4 Techniques to Encourage Visitors to Stay on Your Website [List]

Marketing styles have been a hot topic lately. There are thousands of blogs being written about search engine visibility. There are unlimited informational resources on ways to get traffic to a site. But what happens when that traffic arrives? What will make them stay?

Here are some techniques to encourage visitors to stay:

Content

Since traffic arrives at a site through keyword search, the content of a website should match its keywords to ensure that it has attracted the appropriate audience. Once that audience has clicked through to the site, they need reassurance that they are in the right place. A web designer can do this through a clear, concise, and direct display of the site’s content. The website should be visually pleasing with a clear, organized structured that is free of clutter and separated into short paragraphs with headers and bullets.

Visitors scan content before reading it. An affective form of communication for such readers is through visual stimuli. A website should be designed using multiple types of content including pictures and video.

Above the Fold

The viewer sees the content above the fold first. This content should be engaging and attention grabbing. It should include the page’s title or the business name along with a brief description of the page or the businesses purpose. The field above the fold should include a RSS and email subscription option. This is the business’s way to create a more connective relationship with its viewers. A subscriber count should also be visible in many cases as it builds trust between the viewers and the business.

Scroll-ability

Long pages are easier to navigate than sites with multiple page layers. The trick to this is encouraging viewers to scroll down. First, the designer should make it obvious that there is more content. There should be no white space or anything appearing to be the end of the page near the fold. There should be images that are split by the fold.

Create a Community

The audience needs to be given a reason to come back. Creating a community, especially one connected to such famous social networks as Facebook and Twitter, will give viewers a reason to come back. Providing a discussion board or other communication outlet for the customer, they are much more likely to come back. Create a board that pertains to both the audience and the product/service.

The best way to get a viewer to stay on a site is to make them want to stay. Grab their interest with keywords, and then keep it with reassurances. Show the viewer that they have found what they are looking for and let them know you have more to give. Give them reasons to come back.

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Eric Wyatt writes on social media and internet marketing, focusing specifically on conversion rate optimization and landing page design.

Technorati Tags: bounce rate, content, optimization, search engine visibility, traffic, visitors