When you’re running a website, whether it’s a fashion blog or a website for your small business, it’s important to make sure your readers are staying engaged. If your business depends on your website, engagement is going to be your best resource. Not sure how to make your website more engaging for readers and potential customers? Here are a few simple tips that can help you do just that.
Cater Your Content to the Needs of Your Audience
Content is one of the single most important tools you have in your arsenal when it comes to reader engagement on your site. In fact, almost 38% of people will actually stop engaging with a website entirely if the content and layout are unattractive. You might think that content creation doesn’t really play a role in crafting a great site experience, but the truth is that great content can work wonders for increasing a reader or customer’s time spent on a page of your site. Not sure how to get started creating awesome, engaging content? Here are a few questions you should ask yourself to help craft content your readers will love.
- Who is my target audience?
- What problem is my content solving for my target audience?
- Does my content offer any new information to my audience?
- Am I incorporating key search terms that could help my audience find this content?
- Does the title accurately convey urgency and the topic of the content?
De-Clutter Your Site Design
When a reader or a customer visits your site for the very first time, you want to make a good first impression. They could be coming to purchase a product or subscribe to your newsletter, after all. With that in mind, it’s more important than ever to remember that first impressions for websites are 94% design-related. If the first thing your readers see is a cluttered and confusing homepage, they’re going to be running for the hills faster than you can say SEO. If you’re not sure how exactly to de-clutter your layout, think about sites that you like to visit on a regular basis. What about their design keeps you coming back to read their content or purchase their products? Here are a few ways you can de-clutter your site’s layout for better engagement.
- Ditch the widgets.
- Use more negative space.
- Use the Pareto (80-20) Principle.
- Cut down on unnecessary pages.
- Use a visual hierarchy to highlight the most important content.
- Keep your social share buttons at the very top or very bottom of the screen.
- Stick to sans-serif fonts for cleaner lines.
De-cluttering your site’s layout might seem like a gargantuan task at first, but the reality is that a few simple changes can make the biggest difference in the world for your site. Consider using a few of these tips if you’re just getting started adjusting your site’s layout.
Increase Site Speed
When you visit a website and it takes years to load, what do you do? If you answered that you’d go to another website, you’d be in the majority. Site speed is a major factor for reader and customer engagement. And the numbers are there to prove it. Global spending on IT services is expected to surpass $950 billion this year. Fortunately, you don’t have to spend a fortune on IT services to improve your site’s speed. One of the simplest and most effective ways to increase site speed is to limit the number of plugins you’re using. While you’re clearing out widgets and cleaning up your site’s layout, you’ll have the opportunity to examine your site’s plugins and how they might be affecting your site speed. Compressing images and enabling browser caching can also help increase site speed.
Keeping people engaged on your site when the average attention span is consistently decreasing can be a big challenge. But with these simple tips, you should be able to increase reader and customer engagement on you site and create a great experience.
