Keep People On Your Site For Longer

 

Driving traffic to your website is one thing but making them stay is another. You may have a beautiful website with great content but if you can’t get people to stay on your site for long enough to see it then it’s all pointless.

Keeping people on your website longer obviously means you have a greater chance of gaining a customer or making a sell but it will also help to improve your SEO so finding ways to keep people active on your site for longer is vital.

So how can you get your visitors to stick around?

1) Avoid annoyances

One of the main reasons people will leave your website will be due to annoying aspects such as:

• Slow page loading speed
• Outdated content
• Dead links
• Non-mobile friendly web pages
• Missing images
• Poor quality images
• Difficult to find information
• Poorly structured sites

And the list goes on…

These small frustrations have a huge impact on the usability of the site so ensure you keep them to a minimum.

2) Provide something useful, compelling and interesting

Once your visitor has found what they are looking for why would they stay? This is why you have to give them a reason to hang around.

If your website doesn’t provide its visitors with value they aren’t likely to hang around so give them a reason to stay.

Add value to your website by:

• Creating a blog – only post unique, interesting and valuable content that your visitors will want to read.
• Creating how to guides.
• Place call-to-actions on every page, driving them to relevant pages that may be of interest to them, such as useful blog posts.
• Including offers, deals, etc.  

3) Add videos

Everyone loves videos; it can replace or work alongside written content but is generally favoured among most users. Videos are more engaging, personal and easier to follow. They also make you seem more human online which builds trust.

Types of videos you could create:

• Testimonials
• Service information
• Tutorials/How to guide
• About the business
• About the local area

4) Include more links

People follow links, especially if you prompt them with call-to-actions. You need to guide your visitors through your website without the user having to think too much about it.

If you can’t go forward, most people are likely to go back or away, especially if they have done what they came there to do. Make it easy for your visitors to browse all of your content by placing clearly displayed links with compelling call-to-actions.

Every page on your website should have a call-to-action placed clearly and prominently on the page to encourage the visitor to stay on your website.