How Do I Get People To Stay On My Website?

Hi! Today's question comes from Mark M. from Knoxvill, TN.

Mark asks, "I am a fairly new internet marketer and I feel that people are not staying on my website long enough to really get a good sense of what i am offereing. Is there any way to get them stay longer to really learn about me and my products?"

Thanks for the question Mark!

One of the most crucial aspects for determining a website’s level of success is time. If you think about the sites that are continually appearing in the list of the Top Ten Most-Visited Sites, one of the reasons for their success is that the site owners have figured out how to get visitors to spend significant amounts of time at their sites.

So, if an “extended stay” at your site will contribute to its overall level of success, then we must find the answer to the question, “What does it take to give a site “staying power”? There are several possible solutions that we could consider using.

One of the most effective ways to get visitors to spend time at your site is to offer them significant amounts of information relevant to your site’s topic. For example, if your site was about how to care for Tennessee Walking Horses, you would not only want to include articles and information about basic horse care, but also additional articles about specific and relevant information on issues and concerns that pertain only to Tennessee Walkers.

But that’s just for starters. Once you’ve given them access to this pertinent information, you need to make the visit an interactive one. That is, you need to find ways to create a dialogue with your visitors. A simple way to do so would be to include a poll on your site, or better yet, at the end of each article. It could ask, “Did you find this article helpful?” or “What else would you like to know about ___?” This way, you could also use it to gather feedback and suggestions for improving your site and/or its content.

Another “sure-fire” way to create visitor interaction is a website forum. By inviting them to join your forum and comment on topics or information related to your site’s theme, you’ll not only get them to stay longer, but they might also keep coming back to visit the forum. Of course, you will have to monitor the forum yourself or find a dependable and knowledgeable person to moderate it for you.

While we’re on the subject, don’t forget about Blogs...like this one! :) That’s right, a blog is a great tool to create interaction and “staying power.” This is especially true if the content is updated regularly. By allowing visitors to post their comments about your content, they’ll be spending more time at your site. And if you’ve organized your content properly, then they may also spend additional time clicking links leading them throughout your site.

Of course we also need to include Membership Sites on this list as well. With a well-designed, content-rich site, whether paid or free, you have one of the best methods available for creating significant “staying power” for your site. And by incorporating some of the other features we’ve previously discussed, along with the continual addition of fresh, relevant content, your themed Membership Site just might have the potential to move into the Top Ten list!

One tool that you can use that tracks how long a person has stayed at your website plus a lot of other great information that you can use to build your business is statcounter.com. This is a great tool and it's free too! All you do is register your site on your StatCounter member's area, plug in your website and then it will spit out an html code that you can put anywhere on your webpage and then it will start tracking for you.

I hope this has helped Mark. Let me know if you have any other questions and if anyone else has any other input please leave a comment. If you yourself have a question please go to http://www.askmikefeil.com/ to submit your question.

Take care,

Mike Feil
http://www.internet-marketing-makeover.com/