We all know how easy it is to build a WordPress website from scratch but what can you do when you start getting real blog visitors but they do not seem to stick around. Wouldn't you love to grab these visitors and stop them from leaving your blog? Of course you would.
Here are a few basic tips:
Captivating Content
This is not going to be the good old clique “content is king” but I will say that it is important! In fact, if you do not understand what great content is then this is the first thing that you should learn. How to fulfill your visitors needs. How to give them exactly what they were searching for?
If you fill your blog with GOB SMAKCING content you have a better chance of keeping your website visitor engaged and also willing to make a return visit. This way you will not have to worry about trying to keep your blog visitors hostage because they will be breaking down the doors to return to your blog.
This brings me to my next tip…
The Right Content
Having the right content for your audience is probably more important than having great content. You can have all the great content you want, but if your website visitors are not looking for that, you are relying on luck to run your website. To really keep your blog visitors hostage, you need to have the content that they are looking for.
Your website visitors will tell you which content they like the best but you need to keep your eyes open.
Some signs to watch out for are:
- Indepth, interesting comments. Definitely not general stuff.
- Popular accidental content: This is content that you haven't really promoted but seems to be popular anyway.
- Posts that are shared the most. Some posts go viral. Find out why and try to write similar posts like that.
- High traffic posts: They might not be getting shared or commented on but get traffic. The best way to see these is in your Google analytics account.
- Popular posts on other sites.
I know how to create great content but I am not an expert at reading peoples minds so I use the signs listed above to help me work out what people want.
Walk the Walk before you talk the Talk
This is essentially saying, before you start giving advice on particular topic; make sure you are experienced enough and can actually give advice. There is nothing worse than someone publishing content that they really know nothing about.
I have learnt this lesson earlier on when creating content for my computer tips website. The absolute minute I published something out of my league, a person would come and ask a technical question that I simply could not answer. It just happened that way, almost guaranteed!
Now I do not even publish content written by other people unless they are answering the comments themselves or I am knowledgeable enough to do so for them.
Internal linking merry-go-round
So you are writing great content and your website visitors love it, but why not lead them to some more great content with internal linking. Get your website visitor's heads spinning with all your fantastic content? Get them on your merry-go-round and don't let them off!
This is where internal linking comes into the plan. You need to place your links within your content to not only add further value, but other options for your visitor to read. It is better for them to click on an internal link than leave your blog altogether. Do you agree?
Get other people to brag about your blog
Sometimes it sounds stupid when people talk about how great their own website is. This is why we need other people to start talking about our blogs and websites.
One way you can do this by talking mentioning other Webmasters on your website and then some do return the favor. (No guarantees)
This does not work for Webmasters out of your league though, so choose an approachable, down to earth webmaster that is not too famous to talk about you.
Another way that costs money is to get a professional review done. But make sure you are ready to handle the truth. Onibalusi from Youngprepro.com ordered a critique of his website from Chris Garret and the results were harsh to say the least. But Onibalusi used this information and took action on every piece of advice. People fell in love with Oni because he showed courage and they could see the action in progress.
Also why not put your hand up for an interview. I know Ileane is looking for interesting bloggers to interview all the time. You do not have to be making a million in your blogging career because that’s not what it is all about. I would say it comes down to your experiences and knowledge.
Get Blog Visitors to Sign Up
Yes this seems to be the main goal for many webmasters and I do this too. There is no doubt that building a list and maintaining is a great way to keep your blog visitors hostage… BUT.. This is also the best way to burn your blog visitors and make them hate you forever. I am sure I do this sometimes even though I do not send those ugly sales emails to my list. It is a fine line between love and hate when it comes to email lists and I believe it is a very skilled avenue to study.
If you can be honest with your list and give more than you take, this method can see your blog visitors staying by your side through thick or thin.
If you are having trouble with your list you can try writing a blog post using the title “Do you really want to be on my list” and then send this to your list.. I did this and only a handful of people unsubscribe (luckily I guess) but many commented and provided me with highly valuable information.
