There are tens of different ways to measure website success but visitor engagement is a metric that should always be measured. If visitors are coming to your website but click away a few seconds later there must be something that’s turning them away and stopping them from wanting to get to know more about your organisation and the services it offers.
There are many reasons why visitors might abandon your website after a short visit, and lots of them come down to the way your site looks and performs. Your site should be designed to entertain and inform visitors from the moment they arrive, whichever page they arrive on. It’s a common trap that many site owners fall into, where they map out their preferred path of pages that new visitors will click through. However, the reality is often very different and you’ll find users come to your website from a multitude of avenues, meaning they’ll arrive on a multitude of different pages. You want to ensure that each and every location on your website captures their attention from the moment they arrive, inspiring them to extend their visit and learn more about your business.
Today we’re going to share five simple ways you can increase visitor engagement on your website:
Keep ads and pop-ups to a minimum
There are plenty of arguments for and against pop-ups and ads but our advice is to consider your own browsing habits. If you visit a site for the first time and are confronted with pop ups and garish banner ads, do you fight your way through them to find the content you were interested in or do you click away to a competitor site that presents a cleaner experience? We think we know your answer.
While it’s entirely possible to run ads in an engaging and unobtrusive manner (in fact, we have a post on this very topic coming soon!), we urge you to keep ads and pop ups to a minimum. In fact, sites utilising distracting pop ups may find themselves being penalised by Google.
Keep it simple
Following on from the point above, simplicity is key for every area of your business. Not only do you want to keep the site looking clean and free of clutter, you also want to ensure the site is easy to navigate.
Visitors want to make their way through your site quickly and simply, without getting confused by complicated navigation or overly convoluted page construction. Make sure your header menu is easy to understand and make sure pages and menus are clearly labelled so visitors can easily find exactly what they’re looking for.
Keep an eye on load times
We’ve spoken about this numerous times in the past but it’s an extremely important part of website maintenance. Remember, just because your site had exceptional loading times in the beginning it doesn’t mean it won’t begin to slow down over the months and years if you let it get bogged down by unoptimised images and too much unneeded clutter on the pages.
Try compressing your images using one of the numerous plugins available for WordPress. This will have a significant impact on loading times if your site is image-heavy.
Consider paring back any unnecessary javascript; if it isn’t performing an important job then remove it and you’ll likely notice your speeds jumping up.
Keep it shareable
Making your content (particularly on your company blog) easily shareable on social media is a great way to encourage visitor engagement.
In a previous post we shared some of our favourite plugins to help encourage social sharing on your blog.
Keep it responsive
Mobile browsing is starting to exceed desktop browsing for the first time ever, which is why more and more websites are being designed with a mobile-first approach. While mobile-first might not be appropriate for your business, you should certainly be making sure your site is fully responsive and performs just as well on smartphones and tablets as it does on desktops.
With more and more users browsing and sharing content on the go, you’ll be missing out on valuable visitor engagement if your site isn’t yet responsive.
*
Is it time for your website to get a fresh coat of paint? Our team of WordPress experts are on hand to discuss any queries you might have about how we can help. Contact us today for a tailored quote.
