Keeping Visitors & Getting Repeat Visits

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This article discusses tips on how to create a sticky web site that people want to visit, and keep coming back.

Sticky Web Site

A “sticky” web site is a site that people stay on for a lengthy period of time. Visitors are said to “stick” on your web site since they go to and read many pages of your site. Obviously your goal is to have a sticky web site, which visitors find useful and will read from top to bottom.

Repeat Visitors

Another goal is to have your visitors come back to your site periodically. Repeat visitors are more likely to form an allegiance with your web site, and thus to do business with you.

Useful & Informative Content

First and foremost, your content must be useful and informative to your target customer. You should know your customer inside and out, and organize your web site to give your customers exactly what they need. Give them well written text filled with information that your customers will find invaluable. Go the extra mile, and give them content that is above and beyond that of your competition. Be as thorough as you can and strive to build a site that will serve as a great resource for your customers.

Fresh New Content

We all have web sites that we visit daily. Why do we go there – because we want to get the latest or newest information. So, if you want visitors to come back to your web site, try adding new content periodically.

For some sites, this is easy. If you run a news site, then you would update your news articles several times a day. But what if you had a corporate site, in which there is not a lot of new stuff happening? In that case, consider starting a news section that you update periodically. You can list the latest industry trends or hottest topics. You can write articles that discuss topics of interest to your users. You can even conduct surveys and post the results for your users to view.

The point is that if you add new content to your web site frequently, then people will be more likely to revisit your web site for new and interesting information.

Blogs Or Discussion Forums

Offering blogs or discussion forums are another way to get repeat visitors to your site. Both blogs and forums allow user feedback, which encourages visitors to post comments or replies. Forums can serve as a great way to provide support to your customers on topics related to your products and services.  Choose topics that your customers are interested in, and have experts from your company contribute to the forum with articles or replies. After a while you will find the forums contain a wealth of information, contributed by your own staff and customers alike.

Blogs are similar to forums, but typically just cover a single topic. Users expect blogs to get updated frequently, and will often come back to your site to read the latest blog entries. As with forums, blogs also allow for visitor feedback, which adds to the content and freshness of your site.

Other Incentives

Of course you can also offer other incentives for users to visit your site. Special offers, discounts, or online coupons are a good way to encourage someone to come back. Or you may try creating an email newsletter that you send out to customers periodically. The newsletter can be formatted to look just like your web page, and contain links back to your web site. Many newsletters offer discounts or incentives, which is a good way to get subscribers interested in receiving the next issue!

Conclusion

There are many ways to create a sticky web site that people read thoroughly, and come back to frequently. Offering great content, and keeping that content fresh and up to date is one of the best ways to attract and hold your customers.

 

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