find this action and go for it? If the answer is more than three to four clicks, then there's room to tighten your path. Nobody wants to click more than three to four clicks to get to what they're trying to get to. And tightening that path, it often leads to higher conversions without driving a single extra visitor to your website. So this is the way you can make the most of the traffic you already have and convert them better and get higher sales and higher revenue. That's all we have for this week's episode of the Smarter Online Business Podcast. We hope you thoroughly enjoyed this conversation we had today about your customer journey and how they go through your website to help make your conversions much better. And apparently, our boy Cat Mac is wanting to say bye to you guys today. So be sure to subscribe to the podcast wherever you're listening. Subscribe to it if you're listening on YouTube, and rate and review us on Apple Podcasts. That really helps get the word out there so that we can help more business owners just like you.