After setting up a website and wonderful content are being created regularly, it can be depressing if the user engagement is unimpressive. This challenge is often encountered by many websites. With the sea of content out there, the competition is really fierce. Belfast web design companies are concerned with creating a positive and powerful digital presence.
High user engagement makes a website to be more visible and promotes loyalty and familiarity. Here are some suggestions that will assist in keeping both existing and new visitors highly engaged.
1. Request for opinions
As long as you keep adding value to your audience, they will readily express their views whenever you ask them for their opinions. This can be done by asking a question at the end of a post in a friendly manner. Through their previous comments and the type of posts that they enjoy reading, you can be able to come up with questions that will spur their interests. Asking effective questions at the end of posts will make the comments section come alive and lead to more interactions between you and the audience. In addition, organizing surveys and quizzes can also help to generate fresh ideas that are based on the audience needs.
2. Revamp your content
It goes without saying that creating high quality content should be top priority for every website. Once they find your content useful, they will have reasons to come back for more and share it with others. There are always trending topics on social media and even in your industry, find ways to creatively use them in your posts. Keywords exist for a reason, utilize the relevant ones to make your posts rank well in searches. Perhaps you are the busy type, expert freelance writers can be hired to take care of your content needs. After your content is in great shape, it must be presented in a way that is appealing to the audience. This can be achieved by breaking pages, using subheadings, headlines and appropriate pictures.
3. Give rewards frequently
People feel special when they are appreciated, it’s simply human nature. You can acknowledge your audience for commenting or sharing posts on social media channels. Another way to reward them is by hosting contests on the website’s social media pages. Your audience will be curious to know more and many will be interested in participating because of the gifts to be won. A call to action may be included in the contest that will take them to your website landing page. Mere visitors can become loyal audience in this manner.
4. Consider using different types of content
Apart from using text based content, rich images and videos can also be introduced. Generally, website visitors find great visuals magnetic and entertaining. More people will also be reached within a short period of time. Pictures can be used for posts and the audience can be asked to caption them. When using videos, the most effective ones are short and convey the message clearly. One important thing to note is that auto play should be disabled on videos as many visitors find it annoying.
5. Minimize page load time
Google takes the page speed of website seriously and it’s one of the basic ranking factors. Removing unnecessary elements help in making a website load faster. Images can be scaled or compressed before uploading them due to the fact that large images take longer to load. Outdated and excessive plugins must be eliminated at all costs to boost user engagement. Tools that analyze page speed performance include Website Grader and Google’s Page Speed Insights.
6. Optimize sharing on social media
The importance of an active social media presence can’t be underscored for websites. It’s a great way to build an audience by interacting and providing value to them. Posts can be shared directly to the website’s social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, G+ and LinkedIn. Visitors that find your posts interesting or useful should be able to share it easily on social media and this can promote further sharing.
7. Place search box strategically
Most of the times, a visitor may come across your website when using the search engine. The search box must be visible and functional so that users can search for information by typing the related keywords. It can be placed at the top right corner or at the center. As visitors discover useful content on your website, they will spend more time and come back for more. A search box is effective in reducing the bounce rate of a website.
About The Author
Deepu Balan
Hi there! I’m a web UI/UX architect. This is my online playground, my beautiful space to share my passions, my work and what I find inspiring.