5 PR & Social Media Tips | Keeping Visitors on Your Site
Getting people to visit your site is hard enough; getting them to stay is an even more difficult feat. It’s important to remember that the reasons people come to your site may vary from one another. Traffic to this blog is usually a result of a search keyword, more often than not a long-tail keyword. (To learn more about long-tail keywords, click here.)
When we get visitors to our blogs and websites, we hope that they will begin the sales funnel (whether there be an actual “sale” at the end of that funnel or simply a newsletter to subscribe to) and they will stay on our site or blog longer to make that possible. We hope that our blog post will be read, commented on, and shared with others, and we also hope that our newsletters, RSS feeds, and blogs will be subscribed to. Despite the reality that a visitor will leave your site eventually, you can still make their visit an enjoyable one that they may repeat in the future and advocate to others.
To do just that, here are a few tips to keeping visitors on your site, and getting them to return:
- Create great content. Offer relevant, new, and important information for readers. Search engines reward sites with content that is updated frequently, and with each blog post you have an opportunity to reach a new visitor.
- Keep your “voice” consistent. If you use a sort of voice or personality in your blog, keep that consistent. That way, when visitors see your posts on other blogs, read other posts on your blog, or are interested in a book you’ve written, they know what they are in store for and can expect the same quality and personality found in your other posts.
- Make your site aesthetically pleasing. It takes a matter of seconds for a visitor to be distracted by your site’s appearance and feel no desire to stay. With a plethora of free, easy-to-implement blogging templates, you can make your blog look nice and still be functional. Use images to enhance your site, and use a simple font; avoid lavish fonts in hard-to-read colors.
- Make the calls to action clear. A call to action is a request of a visitor to do something more than simply exit your site. A call to action can be one such that asks visitors to visit another part of your blog, to download you free eBook or White Paper, or to get visitors to subscribe to your newsletter or RSS feed. Get your visitors to do more by making it clear what their next steps should be.
- Give away value for free. This goes hand in hand with the above: if you are offering something of value for free, like an eBook or white paper, make it clear that it is available for download. Also, make it easy for visitors to get in touch with you; getting advice via email or simply getting help with a guest post can be something of value that you can give to your visitors too.
Be available and offer things to your visitors that will make them want to come to your site time and time again, and perhaps even share it with others. Make it easy for your content to be shared, as well, and your visitors may do just that. Free WOM (word of mouth) is invaluable, but you can help fuel that fire.
Do you have any other tips for getting visitors to stay?
