Make Web Visitors Stay Longer
Ranked #658 in Internet, #36,460 overall | Donates to Global Giving
The Sticky Page
The longer visitors stay on your web page, the more interested they are in what you have to offer. The sticky page is just that, one that gets readers to stay glued.
The key to making a sticky page is to build a high-quality page. One that is very unique, useful, informative and good looking. No wonder why Google or search engines, for that matter, are using the time-spent indicator to measure how long people stay on web sites.
The bottom line is the more time visitors spend on your site, the more likely it's going to have more traffic, more comments, more ratings, more recommendations, more backlinks and of course, more purchases! I'll show you how to make a sticky page!
"In a few seconds you gain or lose a visitor. When visitors read your web page, they must be able to identify significant factors that convince them to stay"
Understanding How Visitors Read Online
This is essential in writing and designing a web page
This heatmap is courtesy of eyetools.com
"The key to retaining visitors and increasing the time they spend in your webpage is to have relevant and interesting information"
Common Sense SEO
Attract Relevant Visitors
In the past, people have had the need to do Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for their websites, since search engines had different and complicated algorithms.However, things have changed, search engines have matured and they have gone back to plain old common sense. Basically, search engines, like Google, are starting to appreciate the same things that real people are looking for in a website:
- well-written useful and unique content
- well-thought-out intuitive navigation
- titles that help identify relevant keyword phrases
Writing Web Content that Works
Letting Go of the Words: Writing Web Content that Works (Interactive Technologies)
Amazon Price: $23.02 (as of 02/14/2012)
If you're a fan of usability, good user-centered design, and easy-to-read helpful books, and you'd like to improve your site's performance with better writing, definitely get this book.
Coming Up Next
some of the most useful techniques on how to entice your visitors and hook them up to your page!
Make Them Stay Longer & Return Frequently
Web Design Tips
"The idea is to create a web page that encourages visitors to spend as much time as possible on it"- Provide direct, concise, clear and very useful content. The type of information that cannot be found elsewhere.
- Write an engaging introduction.
- Use a direct language that is easy to read.
- Use meaningful titles and subtitles. They should be brief and convey a summary of the section.
- Keep paragraphs short, use simple sentence structure. Breaking a long paragraph into several smaller sections invites the viewer in to read.
- Make your page more scan-friendly. Large blocks of dense text intimidate the visitor.
- Make your content into a story format.
- Check for grammar. Misspellings and poorly constructed sentences communicate the wrong information.
- Make your content visually pleasing. Aesthetics and style are so important in engaging the reader into understanding the subject of your web page.
- Pick a relevant and enticing introduction picture.
- Lay out information to help web users.
- Use consistent formatting. Choose a pattern of spacing, an order of information presentation or a format of highlighting and be consistent throughout.
- Use contrasting colors. Text is easier to read when font and background color are in high contrast. Low contrast irritates the reader and causes eye fatigue.
- Use bullets and numbered lists. They help get the readers attention.
- Use HTML/CSS code if necessary.
- Highlight, underline or bold important keywords or phrases.
- Add plenty of quality pictures and graphics.
- Add engaging videos.
- Involve the reader. Add call-for-action modules such as a poll, quiz and guest book.
- Use plenty of white space. Thoughtful use of empty space helps the visitor's eyes to focus on the important information.
- Easy navigation. A simple navigation structure can convince people to stay longer on your site.
More Suggestions
- List strong references. Add related links that open in a new window.
- Camouflage your products with your content. Try to sell them one product at a time, you'll sell more by limiting the choices.
- Keep your web page fresh. Give a reason to come back.
- My (not so) secret tips.
Sticky Content
Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die
Amazon Price: $9.98 (as of 02/14/2012)
The authors examine an especially important challenge to everyone who struggles to formulate and then communicate ideas that "stick": That is, ideas that "are understood and remembered, and have a lasting impact - they change your audience's opinions or behavior. This book is for anyone with good ideas who wants to capture an audience.
Usually ships in 1-2 business days
"The longer they stay, the longer they play"
How Is Time Spent Measured?
PageRank Metrics
It's been rumored that the time spent metric is one of the most important indicators used by Google's algorithm in determining the rank of your site.It's supposed to be a complex calculation in which many parameters, weights and indices are taken into consideration. However, we don't know the exact math for this indicator, in fact, the formula will never be revealed because search engines don't want people to manipulate the system and cheat.
