Collaborative post
Running a website or online platform of any kind is a big ask, and often quite an intensive management task. Yet achieving worthwhile results is still possible, provided you offer continuous value and aren’t afraid to try something new to keep your content fresh.
This is true no matter if you’re running a blog, a business website, or perhaps even a page for bookings and to share your content with the world, such as the site of a professional photographer.
Guaranteeing website retention means taking time to properly cultivate and establish what it is your visitors wish to see. In order to understand that, viewing your website as a brand new visitor, or introducing it to people you trust, can make a major difference.
Website template firms will allow you to see how certain visitors view your website, especially at various degrees of accessibility or user permission. Or, more simply, you can use your browser’s incognito browser to get a basic view.
Let’s think like a web user. What perspectives will guarantee our retention and desire to visit your website repeatedly? Let’s consider that, below:
- Ever-Changing, Front-Facing Information.
From week to week, visiting the home page of your blog or content website should be different. This can differ for businesses offering services, as strong landing pages for each unique service is important.
However, for blogs, content spaces, user discussion forums and product web pages with a growing product library, changing home pages are essential. Here you may highlight different areas of your catalogue, offer product libraries that cycle and offer time-secured discounts, as well as a recent post’s section and a rolling, updated Twitter widget.
When a visitor is greeted with semi-regularly updated information, your website becomes a habitual part of their web browsing experience. Never underestimate the worth of someone checking on their favourite websites when bored at work, on a commute, or simply when waking up in the morning and refreshing all of their accessed content for the day.
This gives you the untold possibility to convert these measures into leads, which in the long run, make a profound difference to your user retention rates.
- Consider Your Audience & How To Better Appeal To Them
Just because you have an audience, it doesn’t necessarily mean you have to do all you can to never push the boat out or try to appeal to new people. After all, it’s hardly as if your website will solely appeal to a homogenous group.
However, it can be good to have this information regardless. Running free surveys, perhaps incentivized by access to your member’s area, free delivery, or a discount can make a big difference. Here you might ask about their ages, genders, and the purpose of why they visited you.
You may or may not use this information for anything concrete. But which site owner is likely to retain their users, the person who knows nothing of their audience, or the person who commits to that research with care?
- Personable Reach
Of course, it’s clear that if you can become personable with those who support you and visit you, they’re bound to come back. Sometimes, this can take the firm of nice pleasantries such as a newsletter you send out to inboxes each week, or perhaps even a simpler strategy, like highlighting a comment you received on one of your articles.
However, interaction is not necessarily the same thing as allowing user reach, the kind of output that might be crucial when selling goods or services. In this case, the best web live chat software can help properly manage these requests with AI responses, or can better filter the communications that do reach you.
Couple this with an appropriate frequently-asked-questions section and you can reduce the time you need to spend each day in correspondence. Even having such a provision present and accessible can inspire your visitors to feel that connection should they ever need it. A quick, appropriate response will make all the difference.
- How Accessible Is Your Content Or Presentation?
Of course, for some, content, services or products won’t have to be that accessible in scope. If you run a niche business for the production and calibration of high-spec digital music equipment, then delivering the right jargon could be essential.
However, in most cases, you’re still going to have to be somewhat welcoming to those trying to learn about what you do. Outright hostility or a refusal to simplify your language and message is a mistake.
For instance, it can’t hurt to host starter guides on your website to understand how to operate, what topics you talk about, or even just an introduction about yourself and why you’re running your blog.
In some cases, accessibility also means helping you, or your brand, seem relatable. Why did you start your baking business, for instance? Did you get fed up with a corporate job in the city and instead wanted to provide something wholesome that would create smiles each day? Lean into that. Your users will appreciate it, and learn to form a bond with your content.
- Educational Content
The truth is that there are so many websites and social media profiles out there just asking for engagement, that unless you offer a value-added approach immediately and consistently, it’s rare for anyone to give you the time of day. In other words, we must never feel entitled to our traffic or engagement in any realistic way.
Educational content is a good way to give that value-added approach. Let’s say that you run a blog dedicated to parenting, and may even sell books you’ve written related to your own experience, perhaps with a unique experience such as trying to raise an autistic child in a single-parent household.
So, perhaps you could split up some of your insight via a range of blog posts that allow you to talk about random aspects of parenting that you feel you have some insight in. As you develop and refine your content, and as time goes on, you may find it prudent to interact with your audience or take on collaborative paid posts from SEO agencies, allowing your content to remain diverse.
- Keep Your Schedule Consistent
It’s a real shame when we find content developed by someone we appreciate, only to realize that they only post every other month. Consistency is often key. In some cases, Google’s algorithm will push websites that not only publish worthwhile content, but publish content on a high-quality, regular basis.
Does this mean you need to post a two-thousand-word post daily, along with all of your other content? Not necessarily. But in the long run, being generous and regular (daily posts each week, such as on Tuesday and Thursday can make a big difference. Remember that you can always schedule posts to be published at certain times, meaning that you don’t have to worry if life gets in the way, or you can prepare in advance should you plan for some time off.
- Don’t Forget The Human
Search engine optimization (SEO) guidance will often tell you to stuff a perfect amount of keywords, to write for the algorithm over your human audience, and to consistently try and keep up with the latest tricks used by Google’s algorithm.
However, it’s also important to never forget the human. Don’t allow yourself to be molded into chasing the perfect SEO-laden copy if you just want to write a personal blog post for your readers. Unless publishing something official, a content piece you hope to be seen far and wide, or a landing page that has a chance of being seen in a local area, humanize your content more and more.
With Google’s latest ‘helpful content update’ as announced in August of 2022, the search engine is once again looking at how to prioritize websites that aim to be helpful, answer questions, and explain topics more readily rather than those that have the perfect list of SEO techniques. If you keep up with this, you can learn the worthwhile parameters for your kind of online platform.
Bonus – Ease Into It!
It’s easy to think that unless you have a perfect and expansive website ready to go and solve any problem or see to any need, you’re taking up wasted space online. But no website or online platform has ever been perfected to such a degree, especially at the beginning.
So, ease into the routine. Keep consistent, and post. Design your pages around what issue they hope to resolve. Do a few things, but do them well. Also, if you wish to, interact with your audience on affable terms. This can help you ensure people wish to return, and feel as though they’re welcome.
Another great tip is to include your visitors in your story. If they see your enterprise or pursuit grow through your writings or photographs; you may just see a casual fan turn into a supporter or even friend for years to come. This is the value of properly cultivating a worthwhile online community.
With this advice, you’re certain to utilize the seven approaches that guarantee website retention. Don’t be afraid to take it easy, and see those results shine.