Use your website to create a bio link
Elon Musk has surprised Twitter users by banning any connections to Linktree in bios and tweets. It’s madness and who knows why. At the time of writing it was a rule, and by the time I posted… it seems to have been removed. Confusing, yes! But it shows how vulnerable we are if our content is ruled by a third party.
Linktree is great, I use it for the Full Stop podcast as it’s an easy way to pull all the listening channels together. But it’s a third party service - like Twitter - and we really should be bringing the attention back to our own website. It’s where we want our audience to go so I’m going to be creating a bio link page for the site. Here’s five reasons why a website bio link page is better:
The trouble with bio links is that there’s no clear hierarchy. It can be tricky for your users to locate what they need. My Hello Lovely links page (which I’m developing) takes you through the flow using a clear pathway. The free advice is first as it establishes that I know my stuff, then there’s a link to contacting me. It’s more than a series of links.
When the audience clicks on your bio, they want to know you. A drive to your website means they learn about what you do, your business and your brand. What’s the point of having a website if you don’t encourage people to use it? When you use a bio link service, you’re driving traffic away.
You’re also under the control of a third party services. Twitter might be hitting the headlines for changes in service, but that can be happen to all third party services. By using your website, it’s in your control. You can always have a bio site as a back up but it should be just that.
Bio link services track clicks which is a main selling tool. If you connect your website to Google Analytics, it’ll do the same and it’s free.
You can elevate your brand on your website. If you use a bio link service you’re having to pay to adapt your brand to suit their look and feel, or pay money for more tools to customise the look.
What should you include on your links page?
Your branding. Take advantage of the location on your website and keep it visually consistent, and the copy should fit the tone of your brand too.
Links to social media, pages on your website that you think are of interest to your audience. But do keep it simple, don’t throw everything at your curious visitor, invite them to explore.
Your newsletter sign-up. Now you know how tricky third party services can be, it’s a good time to set up an email list where you can contact your audience with useful infomation and offers. A newsletter is a great way to do this.
If you’d like me to set up a Squarespace links page, please get in touch using the button below that will take you to a brief or you can drop me an email. We can work on some text together and I’ll create a page that you can add to your bios.
During January 2023, I'm inviting you to set up page on your website for £250 with £50 of the fee donated to The Trussell Trust. They support a nationwide network of food banks and provide emergency food and support to people locked in poverty, and campaign for change to end the need for food banks in the UK.