Online marketing professionals make quite a to-do made about page views. Hearing some people talk about them, you’d swear that the moon and stars hung on the things. A day doesn’t go by when the importance of snagging eyeballs isn’t hammered relentlessly into the heads of anyone who wants to do business online.

But here’s the deep, dark, dirty secret of Internet marketing: page views are a vastly overrated resource. Here’s why.

The Window Shopping Analogy

Let’s harken back to a distant time before the Internet, where places called, “stores” sold goods to customers who actually “entered” the premises and used “cash” to conduct the transactions. Okay, so maybe things haven’t gotten to the point where no one knows what a store is anymore…yet.

But if a store had goods displayed in the window, people could stop and take a look. Unfortunately, you could have hundreds of people window-shopping at any given establishment on any given day, but if not one soul enters the store and buys something, it means nothing. Well, other than a business that will be closing soon.

Consider page views the window shopping analogue for the 21st century, and you get a better idea as to why they are not the end-all, be-all.

What You Really Need Is …

Your business needs engagement. As the article “Page Views vs. Engagement: What You Really Need to Focus On” tells us, “Engaged readers become repeat visitors, then loyal followers and finally customers.” An engaged viewer clicks on the page, reads the content, actually interacts with it, and, therefore, becomes more receptive to actually buying something, or doing whatever the page wants visitors to do.

In fact, the online world is starting to wise up regarding page views and click bait. The above-mentioned article, for instance, mentions that Facebook has begun cracking down on headlines that mislead readers into clicking on a link that has no actual relevance to them.

Going back to the window shopping example, it’s not enough for someone to simply stop by the window, look at what’s there, and then move on. They need to see something in that window that gets them inside the building.

Page Views Aren’t TOTALLY Useless

All of this is not to say that page views should be completely shunned. They do come in handy. After all, page views are easy to measure, so you can at least see if people are making an initial visit to your website.

The best way to look at page views is that they cannot be the first and last word in your Internet marketing strategy. They are but one part of the puzzle.

So What Do You Do?

There are some ways of getting customers engaged with your site. From the start, it helps if you are offering goods, services, or concepts that people are interested in. That means quality offerings at competitive prices, but that’s just the start.

“Content is king” is more than just a smart buzz-phrase. Your landing page should have good, solid, original content that catches the readers’ interest and makes them eager to click further into your site, curious as to what else you have to offer.

Furthermore, the more interactive you make the page, the more you draw in the reader. Maybe it’s by using a poll or questionnaire. Or perhaps there’s a link to a cool video or other entertaining media. Get the reader involved and you’re on your way to winning them over.

If you’re using social media to reach those people, then definitely check out”How To Enhance Your Social Media Presence”.