It is the number one goal for every website owner to have website visitors stay on a website for as long as possible. Website owners want to increase the conversion rates for their websites. To do this, they will need to do all it takes to retain web visitors for as long as possible.
The same way a business receives a lot of benefits from customer retention is the same way a website will earn benefits from web visitors’ retention and increased website views. If your web visitors are quick to leave your site, then the website can easily lose its meaning and even cease to exist. What matters again is the amount of time that your web visitors will stay on your website. Many benefits come from this; you are likely to improve your rankings on the search engine results pages.
There is no doubt that having visitors stay longer on your website is crucial for organic traffic. Therefore, the question is, what are some of the things that you should do to ensure that your web visitors stay for longer? This article has explained some of the ideas, which can help improve the time that your website visitors stay on your website.
1: Increase your page loading speeds
There is a very great connection between website speeds and conversion rates. According to a report released by Akamai, if a website takes more than three seconds to load, then the website could lose more than half of its visitors. This report shows you how essential load speeds can be as far as customer retention is concerned. It should be your primary goal to ensure that the load speeds of your website are fast enough.
Read Also:
- 13+ Best School & Learning Management System PHP Scripts
- 28+ Best Classified Ads Php Scripts
- 48+ Best Social Network Scripts
Here are a few tips that you can put in place to increase your website’s load speeds.
- File compression. You can use a tool such as Gzip that reduces the sizes of Java script files, Cascading Style Sheets, and HTML that exceed a size of 150 bytes.
- Decrease the number of redirects.
- Improve the response time of your servers.
- Go for a Content Delivery Network.
- Reduce the sizes of the images on your website.
After this is done, your web speeds will improve, and your customers will find it easy to use your website. This reduces the bounce rates on your websites, which is a good thing on your side.
2: Improve the security of your website
Your safety, even in real-life circumstances, should be given top priority. If you notice anything that could compromise your safety, the best move is to immediately get out of that place. The same applies to the security of your website. Your web visitors value their security, and an indicator of a possible insecurity threat will see them leave your website immediately.
To keep them on your website, you must improve the general security of your website. There are a few indicators that your web visitors will be looking at that show that your website is indeed secure. One of them, and perhaps the most vital, is the SSL certificate. SSL certificates play an essential encryption role for your website.
Your customers will want to ensure that all the information exchanges between them and your website are safe. Anything short of that will see them leave your website. To be on the safer side, you will have to install an SSL certificate on your website.
When choosing an SSL certificate, choose one that provides strong encryption such as Clickssl.net which gives the best encryption security to your website. This is a perfect security indicator that will give confidence to your web visitors and make them stay for long on your website.
3: Create a great and catchy website content
To keep your website visitors on your website, you should create something that harnesses their attention, which would make them want to stay for a long and keep them coming for more and more. Great and catchy content could be the thing you are looking for.
Creating interesting content does not take much. All you need to do is cut off long and useless words, use proper grammar, and avoid spelling errors. Let your content connect directly with your web visitors. The articles on your website should also be short, sweet, and precise. The point is that no matter how rich your content is, most web visitors will get bored as the length of the content increases. When explaining your points, it is essential to ensure that you capture all you need to say in just a few words.
Well, maybe the specific purpose of your content and your web visitors expect that it demands a lot of words. But can’t you break the whole content into short and manageable chunks other than using long steam of annoying texts that will most likely drive away your web visitors?
4: Make an attractive website design
The very first impression is what matters. Like it or not, with websites, people do judge a book by its cover. If your website design does not appeal to the eye, then no one will stay on your website. It is good that you invest in your website’s design to have your visitors stay for long. The idea is simple, and a poorly designed website will make your website visitors think that the entire content of your website is poor. On the other hand, a well-designed website will have your visitors think content as the whole of your website is good. They will then stay for a longer time.
Investing in web building is hence very important. You do not have to be an expert in web design; you can outsource a professional web designer’s services. You can also use online web-building tools such as Squarespace, which offers a wide range of beautiful templates that you can choose from (check this Squarespace review to know more about this building tool). That will give your website a sense of professionalism and reliability that your web visitors are looking for.
Read Also: How to Hire the Best Web Designer for Your Business
5: Regularly update the content of your website
Just a sense that something new has been added or updated to your website since your website visitors last visited is a perfect guarantee that your visitors will stay for long on your website.
Your website visitors want to see something new on your website. They will pop in to see if there is anything new on the website and leave immediately whenever nothing new has been updated since their last visit. Also, this will help to make feel in mind of visitors that this Website is Legitimate.
The whole idea is, of course, to keep your website updated with new and fresh content. However, this might seem tricky for those websites that are not involved in content creation but are just a portfolio website. If this is the case, why not try starting a blog and regularly write about your new developments, among other interesting topics? Just give your website visitors a reason to regularly visit your website and stay longer on the site.
6: Use congruent fonts and colors
As essential as web design is, the colors and fonts of the website should be harmonious. We are all conditioned to read articles, magazines, and books with specific font sizes. You must make sure that you work with a standard font size that will not have your web visitors straining. The same goes for the color. It is not a painting competition. So, keep it fresh, nice, and simple. Your website visitors will find it appealing and will stay longer on your website.
7: Make it an Easy to navigate the website
The most important thing is to make your visitors find what they are looking for. Make this as smooth as feasible. This can be achieved by having clear navigation bars and an easy-to-follow funnel that shows your website visitors the path they need to follow. Different navigation bars should be spelled out on your website. Just make sure that your website visitors never have a hard time finding what they need to see.
Conclusion
There are several reasons why you want your website visitors to stay longer on your website. The amount of time a person spends on your website can make or break the website. The whole responsibility of web visitors’ retention lies in the hands of the website owner. This article has spelled out some of the tips that you can use to increase the time a web visitor stays on the website.