So we're going to attempt to simplify the explanation for this indicator as follows:
- The calculation is made over the lifetime of the visitor session to the web page.
- The visitor interactions are tracked by specific engaged events.
- Those events could be: clicking a link, clicking on a picture, voting in a poll, downloading a file, watching a YouTube video, commenting in a guest book, emailing content to a friend, printing a page or exiting the site.
- The timestamp for the last interaction determines the time the user spent on your page. The picture below shows the time spent was 38 seconds.
But there's always a catch. Most of the time, it's impossible to know the exact time a visitor spent on your site. In other words, one cannot account for how long a visitor stayed reading your page after the last timestamp interaction. However, time spent on your website is considered a key indication of how successful your site is in attracting relevant visitors.
The 10 Second Rule
"If your lens is boring, your visitors will not wait around to look for the information, even if you have what they're looking for"
Building Findable Websites
Building Findable Websites: Web Standards, SEO, and Beyond
Amazon Price: $12.47 (as of 02/14/2012)
This book is an excellent resource for both new and experienced web designers concerned with increasing SEO and creating a usable site for their end user. Walter manages to cover so much without leaving the reader feeling overwhelmed with information overload. He does this, partly, by writing in a clear, concise and friendly tone. The book is also organized in a logical manner and includes a section on blogging, content and markup strategies.
What Makes Visitors Leave Your Site?
Don't let them get away!
- Unattractive look.
- Irrelevant content, bad spelling and poor grammar.
- Information is too hard to find.
- Long chunks of text without text formatting.
- Cluttered text and graphics.
- Too much advertising.
- Long lists of endless products.
- Distracting colors that make the text hard to read or focus on.
"The longer a visitor lingers on your page, the more likely he or she is to purchase a product or at least bookmark it and be back again"
Google Traffic vs. Time Spent
=> Direct Relationship
In other words, the higher you rank in Google's SERPs, the more clicks your site is
going to get.
Is there a better reason to extend the time visitors stay on your webpage?
Remind Them to Add to Favorites
A Very Simple Thing
Money for Nothing
(and your clicks for free)
Whether or not you think the time-spent metric is used by Google or Squidoo's rank algorithm is not that important.
The bottom line is if you make a very unique, good-looking, informative and useful web site, you're guaranteed to get
more traffic and more purchases.
Make Them Stay Longer
Add Your Own Tip!
1
Watch the length of your site
Too long and readers start to get overwhelmed with more...10 points
2
Associate a picture to a link
Make a picture or graphic clickable by associating more...7 points
3
Make your site load fast
Time is precious, 50% of visitors leave before 8 s more...7 points
4
Write a fantastic intro
Use the opening module to essentially make them WA more...6 points
5
Add a personal side to them
Good content is made better by personal anecdotes more...5 points
6
Match Keywords to Content
Make sure your website content is relevant to what more...4 points
7
Add a juicy link near the top
Just in case visitors leave quickly, add a keyword more...3 points
8
Test Usability
Be sure to do regular usability testing to make sure more...2 points
Postscript of Utmost Importance
This page automatically makes a 30% donation to the incredible nonprofit, GlobalGiving , which is an online marketplace that connects you to the causes and countries you care about.You select the projects you want to support, make a tax-deductible contribution, and get regular progress updates - so you can see your impact.
Can You Make Them Stay Longer?
Give it a try!
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Squidoo_Chick
Jan 11, 2012 @ 6:04 pm | delete
- Very informative thanks so much for pulling the info together for us
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davidstillwagon
Nov 22, 2011 @ 12:53 pm | delete
- good information!
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LawrenceWoodman
Nov 16, 2011 @ 2:09 am | delete
- Great lens. I came across it when I was writing a lens about the importance of tagging.
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Lindrus
Nov 15, 2011 @ 10:24 am | delete
- Great lens - a good example of writing in a way that makes the visitor stay on the page... Thanks for your advice!
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autofanatic
Nov 13, 2011 @ 5:18 pm | delete
- Great insight. I recently changed my website audience from "enthusiasts" to average consumers. When I did my abandonment rate went way up. I need to change my content and make it friendly and more interesting to my new visitors, not just the hardcore enthusiasts.
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Thank You for Sticking Around
Come back anytime!
As you may have noticed, I have followed my own advice in designing this lens.
I hope this information has been useful to you.
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