How to keep people on your website for longer
2024 is a busy time to be alive, we know from consistent data that you have approx 15 seconds from when a viewer jumps on your website to grab their attention with your engaging copy & stellar design. The question we’re asking today is: once you have captured your audiences hearts with your amazing above the fold content; how do you keep people engaged on your site longer?
Here are our top tips:
1. Write consistent up-to-date content your audience is going to love through your blog space
Create winning content, by linking your recent posts or similar categories to stay relevant, perhaps a blog carousel placed at the end of each post keeps readers digging for more gold
2. Craft scannable content
The secret sauce to digestible content on your site is of course to make it easy to read and understand quickly. Do this by breaking up large paragraphs of copy into bite sized chunks using headings and bullet points. White space in your design should help guide the eye to important information and use icons and elements to capture information in visible cues.
3. Make internal linking a habit and a part of your overall website strategy
Add more internal links throughout your content and pages to keep visitors on your site longer. Remember your aim is to keep them local and not send them off to foreign lands so ensure your site contains everything they will want to know
4. Construct clear UX and CTAs to guide user smoothly to the your next step
It’s Imperative to have a smooth page journey from top to bottom on every page on your site so your user can easily find what they need. Be sure to answer all of the burning questions your target audience may have.
The general rule of thumb is:
Lead with key benefits > Follow through with more detail > Backup and validate what you say
And don’t leave people hanging at the base of your page: ALWAYS include a call to action or next step for them to follow.
5. Engage and delight with interactive, scrollable design elements
Keep interest alive using interactive elements, animations or video content to entertain and delight. It is important to note that you use these additions with purpose, to elevate the experience – and not just for the “sake of doing it”. Make sure the images you use are unique and high quality, and relative to the content on the page.
6. Create Clear cut navigation and page structure
This is an obvious one but one that many bugger up….
Make sure your navigation menu is well laid out and information is super easy to find! Nothing will annoy a user more (well more than a website that doesn’t load) than a website that’s hard to navigate and find what they need. Your website, like a building, needs to have a solid structure – try to be obvious with this, don’t use a crazy menu design unless your key user would appreciate it.
7. Use a sticky header menu (one that stays at the top when you scroll)
To make sure your users don’t get lost, keep navigation easily accessible no matter where they are on the page. That way, they can easily find their way around and keep exploring without any hassle.
Hopefully these tips help your potential clients hang out on your site for longer, exploring your content and offerings, so that your chances of turning them into customers are higher. Don’t forget that this precious time will increase your search rankings too!
Building out great content and a ux experience will help to build trust in your brand, making people more likely to come back. In a nutshell, keeping your audience engaged is a win for your online presence and your business and of course if you need help with your website or content you know we’re right here to help!
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