Answer comments from your blog visitors
This is a bit obvious! We all know we should enter comments but we often forget that entering a comment can bring your visitor back to your website. For example I have the REPLYME WordPress plug-in that notifies a person that a reply has been made to their comment. I know that people often have a “subscribe to comments button”, however not many people like to tick this. Having the reply me WordPress plug-in is a way to definitely let your visitor know that there is a reply to their comment.
That's not the end of the story though; you need to give an interesting or informational answer, along with maybe another question, will to entice your visitor act to your blog to comment again. Once you do this, most people are very grateful for the personal reply and this adds to your trust factor.
Of course there are thousands of ways to make your blog visitors stick around and the good old fashioned way always win in the end. Make your blog a great place and continue to test and tweak various ways to keep your website visitors enthralled! Sometimes it can be that simple.
Good post! In addition to what you already mention, i’ve found a couple of other tools to make visitors stay longer on the pages: Videos. Integrate (easy with WP) a youtube video or what ever in your post and if they start watching, they stay longer. Second, offer some free stuff like an ebook or a free service.
Love the idea of an ebook. I have yet to do one. It’s on my bucket list.
Yes I agree Rick..Youtube videos do keep people on the page longer and make them stick around. I am a big video fan and I often forget how good it is. 🙂
That’s true. It’s useless to publish something which is common. And very true about the Right Content, one should know properly, completely about whats/he is going to say. Incomplete information can be dangerous.
Very nice article.
Yes very true Abhi! Incomplete information can be dangerous! 🙂
🙂 Mitz, I’d be so grateful if you’d read the post linked below and, if you enjoyed it, leave a comment to let me know!
Yes i agree… most useful tips is internal linking for engaging a visitor. Thanks its really Advance tips from BasicBlogTips Site. Thanks for sharing with us.
Hi Amit
Yes I love internal linking. I really try as hard as possible to give links to other great info to keep the visitor on my site..
I also love Interlinking! It is one of the best ways to keep your visitors stay longer and navigate your website. It gives them opportunities to explore more based on their interest. More page requests entail good ranking for you and this also increases crawl rate.
For me, replying to your readers’ comments is a big one. No one wants to talk to someone in person who doesn’t reply to them, so don’t do that online because replying to your readers’ comments is just common courtesy. Also, having targeted traffic is nice because advertising shoes to people who want to buy electronics is usually not effective and it wastes time. I usually use reddit.com to find targeted traffic for my blog, and that’s been working quite well for me. Thanks for writing this post, Mitz. 🙂
I agree Kevin. Replying to comments is a big one! 🙂
What a title! My visit here is actually just an accident. My attention is captured by your article title, “Keeping Hostage”.
The overall content of the article simply tells me that I need to write a right content for my readers optimized already for the SEO. This is the big thing that I actually failed to do in my blog because firstly, I am not really good in writing. I may have ideas but I still have the difficulty in puttint them into an article. That’s the reason why when you visit my blog, you’ll just find some news there instead of posting articles that will teach the readers good things.
My head is full of ideas too and I have to write them down ASAP! Especially the good titles. I usually come up with them first, then writes the main subheading underneath and fill in the blanks. It just becomes a habit after a while..
Thanks… that will be a lesson for me too. I think, I need to try to do what you’re doing. Maybe I need a pen and paper always since I don’t have tablet computer that can be used for emergency writing activities.
Nice tip, one thing to keep in mind is to never forget to relate and to respond with your readers, that way you will have a relationship with them and they can build trust with you. Deal with your readers in a personal manner and respond to them with their queries.
I agree. One little comment can make all the difference! 🙂
I thought as the same as the above is that I’m always relying on luck when publishing content and thanks for your suggestion.
It hards to write something that’s interesting to all the people around world which means some are love you and some are not.
Yes not everyone is going to like us but that does not matter at all. 🙂
I always answer comment’s on my blog , but some where lack in the internal linking ..
learning my way around …
Great post mitz but what kind of step I use to improve my Internal Linking…..
