16-04-2021

5 Easy Strategies To Keep Visitors On Your Website



  • Navigation affects conversions: how easy the site is to use, what percentage of visitors convert into leads and customers Here is a video and checklist for website navigation best practices. These are design ideas and tips along with examples of what to do (and what not to do) with your website’s menu.
  • The following are 5 things you can change to keep people on your website longer. Have a FAQ available on your website Making a FAQ available on a website is significant because it shows that you’re addressing customer’s needs. They can get an overview of your company and answers to common questions.
  • ‘Keep it fresh and keep it relevant’, this was Google’s reply on the importance of having fresh content on your website. New content can get you more free traffic either through more loyal visitors (people will come back to check if you have published new content), more social media mentions or more organic visits (search engines will.

Why should your own website or blog be like that then? Website Content. Website content can include written text, images, free downloads, anything that is going to draw new visitors in and keep your existing visitors coming back. Here are some ideas: Product Updates. Product updates are really important if your site has an ecommerce element to it. Blogging is an easy way to engage with site visitors. Writing a blog post is easy once you get the hang of it. Posts don’t need to be long or complicated. Just write about what you know, and do your best to write well. Show customers your personality. When you write a blog post, you can really let your personality shine through.

Owning a website or blog has it’s responsibilities. You can’t just upload it and forget it. Regular website maintenance is a must if you want your site to be successful.

Why is Website Maintenance Important?

With regular website maintenance your site will run smoothly. No disgruntled visitors because something on the site didn’t work or a link you provided is broken.

Regular visitors are looking for what is new, so provide them with new and exciting information, products or features.

Website are subject to being hacked. Using a proper website maintenance program you can try and avoid being hacked by keeping everything up to date.

There are all kinds of things that need to be done when maintaining a website. Whether you decide to do these yourself or hire out the work, it still needs to be done.

Website Updates

Think about it, if you visit a website that is not updated regularly will you continue to visit it? Why should your own website or blog be like that then?

Website Content

Website content can include written text, images, free downloads, anything that is going to draw new visitors in and keep your existing visitors coming back. Here are some ideas:

  • Product Updates

    Product updates are really important if your site has an ecommerce element to it.

    1. New products added announced.

      Don’t forget to update your navigation, to add a page for the new product and add it to your site map.

      If you have a design that has a side navigation (called a sidebar in a blog) the updates can be added to it so no matter what page a visitor arrives on, they see the new product announcement.

    2. Discontinuation of a product. Like the announcement of new products, if you are discontinuing a product, including an announcement in the side navigation will make the information available on all your pages.
    3. Upcoming price changes would be another thing to announce. It might even spur some rush purchases too.
  • Company News

    Did you get a mention in the newpaper? Someone did a review of your site or product? This is all what is called social proof and you need to show visitors what others are saying about you.

    Growing so much you need new staff? Announce and introduce your new staff members.

  • Giveaways

    Having a giveaway or a contest periodically is a good way to create some buzz about your site.

Updating old content should be on your website maintenance list also. Information becomes out dated so keep your content up to date to show your visitors you are on top of the subject.

Feature Addition

If at the time you created the website there was something that got left out because of budget constraints, maybe the budget can afford it now?

Take a look at your website/blog every once in a while and see if there is some kind of improvement that can be made. Something that you didn’t think of previously.

Maybe you have some feed back from visitors that needs to be implemented?

  • Fix a usability issue that has been mentioned.
  • Time to add a blog if you have a regular website and do not have one already?
  • Did you join a social networking site or two? Add the appropriate button(s) and links to your social profiles.
  • Add a frequently asked question section to cut down on emails and phone calls aske these regular questions.

Regular Website Maintenance Tasks

There are some regular website maintenance tasks you should perform on a scheduled basis. Scheduling at least monthly would be the timeline to start with.

Backing Up Your Website

Backing up your website is something you should do all the time, especially if you are the type that uses the online interface of your store or blog to make changes. Things happen. Even though the web hosting company says they backup the sites on their servers, their last backup could have been before your last edit. If the server crashes for some reason or your site gets hacked, your edits will be gone if the web hosting company restores what they had backed up. Image loosing a whole day’s work, just because you didn’t take a few minutes to backup the site.

Monitor Website Outages

If your site goes down, you want to be the first to know and not receive an email from someone else they can not access your site.

SiteUp is a small program that runs on your computer in the background checking your site on a regular basis. It will notify you when the site is down with a popup. Obviously though, your computer has to be on for it work.

Check Domain Registration Information

Look up in the WHOIS records what information is recorded for your domain name. Make sure it is correct. Sometimes when you initially sign up for your domain you would have used an email address that is no longer vaild. This needs to be updated as when there is a problem with your domain or an expiry notice is sent out you won’t get the emails. They are sent to the email address on record.

Test Website Speed

Testing the download speed of your site regularly is important. Especially if you have added a new feature. Web surfer have a very short attention span. If your site is slow to load, they are not going to wait. You need to do everything you can to improve the download speed of your site or blog so visitors stay to read your content and hopefully provide you with organic incoming links by spreading the word for you what a wonderful site you have.

