4.5 Fixes for your Registration Page

The time has come -- you are one second away from beginning your acquisition and growing your list by the hundreds maybe even THOUSANDS. We know you're excited, but have you taken the right steps to ensure your client will be willing to share information? If you just paled at the thought, maybe it's time to take a better look at your registration page to ensure you've done your best to optimize it to its fullest potential.

1. Untidy Registration Page
The biggest mistake you can make is keeping your navigation bar on your registration page. Having links around the call to action is giving your user reasons to leave the page before hitting the submit button. Make sure you've removed any links to keep your user focused. A great example of this: Netscape Registration Page

2. TMI -- How much Information do you really need?
Name, Last Name, User ID (if needed) and Email address. You might be pushing it by asking for gender, age, phone number & address. What tends to happen is your user, who's accustomed to scanning pages, would go to your landing page, scan through the list of questions and leave without realizing that some are optional.

3. Save it for Page 2

I get it, you're sitting there saying, "But I have to know more information. I have to know their likes/dislikes/favorite brands/what toilet paper they use." If this is absolutely the case, then save it for page 2. Making the registration process as easy as possible means you get the opt-in which is your number one goal for the acquisition. You don't want your customer to drop off before they hit the submit button.

4.5 Show ME the content

This is so important it counts as a reason and a half. Once completing all the above suggestions, it is now time to look deep within your soul and ask yourself the fundamental question: Would YOU register?

Before you say, "Of course I would! No Question", run a little test. Visit your site and view it objectively. Do you see dozens of register here links? Do you have enough content? Is your content exciting enough? If you don't trust yourself, then ask a trusted friend (preferably one NOT in marketing along side of you) and see what they like about your site and your registration process. It would be helpful if this friend was also your target demographic.

A word to the wise: Show your clients why they should be registering instead of listing the reasons on your registration page.

If you find that you may need to beef up your content, look up the most searched keywords to your site or analyze your PPC results and adjust your content from there. Make sure the customer is getting the experience they desire.

Good Luck!