From now on when creating a new post, put two internal links in the content minimum. Also when you edit or freshen up an old post, add a few internal links in… That will help you catch up.
Apparently your tricks really work and your points are well written because you’ve kept me here on the blog. And the Onibalusi story is quite inspirational, I think that most of the bloggers have a lot to learn from it.
I have so much respect for Onibalusi. He took a beating in the review for his blog and used this to make an amazing focused business.
And thanks for reading my post! Glad you like it:)
Internal linking works great if you link to good content and make sure it will be of interest to the reader. Tips and list-like articles work well usually, especially when linked with an eye-catching anchor (which doesn’t necessarily means optimized from an SEO perspective).
Yes I agree that the internal linking must enhance your current content and be related! 🙂
I have just discovered your blog and enjoyed reading this post, I am pretty new at this and am slowly building my blog after a lot of research and learning (which I am still doing) I like the internal linking you mentioned which I had not thought of doing so I will be trying this. I need more traffic to my blog and like you say I need to keep them!
Thanks
Pauline
Hey Mitz,
This is good. Really enjoyable and informative post.Thanks for sharing with us.
Hey Mitz,
There are may ways to keep a blogger stuck to your blog! But it just seems to get tougher and tougher by the moment especially when there are so many other bloggers around!
One thing I learnt to make readers stick around is asking question. But that maybe tough because the reader has to read the whole post to get to the last also! Also, the sub heading seem to be doing quite the trick also. It gives you an idea about what the discussion is and makes one stick around longer!
Well, this post was definitely worth it; we all stuck around to every word! 🙂
Ha ha..Thanks for sticking around and reading my post Hajra! 🙂
I guess where there is more competition it is far harder to keep readers.
That is why I find it far easier to make money online away from the make money online niche.
A blog play an important role in E-Business. Blog provide you a chance to target your specific keywords in your post. You can also use different keywords that will still represent your business type; it will help your website to get more traffic and to get more visibility in search engine.
I think the blog and website thing are blurred now as people realize that the search engine love blogs because they are constantly updated.
Many people use a blog platform for their website. I moved all mine into WordPress years ago..Best decision ever!
Even for a business website I suggest you have content flowing in the background.
True, building a list is a double edged sword, but that just means we need to pay more attention how we do it and how we maintain it. I wouldn’t recommend any blogger to ignore this step, just treat it with extra care.
I probably agree to ignore it too as it is just too involved. It is like learning another business altogether. One wrong email can kill your list…
great ideas to help make people come back. Building a list is great too, just make sure that you keep in contact with your readers on a regular basis otherwise they will loose interest and opt out of your emails.
Building an email list for the present is still a viable form of visitor interaction but I believe it is quickly becoming an obsolete one. We are seeing that people are using twitter, facebook and other forms of social media more consistently for communication rather than taking the time to send an email. I think that over time, email will become more and more archaic and less and less relevant.
I agree that email lists might become obsolete. This is why I sent and email out saying “do you really want to be on my list” as I felt people were on it for the wrong reasons.
I have given up on enticing them on to a list, I just wait for them to make the move now. I get more loyal people that way.
As you say starting a WordPress blog is easy, but so many “new” bloggers lose interest on their blogs due to the lack of comments, but then they also fail on not answering comments, blogs are after all a conversational system as well as information.
Building a reputation is certainly a must and it can take a while, my blog has been going for 4 years this year and I still work extremely hard on it and love every moment of blogging 😉
I notice a lot of bloggers come and go..but the ones still here all have common traits. When I started my first computer tips websites there were hundreds that started at the same time.. They are no longer there. The ones that survived all had a sharing nature, didn’t steal content, and took action!
There are many ways to keep the visitors to your blog hooked to it. Great and relevant content is simply a must because when a person is visiting your website it is almost obvious that he or she will be looking out for information.