Link Check

Links become broken over time. With changes within the site and if you referenced someone in one of your articles or somewhere else within the site links could have changed or are broken.

5 Easy Strategies To Keep Visitors On Your Website Without

The task to find broken links isn’t too hard. Just use a link checker to test your external links and internal links at least once a month.

Software Updates

Third party software, like your ecommerce software, WordPress and Joomla for example, are always updating their software. You need to keep on top these updates and install them as soon as they come out. The updates won’t just be new features, they will include security updates too.

Analyze Your Stats

Analyze not just your sales stats but your website stats too.

Traffic Stats

Look at your web server stats to determine your website traffic. If your web hosting account doesn’t have website stats then get one installed. Something like Awstats that provides:

  • Pages entered on and left on
  • Time spent on the site
  • Bounce rate
  • Referring sites
  • Countries your visitors are from
  • Keywords/phrase that were used to find you
Account

Google Analytics will provide some of this information. It may not be as complete as a website stats program that is run from your actual server.

One thing a website stats program installed on your server will do that Google Analytics doesn’t is show you who is hotlinking (linking directly to your images on your site) . e.g. your images, PDFs, reports, etc.. These people are stealing your content and your bandwidth if they do not have your permission to do so. With this information your can stop the hotlink.

Search Engine Results

Are you showing up on the first page for the keywords/phrase you want to? If you have given it some time, e.g. a few months, to get onto the first page of the search results naturally then maybe it is time to look at your content and revise it.

Reputation Management

Using Google Alerts, you can monitor your website name, your name, your brand and your content on the web.

You will know who is talking about you. This gives you an opportunity to jump into the conversation. Thank those who are praising you. Fix a problem that is being discussed related to your business.

Tracking your website address with Google Alerts is 2 fold.

  1. You see who is linking to you and can pop over there and say thanks.
  2. You can catch the use of your content without your permission.

You can learn a lot from your website maintenance program. Take the time to set one up.

This article was created as part of the V7N 30 Day Blogging Challenge. Click the image below to see who else is participating.

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You’ve probably spent a lot of time thinking about how to attract visitors to your website, but have you thought about how to make them stay once they’re there?

Optimizing your site for visitors will help keep them around for longer, and may even entice them to support your business. But how can you ensure that visitors view more than just a single page before exiting your site altogether?

Here are five simple ways you can keep visitors on your site for longer and reduce that dreaded bounce rate.

Make your site simple to navigate

If your website is tricky to navigate,your visitors will be quick to move on. It’s crucial to provide the informationthey need quickly and clearly. One area of significant importance is the mainmenu. It should give your visitors quick access to the pages they care aboutmost, such as your list of products, services, or pricing. They shouldn’t haveto drill down too many levels to find the answers to their most pressingquestions. On the web pages themselves, the most useful content should bevisible near the top of the page, not hidden somewhere in-between.

Keep the content clear

Few things scare away visitors morethan large chunks of complicated content. Try to include as much information aspossible without affecting clarity. This includes using descriptive headingsand subheadings, short sentences, bite-sized paragraphs, and bullet points. Tryrefrain from using jargon as far as possible so as not to alienate potentialcustomers. The typography should also be easy on the eyes. Choose a legiblefont and include plenty of white space between paragraphs and blocks of text.

Have visual elements

Humans are visual beings and canprocess images 60 000 times faster than text. Most of us also enjoylooking at pictures or watching videos more than we do reading text. Which iswhy it’s crucial to have visual elements on your site. Images, infographics,slideshows, and videos all work well. Not only are they easy to look at, butthey can also help aid your audience’s understanding of your business and itsofferings. With that said, take care not to overload your visitors’ visualcentres. Be strategic about your visual placements.

Include calls-to-action

Don’t assume visitors will know whatto do next. You will need to tell them by way of a call-to-action (CTA). Manyvisitors are lost by not encouraging them to take that next step. Decide whichactions are most valuable to you (quote requests, newsletter sign-ups, etc.)and encourage visitors to take those actions by including a clear CTA on eachrelevant page. For example, if you want them to request a quote after viewing aparticular service page, include a button that links to your contact page oronline quote form.

Keep

Speed up your site

5 Easy Strategies To Keep Visitors On Your Website Page

A page’s load time has a direct impact on its bounce rate. In fact, a recent study by pingdom.com found that the average bounce rate increases from 9% at two seconds to 38% by the time it hits five seconds.

5 Easy Strategies To Keep Visitors On Your Website Account

Google recommends a page speed of no more than three seconds. One simple way to speed up your site is to reduce images, video, and file sizes. Your web developer should also be able to suggest additional steps to increase your site speed.

5 Easy Strategies To Keep Visitors On Your Website Site

Is your website attracting visitors but struggling to keep them or convert them into leads or paying customers? Online Innovations would like to assist you with a strategy that addresses any weak spots in your current website design, content or speed.

Give us a call on 041 365 4919, mail sales@onlineinnovations.com or visit www.onlineinnovations.com to learn more about our digital marketing services.

  • online innovations, online website, search engine optimisation, SEO