Ways to Keep Visitors on Your Website Longer

One of the biggest challenges facing bloggers today is learning how to engage their readers through their postings. Each post should be written with the idea of getting visitors to stay on the page longer, read more posts and interact with the website. Unfortunately most readers will find a specific blog post they want to read through a search engine or social media network, read it and then leave.

The goal is to create a website that paints a bigger picture that will make readers linger on your pages, bookmark your website and come back again in the future for additional visits. This can be accomplished by finding new ways to establish your expertise and authority within the topic you are blogging about so readers will want to remember you and read more. Below are some ideas that you can implement today that will help to keep visitors on your website longer.

Create an Article Series

Not every post should be part of a larger series, but a series can be a great way to increase the number of page views per visit. It will also encourage visitors to come back to read the next part in your series. Make sure you let your readers know when the next part will be posted in advance so they can return, or better yet invite them to sign-up for your feed or to receive email updates when new offerings are posted. Even once your series has been completed, readers will click through your website to read the complete volume, thereby increasing your page views naturally.

Feature Related Posts

One way to get your readers to go through some of your older content is to feature some of your most popular and commented articles from the past. You can quote specific sections and give the link to the original post to get more page views, or just create a list of related posts at the end of a new post on a similar topic. Finding creative ways to integrate your old content in with your fresher, newer posts will give new life to old posts and will help to increase reader awareness of the longevity of your knowledge and expertise within the subject matter.

Use Keywords to Link to Other Posts

Another great way to get your readers to read your older posts is to utilize specific keywords within your new offerings to link to older articles that feature additional information on a specific subject. This can help you to expand on your knowledge without writing another multi-part series and will help you get more mileage out of those older posts and boost your SEO at the same time.

Create Descriptive Introductions

Today’s readers have very short attention spans. It is important to capture their attention immediately and prove to them that it’s worth their time to stop and read your full blog posting. Creating a descriptive introduction that is just a few words long will also benefit your overall search engine optimization. This is particularly helpful on an index of related posts, as your quick descriptions will help readers see that your site has a lot of information to offer.

Feature Additional Posts

There are a number of ways to feature additional posts within your current website design that we have already discussed, such as featuring related posts, linking to other posts using keywords and creating descriptive introductions on index pages. These featured links can be categorized either by the subject matter being discussed, the date they were posted or by keyword or popular search terms. Including links in a sidebar by date or by topic is a great way to encourage readers to dig for more information on your site instead of doing another search on Google or by visiting a competitors’ website.

With so many competing sites working within the same market today, it is more important than ever before to stay on top of your website and keep it optimized for both your visitors and the search engines. If you would like to learn more about how you can improve your website design today, contact Fall RIver Website Design for a free consultation at 508-415-8648.