Ms. Ileane,
Great article! You are so correct. Having the right content is more important than having the best content all the time. I have seen some very high ranking sites on Alexa and the posts were decent but not outstanding. However, they were on topic so the followers were interested and commented, etc.
The internal linking merry-go-round is another important tips. I use the plugin “Yet Another Related Blog Post” which lists related posts at the end of every post. Hopefully, that helps keep people around a little longer.
And someone mentioned YouTube videos. Well most of my posts have YouTube videos and it appears that keeps them hanging around my pages longer than most. So that’s cool.
Thank you for all your great posts and videos! I think you found me on YouTube and commented and you’ve been on my radar ever since! Glad we met!!!
Take Care,
Jupiter Jim
In Blogging one of the most important aspect in my opinion is to engage the visitors! These Tips are Really Great! Video Embedding in the Post is another effective way to engage the visitors!
Wow! These are some useful tips indeed! I especially like the tip on internal linking, I have to start using this method more often. Thanks for the information!
Internal linking is giving your own content a high five! 🙂
nice work, you prove several of your points within the article for the article itself! Coincidence? I think not, you are obviously one of those who practice what they preach and definitely tick the box for “Walk the Walk before you talk the Talk” achievement!
Dear Mitz, thanks for this article, some really handy tips and I like the idea of possibly being interviewed! Another tip I would add to the list is to do guest blog posts for others, great way to get new interested blog visitors, then we can keep them with your suggestions! Louisa
Very true Louisa. Anyway you can generate some interest in your blog is good! 🙂
Great post Mitz! You are one of my inspiration and always motivate me with your useful article. Great job!
Thanks for reading my articles Amrik! 🙂
Hmmm, I think one of my problems is having such a broad variety of topics… Though I get a lot of traffic, I only have a small regular reader base. Majority of my traffic coming from google searches. I’ve tried to narrow my niche, but its been a challenge. Thanks for the article!
Yes we all need to tighten up our topics so Google and our visitors know what they are going to get! 🙂
I would say that you have not warmed them up to buy then… But you will get sales too because Amazon is so tempting! 🙂
Yeah, I do get some sales. What I’m thinking I should work on, though, is that when I reference a game that I’ve reviewed, instead of linking them straight off to Amazon, I should link them to the other review… which will link them to Amazon!
Yes this is too true! I totally agree. People often think any traffic is good but it is not! 🙂
great list mitz. agree with all of it.
reading some of the comments here – I actually agree that email lists are pretty crucial, but should only be used for special announcements and posts. email still can be very effective if used well.
def agree that lot of people should really take the time to link internally well, including going back to old postings and linking to new ones.
Good stuff Mitz,
But shouldn’t there be some tips like adding unblockable popups that keep sending you back to the site infinitely when you try to close it? That sounds more like keeping visitors hostage :).
Of course good content is important, but controversial content can be great as well. Get them thinking and engaged. They will remember your blog.
Don’t underestimate the value of eye candy. Eye catching images help keep visitors a little longer too.
Thank you so much for this article. I am very new to all of this but am very happy to find articles with advice I can actually follow and see some results. I have just recently started getting some comments on my blog and I will be sure to comment back and I will have to get that plugin you mentioned. Keep up the good work.
I really have to get people to brag about my sites more. That’s one of my goals in 2012.
Content is king. Period.
If the blog is updated frequently with good contents , there will be no worries about visitors coming back. Interesting content + Updated daily = Visitors checking your blog daily.
As said by above I also think that the main reason for a visitor to return is check updates so the more regular you post the more interested is visitor. As simple as that
btw. loved this article.. nicely written… thanks
I was not aware that internal linking can actually help us . thanks for this article . from now i will implement all such great information to my blog . Thanks
you have a computer tips website? whats the link?
Wow I always thought that simply writing entertaining content would be enough… apparently not!
However there is one thing you’ve forgotten… the content has to be WELL written. It makes it much easier to read and gives your blog a professional edge!
Hi Mitz
Your tip about internal linking is one that I implimented on my blog and I get a lot more page views per visitor since doing it. Highly recommend every blogger does it.
