16 Ways to Get Visitors to Stay on Your Site Longer
It is estimated that there are 1.18 billion websites online right now. 152 million of those sites are blogs and over three million posts are written each day for them. Getting your site noticed when it is literally one in a billion is quite difficult. Think of a search engine as a gatekeeper. Getting to the top of a search engine’s list of results is key. The longer people stay on your site, the better your ranking will be. Here’s how to keep them engaged.
awesome website content
First, Make Your Content Awesome
The algorithms used to calculate search results change, but one thing doesn't: Stick to creating informative, reliable information that's interesting and you're sure to rank. You have to make sure that when living, breathing people come to your site, they find something that they want to read or watch and stay awhile. One of the things search engines look for are sites that keep visitors from clicking away. The longer visitors stay on your site, the better it ranks.
Creating interesting, original and unique content is actually the fun part of having your own website because it can be about whatever you want. Remember: it has to be good enough to set your site apart from a billion others.
Keep them Engaged
Other than interesting content, there are a few other things that can keep visitors on your site longer. Here are the other 15 tips:
Give them another place to go on your site by offering related post links in your copy and in the sidebar.
Make your internal links a bright color so they catch people's attention. My links are pink!
Post videos within your written content.
Add photos. Two to three photos in a post breaks up text and makes it seem more interesting.
Add headers, bullets and numbered lists to your post. These also make your post look more interesting and helpful at first glance, preventing people from clicking away.
Give your posts tags that link to collections of similar content.
Make sure your site's menu is easy to use so readers can find more of your content.
Make all external links open a new window or browser tab instead of leading the visitors off your page.
Put your most interesting information "above the fold." Often, if a visitor doesn't see the information they want without scrolling, they click back to the search results.
Make a gallery post that gets visitors to click through pages using interesting photographs.
Be sure that your site loads quickly. Most people don't wait around for more than a few seconds for a page to finish loading and NO ONE will click around a slow website.
Give your visitors a search box so they can quickly find information that they want to read on your site.
Use a font that is easy to read, like Times New Roman or Georgia.
Don't use big words. Remember, if you don't make everything as easy as possible, people will click away from your site.
Provide longer articles packed with great information.
