How to Maintain your Website and Keep your Visitors Engaged

2018

28

Sep

A website is like a garden. It needs to be maintained regularly or it withers. For your website to keep attracting and retaining visitors, it needs to be serviced consistently.


One way of doing this is by keeping it up to date with new and useful content. Write insightful articles and provide useful tips to your readers in fields related to your business. There’re advantages that come with this. For example:

  • Your content is always current
  • It enhances your promotional and marketing schemes
  • And your visitors are more engaged,


This boosts conversion rates and customer retention.


It also improves your search engine ranking. With people staying longer on your website, search engines deem it authoritative, so they rank it higher. That as it is, you may be wondering what else you can do to maintain your website and keep your visitors longer. What we have here are strategies that you can implement today to achieve this goal. Dig in.


Make your site visually appealing


People make snappy decisions all day, usually based on a single reference point—visual appeal. 94% of a person’s first impression of your website is its visual design. It suffices to say that if your site is stuffy, you are losing out on many visitors. Make sure the look of your website is compelling enough to grab someone’s attention at a glance. Test out various themes if you are running a content management system. Or hire an experienced web designer.


Make your site’s navigation easy and simple.


Whenever I look at a simple navigation bar, it reminds me of well written menu. It makes ordering for a meal very easy. Apple’s website is a good example. The navigation bar should have the most important pages on your website. The home, blog, product list, contact page, and about page. They should be well labeled as well.


Link your content and make sure links are easy to find


Two things:

  • Link one post to another, internally.

Internal links encourage your visitors to click to another article and keep reading. You want them to flow seamlessly from one article to the next.

  • Use one color for all your links

Don’t confuse your visitors by using multiple colors for your links. Use the standard blue if you lack ideas.


Experiment with Multimedia


Multimedia files are captivating. A visitor might not be able to read a 2000 word article, but they might listen to it if it's conveyed via video or audio. Try it all. From video clips to podcasts to slideshow presentations to image galleries, and then narrow down to what works best for you.


Display ads sparingly.


Ads are distracting. Displaying too many of them on your site makes it look spammy and less navigable. It also makes it slower. Be considerate to your visitors and display the ads sparingly. Place them strategically, in a non-invasive manner.


Look professional


Invest in a professional looking website with good photography and copy. Visitors are more likely to transact with you if your site looks reputable and trustworthy.


Make your content more readable


There’re simple and tested techniques that can improve the readability of your content.

  • Shorten your paragraphs to not more than four sentences.
  • Use subheadings to break up the body into sections
  • Use numbered lists or bullets when possible
  • Make your sentences shorter.


Guide, Advise, and Incite on-site action


Always ask your readers to do something for you. It encourages participation and gives them reason to stick around longer. For example, you could:

  • Direct your readers to a related post on your website
  • Ask them to leave their thoughts in the comments
  • Provide social media buttons for your them to share your content

You could also guide your visitors with calls-to-action. If you run an eCommerce or a service website, buttons such as “Buy Now” or “Request a Quote” should be easy to see.


Make your website fast in terms of how quickly it loads


Having a responsive and fast site is an important piece of this puzzle. Most people are turned off by a website that takes more than a couple seconds to load.


Further, Google also places emphasis on the loading speed of sites. Having a slow site will definitely hurt your search engine ranks.


The easiest way to improve this is to upgrade your hosting. Don’t be a cheapskate when it comes to hosting. Whatever dimes you think you are saving, you are losing them through traffic. Don’t slack in keeping your website visitors engaged. As a website owner, this should be among the most important things, right next to keeping it maintained. Engaged visitors are more likely to sign up to a mailing list, which you can then leverage to sell your products.

 


Try these tips one at a time instead of applying all at the same time. This way it will be easier to manage and track. Otherwise, endeavor to share this article with those that you think will find it useful.