You’re Really Not That Interesting

Well, yes, of course you are. The problem is, visitors to your website are not as interested in you as in themselves.

Daniel Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness, points out that our own thoughts and feelings are all that we have direct access to in the way of human experience. Naturally, our own thoughts and feelings seem richer and more interesting and in many ways more real than other people’s thoughts and feelings.

Particularly when we’re looking for solutions to our problems or things that meet our needs or that totally cute pair of shoes we saw on Instagram last week.

This is probably the normal state of mind for your web visitors.

Your web visitor

Arriving at your homepage, your visitor thinks, “Can this company provide what I want?” So your homepage shouldn’t say that your company was founded so many years ago with this mission statement in mind — who cares? Not your visitor. Your homepage should tell the visitor what you have to offer.

A visitor who goes to your “About Us”  page is thinking, “Can I trust this company?” Your mission statement may or may not answer that question. Put the number of years your company has been in business, your credentials, things like that, on this page.

A visitor at your Products or Services page wants to know, “Will this company’s goods and services meet my needs?” So make sure that your descriptions talk about how your goods and services will meet their needs, not how hard you’ve worked on them or how cool you are — and certainly not how many years you’ve been in business or your mission statement.

This isn’t exactly a new idea. But I know that it’s very hard to remember. When we do website rewrites, it seems as though 90% of the initial content boils down to, “I’m great and my company is wonderful!”

You know what? You are great. Your company is wonderful. Let your customers tell you that after you’ve provided what they want, earned their trust, and met their needs. Most of your visitors are thinking about themselves when they reach your website, so be sure that your website is all about them. Share on X