Getting people to your site is one challenge, but the next one is making sure they actually engage with your pages. Only when people engage with the information you’re putting on your website can you achieve your goals. So how can you boost engagement and take your site to the next level? Here are a few things to consider:
Engaging Headlines
There’s a lot of competition on the internet. No matter what you’re writing about, it’s likely that hundreds of other people will have done the same in the past, so how can you make sure it’s your page that people go to?
One of the tools that you have to grab people’s attention early on in the process is your H1. If this grabs people, then they will click to your site, and they will give your page a chance.
It’s not just your H1 that matters though. People skim through articles to look for the most pertinent information, so your other headlines are going to play a part too.
Answer the Key Question Early On
People have come to you for a reason; generally, they either want to be entertained or informed. Either way, you’ve got to show them you will give them what they’re looking for early on your website’s pages.
Meet your visitors’ expectations in the first paragraph by addressing the reasons they came to your page in the first place. You don’t have to answer all their questions in the first paragraph, but you’ve got to assure them that they’re in the right place, and that it’s worth them reading on.
For example, if your H1 promises information on the health benefits of pineapples but you don’t mention them in the first paragraph, a lot of people are going to become disengaged.
Utilize Multimedia
People love multimedia and it’s not hard to incorporate it into your website.
Everyone is different and we consume information in different ways. Some people love written texts, others prefer infographics, and many enjoy video, so your website needs to reflect this.
Give people the option of consuming information in their preferred format and you will find that more of them stick around and engage with your website.
Internal Linking
You’ve got to guide people through their journey on your website. If you want people to look at more pages, then make it clear and obvious where they should go.
If someone comes to your site and enjoys your page about pineapples, then the chances are there’s plenty of other information on your site they would like. Make sure you’re signposting to these articles by using internal links.
This can keep people engaged with your website long after they’ve finished reading the initial article.
User Experience
No matter how great your writing is or how entertaining your videos are, you’re going to struggle to get people to engage with your site if it has a poor user experience.
Trying to navigate a website that’s poorly laid out, where links don’t work, images don’t load, and everything works slowly is nobody’s idea of fun and it’s just going to cause people to bounce from your site.
Take care of the basics of user experience, and don’t give people a reason to leave your site prematurely.
Calls to Action
Increased engagement is going to come when people take more actions on your site (clicking a link etc.) You’ve put your internal links in your article, but again, you’ve got to give people a good reason to click on them.
Make sure you’re drawing people into clicking the links you want them to click by using strong calls to action. People don’t always know what they want, so help guide them with your calls to action.
Consistency
Your most engaged visitors are likely to be your ‘superfans’, the ones who keep coming back time and again.
However, to build this fan base, and the recurring traffic that can really drive up your engagement, you need to be consistent. You need to be consistent in your work on the site, and your site needs to be consistently running well.
To help you achieve this, it’s always good to have a strong IT partner such as HERO Managed Services LLC. This can help ensure you’re always able to work on your site, and any problems are fixed quickly.
Offer Value
What’s the incentive for people to engage with your content if it doesn’t offer them value? You’ve got lots of competition, so what does your article bring that’s going to stop people from checking out that competition?
No matter what you’re writing about, you’ve got the opportunity to offer your readers value, so make sure you’re going the extra mile. You’ve got the knowledge and expertise people want to hear about, so use it to create the most valuable articles you possibly can.
Engagement starts with putting your visitors’ needs first so do so by offering them value.