Why should I register on your website?

I have seen a number of websites that would like to collect details
of their visitors, simply asking people to register or sign up on
their website. These links are usually text links put across the
site. These websites believe that people who see this link will click
on the link and register on their site. Let me ask you this if you
were to walk into a shop and someone in the shop asked you to fill
out a form would you spend the time to fill out the form? Would give
away your personal details without knowing why they want it in the
first place?

Then ask yourself the same question why would someone who visits your
website and sees a register link or a sign up link click on the link
and provide you with his or her personal details without knowing why
you want it in the first place?

One example of our recent client who came to us with the similar
problem. His website had been up for 3 months and was getting over
1500 visitors every day through various advertising campaigns but
only 1 – 2 people would end up registering on his website. He was
thoroughly frustrated as he was seeing thousands of dollars spent
towards advertising the site to drive traffic to the website go waste
as not enough people where registering on his website. He had
prominently put up the registration link on the top navigation bar
throughout the site so that it was clearly visible to every visitor
no matter which page they entered the site from (his site has over
750 pages) yet only 1 or 2 people per day would register on his site.

We reviewed his website and realized that there was nowhere he was
mentioning the benefits to the visitor for registering on his
website. Not on a single page where the link for "Register" mentioned
on the site have any information what the user would get by
registering on the website or what the site was offering him or her
in return for registering on the site. Although the placement of the
link was correct on the site the question was not answered as to why
someone should register on the site.

What we did was to a put a banner on every page, which mentioned that
anyone who registered on the site would be entitled free invitation
for the next show organized by the client. This banner was linked to
the registration page and was placed right below the link for
registration on the navigation bar on the top. In this way we insured
that anyone who saw the link to register on the site also saw the
benefit of registering on the site. As an added caution we also
linked the banner to the registration page as some visitors have a
tendency to click on the banner.

What happened next made the client jump in joy. As soon as the banner
was made live throughout his website the number of registrations on
his site jumped by 400%. He was now getting the registrations he
wanted.

Which goes to prove that if you answer the question of the
visitor "Why should I register on your website?" with a proper
message giving the benefit he could derive by doing so, you are sure
that the user would register. Coming back to the example of a shop
where you walked in and someone came up to you and asked you fill up
a form so that you can be entered into a  contest to win a brand new
car, would you fill up the form?

As with the registration link one must also take care for other links
on the site and make sure that it tells the visitor what he or she
can expect from clicking on that link and what he or she is going to
get. The visitor always wants to know what to expect and feels
comfortable knowing this and can therefore gradually navigate through
your website.

Another important point to mention on registration pages is to inform
the user that you shall not be giving out their personal details to
any other website (as long as you really not giving out the same to
your partner companies). Like you and me every visitor hates spam and
would not like to receive the same. Hence it goes a long way if you
reassure the user that his or her details will not be shared with any
other partner sites and that he or she will only receive information
that you would be sending him or her about your company.