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6 Tips To Keep People On Your Site
Maybe you’re in the beginning phases of growing and building a business and are just starting to put your website together. Or you’ve already built a website for your small business and have been online for years.
Once your website is live, you want to drive traffic to attract more customers and get more sales.
Getting traffic to your website is one thing. Keeping people on your website is an entirely different skill.
What if no one is sticking around once they land on your website?
Did you know that your website’s rankings in Google can be negatively affected if your bounce rate* is too high?
Read on to learn common reasons why people leave your site early and what you can do to keep them there for longer.
1. Add Analytics To Your Website
The first step in tracking your website visitor’s behavior is to actually set up tracking. A few of the behaviors that tracking lets you monitor include:
- How people are getting to your website (i.e. via email, Google search, social media, another site, etc.)
- What region of the world they are from
- What pages they click on while on your small business site
- How long they stay
How do I add tracking to my website?
The most common analytics program used today is Google Analytics. If you sign up for Google Search Console too, you can even see what search terms people are typing in Google to get to your website.
2. Create A Blog
A surefire way to keep visitors on your website is to maintain a blog for your small business. Dependent upon what type of business you have, whether you’re a micro business owner or you run a family business, you could blog about:
- Yourself or your family
- Helpful articles that complement products/services you offer
- Local topics if you cater to your community
The possibilities are endless! In the beginning, try mixing it up to see which posts are getting interacted with most and what your community responds to the best. Frequency is also up to you. NASE suggests blogging at least once a week.
As a business owner, if you don’t have the time to blog or you’re not a great writer, you can contract a freelance writer to help you. Freelance websites like Upwork make it easy to find affordable writers with a variety of experience.
Examples of Excellent Company Blogs:
- The Official Slack Blog: Slack.com uses their blog to interview their current customers, release product updates/integrations, and even recently posted a diversity report of their staff.
- Eataly is a grocery store with physical locations as well as an online shop. They use their blog to share recipes, how-to’s, cultural articles, and profile chefs.
- Even though ModCloth is a clothing and home goods store, the company uses their blog to cover a range of topics that their target audience is interested in, including beauty and lifestyle topics.
Learn more: Problogger is one of the best resources on the internet for new bloggers.
3. Refine Your About Page
Learning about who is behind a company is more important to consumers than ever. Customers want to have a connection with the people they are buying from, especially when the company’s values line up with their own.
If your about page is composed of one or two generic sentences about your small business, it might not be enticing enough to keep visitors on your site or get them interested in your products and services.
Examples:
Dollar Shave Club: In a few short paragraphs, Dollar Shave Club’s about page offers history about how and why the company was founded and dives into their product line.
The Honest Company: Here is another example of a short blurb explaining why the company was founded and a little bit about the people behind it. On the side, you will see links to more in-depth explanations of each aspect of the company.
Yellow Leaf Hammocks: This company does a great job of adding visually appealing elements to their about page with links to learn more within each section for those who are interested.
What you can include on your about page:
- The mission and vision of your small business
- Why you created your company
- A little bit about your professional background (and even your personal background)
- A high quality image of yourself, your office, or your staff
4. Create A FAQs Page
If you are growing a business and you receive a lot of support questions, you can provide answers to the most common questions in the form of a Frequently Asked Questions page.
Link to your contact page or provide an email address where current and potential customers can ask their questions, and promise to update the page regularly.
As an entrepreneur, responding to the same questions over and over can be a time drain. Creating and updating an FAQ page essentially kills two birds with one stone.
5. Invest in Good Design
There are some pretty stunning websites out there. How does yours stack up? If you’ve created your website yourself using a free software, or if you launched it years ago when you were first building a business, it’s very likely that you are in need of a brand new design or at least a few updates.
An ugly or outdated design can scare your traffic off in droves. A confusing design without a logical navigation system will have a similar effect.
Ask friends and family to rate your website compared to your competitors or other websites relevant to your industry. Ask them to be as honest as possible and provide detailed feedback.
Sample questionnaire:
- Are the website graphics fresh, modern, and visually appealing?
- Is the design and the overall look and feel of the site welcoming and interesting?
- Are product images high quality?
- Does my logo express the products/services we offer?
- What is the overall experience of your website visit?
Learn more: 11 Website Design Trends You Need To Know About
6. use Video
Using a creative video is an excellent way to increase the time that visitors stay on your website. If the video is interesting enough, people will at least stick around on your website long enough to watch it.
You can create a video introducing your company, make an instructional series to complement your product, or even post fun updates.
For example, if you are a small business owner with a bakery, you can create how-to videos like:
- How to create the perfect sandwich
- How to create a stunning buffet table for your next dinner party
- Tips for decorating for a birthday party
Example: The Container Store creates videos using their products in different ways to give customers ideas of how they can be utilized in their own homes.
Learn more: 7 Ways Entrepreneurs Can Use Video To Grow Their New Business
Final Advice From The National Association for the Self-Employed
Take the time to research your competitors and other successful businesses. Visit their website and see what ideas you can draw for your own and how you can improve your own online presence.
Once you make changes, assess the results using your analytics program. Are people staying on your website longer and clicking on the pages you want them to? Continue to make tweaks to improve your website’s performance.