Ayt! This is true, content is a king but if the content is not they’re after who wants to read you post? Thanks for the tip Mitz.
Nice tips Mitz, walk the walk is really important and people do take a notice when we are not able to provide correct answers.
I do agree that content is very important, some blogs just ramble on about nothing and i end up getting no were with the information. thanks for the tips!
Thanks Again , Rod
You know I brag about you Mitz all the time, albeit we share the same passion. It’s clear who is the Professional Blogger(you). You have taught me in a very short time “Not to Quit” and hope I have made you proud.
I love internal linking, it is true readers need more information of how to accomplish their goals. So we must have the content to keep them. As a result of the merry go rounding, bounce rate decreases and you know Google will reward you for that. Thanks Mitz!
I must say that these tips are excellent Mitz. I have benefited from reading your article, the best for me to do now is apply your tips.
Thanks again 🙂
I love the tips that you’ve given especially looking at the “signs” of what kind of article that gets the visitors to share with other people. I should now focus more on that kind of content and create more contents like the older articles that is still getting traffic up to today.
On another note, I think that we should as well never stop experimenting with new types of article writing even though that we have found a formula that brings in the visitors. Who knows that with new types of article we can bring in tons more. I believe that there is always room for improvement.
I thought as the same as the above is that I’m always relying on luck when publishing content and thanks for your suggestion. Its hard to write something that’s interesting to all the people around world which means some are love you and some are not.
Haha “Internal linking merry-go-round” this is such a powerful tip and I have been putting this into practice on my blog over the last few days.
Mitz I have been on your “merry-go-round” before and it was really hard to get off BUT I learned heaps!
Sometime last year we got the help of a Google analytics consultant which really helped me personally. I found when I looked at my own personal blog checking what pages brought in the most search traffic really helped me produce content. There seemed to be i a trend in the topics that drove the most traffic so of course I wrote about those more.
Great tips. My biggest problem with blogging is the internal linking. I like to write more than I do the internal SEO work. I will try and I really appreciate the informative post.
One of the most important keys to blogging success is providing exceptional content. Follow these five tips to make sure your blog posts not only get read but make people want to come back for more.
Choose the Appropriate Tone for Your Blog
Every blog has a target audience it’s written for. Before you start writing blog posts, determine who your primary and secondary audiences will be. Who will want to read your blog and why? Are they seeking professional information and discussions or fun and laughter? Identify not only your goals for your blog but also your audience’s expectations for it. Then decide what tone would be most appropriate for your blog, and write in that tone and style consistently.
Be Honest
Blogs that are written in an honest voice and truly show who the writer is are often the most popular. Remember, a critical component to a blog’s success is the community that develops around it. Represent yourself and your content honestly and openly and reader loyalty will undoubtedly grow.
Don’t Just List Links
Blogging is time-consuming, and sometimes it can be very tempting to just list links to other online content for your readers to follow. Don’t fall into that trap. Readers don’t want to have to follow a breadcrumb trail to find something interesting to read. In fact, they might find they like where you lead them more than they like your blog. Instead, give readers a reason to stay on your blog by providing links with your own synopsis and point of view about the content of those links. Remember, a link without context is a simple way to lose readers rather than retain them.
I feel the main issue would be ow creative you can be in making your readers sign up on your site. As you said answering their comments with sincerity will make them comeback. Wonderful article – making me come back here soon.
It’s funny what happened to you and your computer blog. A good lesson there.
Write on what you have good knowledge and experience with. Try things and see if they work or not. If they do, then you got yourself another article.
Hello there and thank you for your info – I’ve certainly picked up something new from right here. I did however expertise some technical points using this web site, since I experienced to reload the site a lot of times previous to I could get it to load correctly. I had been wondering if your hosting is OK? Not that I am complaining, but slow loading instances times will sometimes affect your placement in google and could damage your quality score if ads and marketing with Adwords. Well I am adding this RSS to my email and can look out for a lot more of your respective interesting content.