Eureka! Help Your Visitors Find What Your Web Site Offers

Title: Eureka! Help Your Visitors Find What Your Web Site Offers Author: Ted Laux Summary: Learn how adding a site index can make it easy for your visitors to find what your web site offers. Word Count: 537 Email: tlaux@tedlauxindexing.com Formatting: 60 characters/line

Eureka! Help Your Visitors Find What Your Web Site Offers Copyright 2005 Ted Laux

Searching for a way to encourage your web visitors to stay longer at your web site? Could they be leaving because they can't find what they're looking for? Maybe they search for a while and then give up, never to return.

You may have tried the standard ways to change that. You might have a search engine already. But you've probably also noticed that search engines are far from perfect, and many times frustrating to use.

It's pretty common to search for something on the web that you know exists, but are unable to find. Or, the opposite and just as vexing, you are given so many choices that it is a tedious task to find the really relevant entries among the irrelevant ones.

That could be happening to your web visitors too. You've provided great content on your site, but people may simply be having trouble finding it.

The answer to this dilemma may be hiding in plain sight.

For years we've all used indexes at the back of books. Those indexes have often helped us go directly to something we're looking for in a book, something that we've found in the past and want to find again, or something new, that we hope is there.

A well-written index leads us directly to what we're looking for.

A well-written index has long been recognized by book publishers as an attractive marketing feature. They know that many book buyers will look for an index, and upon not finding one, put the book aside and look elsewhere, probably in another publisher's book. It's vital to them to have a good index in their books.

So why isn't there an index on your web site, or almost every other site that you've visited? No reason, really. We just don't expect them on web sites yet. But we'll be seeing more and more of them.

Fortunately, there are now many experienced, professional indexers, who are bringing their skills to the web, indexing web sites much the same way that they index books.

Indexes offer the same benefits on web sites as they do in books, and they're even easier to use. Visitors simply find what they're looking for in the index, click on its link, and poof! They're magically transported to exactly what they want.

Not only can they quickly find what they've come to your site to find, but by browsing through the comprehensive index of your site, they will discover things that they never knew were there. And it will be easy to check them out.

They'll find them by clicking on familiar terms that are readily visible, rather than having to guess the exact terms actually used. They'll find things that are organized by concept, in addition to significant words and phrases.

You won't have to teach them how to use your site index. They've used indexes in books before, they recognize their value, and they'll be ready to use yours. They'll easily find the information offered on your site.

A well-prepared index can keep your visitors happily at your site for a longer time, checking out more of what you have to offer.

A web site index could very well be what you've been searching for.

Resource Box: Copyright 2005 Ted Laux, a professional indexer of books and web sites, whose indexes help you find what you're looking for. To learn more about adding an index to your web site, visit Ted at www.tedlauxindexing.com or www.tedlauxindexing.com/WebsiteIndexing.html