The goal of search engine optimization or SEO is to attain visitors to your website from high rankings in the search engines. But, once you increase traffic to your website – how do you keep the visitors on your site? And even more important – how do you get those visitors to do what your website was built to do?
Most websites are built for a reason… whether it’s to sell a product or service; generate sales leads; acquire sign-ups for a newsletter or just provide information. There are a few tips that should be considered that will help keep visitors at your website AND help accomplish the goals your website set out to do.
First – keep your web pages small – preferably under 100kb. If a page takes too long to download – visitors will leave your site. This may mean making sure the images on your web pages are optimized to be the smallest size they can be and still look good.
Second – provide the visitor information that is simple, clear and easy to understand. If the information on your website doesn’t make sense – there are a thousand or more that do. Also, don’t be stingy with your information. People who are searching on the Internet are looking for answers. If they can’t find enough information they will move on to the next website that will give them the information that they are looking for.
Third – first impressions are really important. If a visitor has a good impression of your website, they are more likely to stay, if not – they will leave. The website design is a very important factor in keeping visitors at your website. You have a very small amount of time to impress a visitor. If the site looks good and is intuitive to your visitors, they are more likely to stay at your website. But, if a visitor cannot figure out how to use your site – they’re gone.
Last – keep your website “fresh”. You are more likely to gain regular and loyal visitors if you continue to add new content to your website. This also helps with your websites’ search engine rankings. Both people and search engines love new content. Once visitors realize that your site is updated regularly they will come back often to see what’s new.
There are many ways to increase traffic to your website. These are just a few tips to keeping that traffic and possibly turning some of the new visitors into frequently returning visitors.
