Why You Want A Recommendations Page On Your Website And How To Create It

Do you often get questions from your community about which services and products you would recommend? If you find yourself answering the same or similar questions repeatedly, you want to publish a Recommendations page on your website or blog. Let’s take a look at why you should want and how you can easily create a Recommendations page for your website.

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Why You Want a Recommendations Page

Save Time

A Recommendations page serves several purposes. Having one of these pages set up will save you a lot of time. That’s because once you publish this page, every time you’re asked a question about what XYZ you would recommend, just send the asker the link to the Recommendations page. They’ll not only see the answer to their question, but they’ll now see all the other products and services you recommend on that page.

You can also suggest that your community members bookmark that page for the future. That saves even more of your time. Readers can go there instead of asking you the next time they want to know your opinion about a product or service. They can check directly on the Recommendations page first.

Recurring Passive Income

This type of page can be a source of recurring passive income, too. When you use affiliate links to send your reader to check out the tools and services you recommend, if they make a purchase, you’ll earn affiliate commissions. Because your audience trusts you and your recommendations, it’s important to only refer to resources that you’ve checked out and/or use yourself. You’re staking your reputation on these recommendations.

A Recommendations page may not seem like a big deal to you but it can be a great way to boost your income. Here are a few things to keep in mind when you create one for your blog or website. You want to make sure you’re getting the most out of it for yourself and for your community.

Name Your Recommendations Page

Even though this page on your website is where you will recommend products and services, you may choose to name it something different. Be sure whatever you choose to name it is clear to your audience what it represents. Clarity is the winner over cute with page names. Here are a few suggestions;

• Recommendations
• Resources
• [Your Name]’s Best of List
• Toolbox
• Gear
• Tools

Position Your Recommendations Page In Your Menu

This is a static page on your website, clearly visible in your menu bar as an option to click. If you’re a blogger accustomed to creating blog posts, it’s not just another blog post. That would be too difficult for your readers to find in a pinch.

On a WordPress website, this type of page is created in the Pages section in your Dashboard. Once you create the page, add it to your main menu so it’s visible to anyone who lands on your website or blog. They will be able to navigate to this page easily by clicking on the page name in the menu.

Create a List

What Do Your People Ask You To Recommend?

The next thing you want to do is make a list of items to include on your Recommendations page. Think about the people who ask for recommendations from you and what they want to know. What products or services are you asked about most often?

They Don’t Know They Need This, Too

Take it a step further and consider what your community might not think to ask you about. For example, your visitors might want to know what equipment you use to create your podcast. They may not be thinking to ask about podcast editing software yet. Once on your Recommendations page, they see you’ve shared some brief tips and suggested services for other aspects of podcasting a newbie isn’t yet aware they need.

What Do They NOT Need?

You can even help save your visitors from making a big mistake in your niche. For example, describe how a newbie doesn’t need expensive audio equipment to get started, contrary to what a lot of others might recommend. Have them save their money and recommend something they may already have to get the job done. They can always upgrade later with the recommendations you have on your page. They will appreciate your honesty and the fact that you’re saving them money to get started.

Add Images On Your Recommendations Page

Remember the age-old saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Include visually appealing images on this page. Most people who browse your site will click on images, so add images for every product you promote.

Even better, link your images to the company or brand using your unique affiliate ID. When someone clicks your image, you’ll get credited as the affiliate who referred them.

Use an Affiliate Tracker

Use a plugin like Pretty Links to make your links simple and easy to read. This can boost clickthroughs and make it easy for you to swap out links if the company you’re promoting goes out of business or shifts to a new affiliate system.

Recommend Only The Best

As mentioned before, your recommendations are tied to your reputation. If you fill your Recommendations page with links to products that are not helpful, your community will catch on. They’ll be unhappy with you and they won’t trust your future recommendations.

There might be cases where you link to a service or product that was amazing and over time, it goes downhill. If that happens, be honest. You could say something simple like, “I loved my old host and it’s great for beginning bloggers. But once you have more traffic, you may want to switch to another solution that’s better equipped to handle your needs with that high traffic.”

Don’t Forget Tangible Items

If there’s some kind of gear you can recommend to your readers, send them over to check it out by using an Amazon affiliate link. You can recommend books, podcasting equipment, office equipment you find that’s unique and helpful, and health and wellness products if that’s appropriate for your niche. Be sure you’ve checked out these items, though. Remember, you want to recommend quality, useful items, not just fill up your Recommendations page.

Share Your Recommendations Page

Link To Existing Content From Your Recommendations Page

If you already have an in-depth review or positive content, link to it on this page! For example, you could say, “My hosting company is MomWebs. To read about how the amazing support team at MomWebs saved my website after it was attacked by hackers, click here.”

Share Your Recommendations Page On Social

Once you’ve published your Recommendations page, be sure to promote it on social media. This can drive traffic to your affiliate links and may even result in a few commissions! You generally can’t share affiliate links on social media but you can definitely share a webpage with affiliate links in it! 😉

Link To Your Recommendations Page In Future Blog Posts

Keep the page in mind when you create future blog posts or newsletter articles where it would be relevant to send readers to that page. Remember, Google likes internal links, too!

You could even use your Recommendations page as a source of ideas for future articles. Review each of the items you promote on your Recommendations page in separate blog articles. Link from the article to the Recommendations page. You can also link to the blog article from the page to send readers back to your own personal review of the item they’re checking out. Be sure you’ve got your affiliate links in both places.

Review and Update Regularly

Don’t just set it and forget it. You’ll want to review this page regularly and make sure all of the recommendations you make on the page are still your favorites.

Set a reminder in your calendar to review your recommendations at a predetermined time. That way, you won’t forget about it. Quarterly is good and you can always adjust to once or twice a year if you want.

Some of the items you’ll want to check regularly;

• Have you changed your preference for something and want to link to a different choice?
• Check to make sure the affiliate links still work for every recommendation.
• Add any new categories of products or services you want to recommend.

Remember, this is a living, growing resource for your community. Do this well, and this page will become one of the most popular destinations for your website visitors.

What are your thoughts about creating a Recommendations page for your website or blog? Please share them in the comments below.