It’s nice to show up at someone’s home and be greeted by the welcome mat.
Aside from the aesthetics, the mat also serves a distinct purpose- it allows you to clean your shoes before you enter the house.
A welcome mat in front of your home makes sense. But think about this…
Does a welcome mat make sense on your website?
What purpose does it serve? It not like anyone needs to wipe their shoes.
And I’m not even talking about those nonsense pages that ask you to ‘enter’ the site. If I didn’t want to enter, why would I be there?
I’m talking about once I’m into the site and all I see is ‘welcome.’
And it’s not exactly all that compelling. Think about it. What if you stripped every website of everything but the headline and they each said ‘welcome?’
Not exactly the best use of real estate is it? Especially at a time where people can spend less than four seconds on a website before they decide to click away. Four seconds. Not much time to grab someones attention is it?
What’s better than a welcome mat?
A compelling headline. Something that allows the visitor to know where they are, what they’re in for and why they should stay.
Stuck?
Ask yourself these questions:
- What do you do?
- Who do you do it for?
- So what? (Repeat this question a few times.)
Notice how you get to something a bit more compelling than “welcome.”
Start there.
So ditch the welcome mat
Instead of the mat, make visitors feel welcome with the tone of your words. Your personality. Compelling content.
But don’t waste their time with a welcome mat. It just might make them go away.
Try it out. Let me know what you come up with.
What do you think? Is ‘welcome’ a waste of valuable space?