Are you interested in learning how website design choices can directly impact on-site engagement? If so, you've made it to the right place.
There are plenty of reasons why a visitor may choose to leave your site prematurely or simply leave without taking action. Outside of not being the right audience for your product or service, people could also leave because there's something they don't like about your website.
I have over a decade of experience and have learned a lot about what most people like and dislike when browsing a business website. Today, I'd like to show you how making a few strategic changes to marketing and design can dramatically boost engagement and get people invested in your brand.
Let's get started!
Optimize for Speed and Performance
Speed is crucial for keeping visitors engaged on your site. If pages take too long to load, people will leave without taking action. Here are a few shocking statistics that highlight this point:
The average person expects a page to load in 2 seconds or less.
At 3 seconds, around 32% of all users will leave instead of waiting for the page to load.
Each additional second after translates to an 11% loss in pageviews and a 7% loss in conversions.
The good news is there are plenty of ways to improve the speed and performance of your website. My first piece of advice is this: use a good theme with compatible plugins. A poorly made theme can dramatically slow down your site, which isn't good.
It's also a good idea to invest in a content delivery network (CDN). CDNs store copies of your images, CSS, JavaScript, and other files on servers around the globe so visitors can download them from the location closest to them. This will result in faster speeds, regardless of where people are clicking on your site.
I also advise compressing images and hosting videos off-site. Believe it or not, too many photos or videos can cause your site to slow to a crawl. We tend to host our videos on YouTube so we don't run into this problem.
Optimizing for speed and performance should be a top priority. If in doubt, test your speed so you know where you stand. If you need it, put in the work to implement these techniques, and your visitors will stay engaged, interact more, and keep coming back.
Simplify Navigation
If your site is cluttered or seems confusing, there's a good chance new visitors will leave without clicking anything else on your site. For one thing, messy sites look spammy. People tend to get very suspicious if they end up on a page with a ton of different colors, options, buttons, and popups all happening at once.
Improving website navigation is one of the fastest ways to boost engagement because people don't have to struggle to find what they are looking for. One way to make your navigation more user-friendly is to keep your page hierarchy to 1-3 levels. Visitors shouldn't have to work through layers of sub-menus to find a crucial feature, like customer support.
It's also a good idea to use descriptive text in your links. Instead of making a button that says "more info," you could make it say what's there, like "our services" or "contact information." This seemingly simple design choice will make it much easier for people to engage with your business.
You can add another layer of convenience by adding a footer navigation menu so visitors can jump to a new page when they get to the bottom of the page they're reading.
With some strategic simplification and user-centered design choices, you can develop a website navigation system that boosts engagement and keeps visitors exploring your site.
Add More Visual Content
Visual content is a essential for any website looking to boost engagement. Images, videos, and other visuals are great at capturing readers' attention and conveying interesting, relevant information.
When it comes to images, make sure you choose clear pictures. Avoid grainy, blurry images unless you want people to question your reputation. This is especially true of your product photos. People want to see exactly what they are buying from all angles.
I also suggest including alt text on your images so there's a better chance your site will get picked up by Google.
Speaking of SEO, let me give you a big reason to add videos to your site. We found that websites with video content are 53% more likely to make it to the elusive top ten spot on Google for their chosen keyword.
I believe this is because more people are turning to video content, which means Google is using it as one of its prominent ranking factors when choosing where to place a website. This also means the more videos on your site, the better. If you're looking for a way to bolster your video library, consider creating video versions of your blog posts so visitors can watch or listen instead of read,
Visitors to your site want an engaging experience. Visual content, when implemented well, can transform your site from a wall of text into an interactive digital medium that keeps people clicking, sharing, and coming back for more.
Publish Valuable, High-Quality Blog Posts
If you want to keep people on your site for a long time, you need to make sure you're publishing blog posts that provides real value to your readers.
In order to publish valuable content, you have to understand your target audience. I suggest conducting surveys through email, social media, and your website. Use this opportunity to learn about the goals, pain points, and interests of your target audience.
Now, you can write and publish in-depth, well-researched blog posts on topics that resonate with your audience. For example, a lead generation software company may choose to write blog posts about building email lists. This is a hot topic for their audience, so providing useful tips and actionable advice will help you build rapport with people and keep them on your site.
It's also smart to promote your blog posts on social media. Over 4.74 billion people use sites like Instagram, X, TikTok, and YouTube. If you use these sites to share your blog posts along with relevant hashtags, you can dramatically boost on-site engagement.
If done correctly, your blog can become an important lead generation and brand awareness tool which later attracts relevant backlinks and drives organic traffic, so take the time to create posts your readers will love.
Build Benefit-Oriented Landing Pages
You should always focus on building benefit-oriented, accessible landing pages. If you want people to understand your brand and products, you need pages that explain who you are, what you do, and why readers should care.
Start by creating an about us page. The purpose here is to make it easy for new visitors to learn about your company and its values. People often turn to this page first to see if the founders' message resonates with them.
You'll also need product landing pages that tell users what they stand to gain by buying from your site. In my experience, the key here is to focus on benefits, not features. Readers are far more interested in knowing how their lives will benefit from your product instead of what it does.
For example, instead of saying your towel rack comes with six adjustable hangers, you could say the six hangers save time and space by being completely customizable.
It's also important to avoid overloading your landing pages with too much information. Focus on the benefits and keep everything else clutter-free. We have even removed the full navigation bar on some of our landing pages so readers can focus on our message. Also, make text easy to scan and digest by using short paragraphs, bullet points, and bold section headings.
Following these best practices for your website landing pages can significantly impact on-site engagement and conversion rates. Give visitors a clear sense of how your business can benefit them and make it easy for them to take the next step.
Conclusion
So there you have it: five simple website design tweaks that can make a big difference in how long visitors stay on your site. Remember, every second counts when it comes to keeping people engaged. Implementing even one or two of these changes could significantly impact your traffic and conversions.
My final piece of advice is this: keep experimenting and optimizing - your site should be a continual work in progress. Your site design will change with the times and the needs of your audience, so it's a good idea to reassess and revise at least once every quarter.
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