Let’s face it: visitors to your web site are increasingly impatient. They skim content instead of methodically reading it. If they cannot easily find the information that they are looking for, they will bounce quickly. First impressions matter. According to Contentsquare’s latest Digital Experience Benchmark Report, financial services website visitors in 2021 scroll only 54% of pages, down from 64% in 2020.  In addition, 58% of visitors abandon their journeys after viewing just one page, up from 47% in 2020. Your goal is to provide an engaging digital experience so that restless prospects and customers take action. Anchor links are effective mechanisms for improving conversion rates, user experience and SEO.

Anchor links – also referred to as “jump” or “in-page” links – quickly navigate users to another location on the same page. Besides providing direct access to content of interest, they act as an interactive table of contents, helping users form a mental model of the page and guiding them toward elements that are integral to your conversion goal. They increase discoverability of and engagement with content that may require a long scroll to find.

Anchor links also enhance SEO. Last year, Google rolled out its Core Web Vitals algorithm update, emphasizing user experience and interactivity when factoring in a website’s ranking. If a user cannot immediately tell what your web page is about, they’ll most likely leave your website, increasing your bounce rate. Conversely, the more time users spend on your site, the better your search ranking will be over time.

Here are some best practices to consider when utilizing anchor links:

• Put the anchor links at the top of the page, directly below the page heading, as a type of page-index
• Choose relevant, keyword enriched headings so that readers and search engines can easily understand the structure of your web pages
• Integrate applicable Leadfusion calculators and/or Guided Selling dialogues on your product pages and add an anchor link to the section
• Put ‘Top of page’ links or arrows on the same line as the sub-heading to help your site visitors navigate back to the top faster
• Make the anchor links “sticky” – ensure these visual cues stay in place as the user scrolls and indicate users’ current location

Anchor links are easy to implement, can help you lead your customers and prospects more efficiently through the sales funnel, enhance the user experience, and boost your search ranking. Contact us to learn how to best put this and other simple techniques to use in the context of your implementation.