Problem : Few Visits
Few visits is the first problem that you will likely encounter as you begin your website. This is almost always due to a lack of unawareness both by search engines as well as by people (often because of search engines). So how do you let people know about your quality website? Well, this is Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and marketing at their finest. It takes both of these in order to be successful in letting people know that you exist. Here are some suggestions to improve your number of visits.
- If you haven't done so already, submit your site URL to Google.
- Write as much quality content as you can. Research done by quicksprout shows that there is significant evidence that content drives more traffic and increases popularity in social media. Click here for the complete article.
- Make social media accounts. Twitter and Facebook are great ways to connect. Currently, Twitter is buildyoursnow greatest traffic driver. All you have to do is post a few tweets each day, put your website URL in your description, and be active. For full information on how to do this, visit the Web Constructor's articles on social media for websites.
- Make sure to add relevant keywords that you can compete for to your website. I explain how to do this on buildyoursnow.
Problem : High Bounce Rate
If you already have enough visitors already, you want to make your readers more loyal to your website now. To help you track your success with reader involvement, we will use the bounce rate. So what is a regular bounce rate and how do you improve it? Below are your answers.
According to KISSmetrics, the average bounce rate of websites is 40.5%, but you must keep in mind that bounce rates can vary depending on what type of website you have. Here are the statistics for different types of sites: the average bounce rate for service sites is 10% to 30%,the average bounce rate for retail sites is 20% to 40%, and the average bounce rate for content sites is 40% to 60%. High bounce rates for content sites (such as this one) are common, because of irrelevant information pulled up by search engines (Google). So keep in mind the average bounce rate for your type of website as you interpret your data and look to improve. This doesn't mean that you should give up once you reach 40% if you have a content website, but rather to look for different ways to improve once you hit this point. Below are some tips to get to your ideal bounce rate.
- Make your website's purpose as clear as possible. Let people know exactly what your website is about.
- Make an appealing introduction page that urges some "call to action" that catches readers' attention. This can range from a simple landing page or some multimedia feature. Whatever it is, make it fun, interactive, or informative.
- On your homepage, concisely summarize what your website is about and use high definition visuals to help portray your message.
- Try to minimize your site's page load time. To check your website's page load time, Google Analytics has a special section for this under your "Behavior" section. The subsection that you will click on is called Site Speed and then you will click on Overview beneath it. Click on the Speed Suggestions to see what Google suggests you do to improve your site speed.
- Open a new window for external hyperlinks (links that don't go to some section of your site).
- Make a site search bar. The one that I use for free for my buildyoursnow website, provided by Google is here.
Problem : Few Pageviews per Visit
If you are looking to profit from the many advertisement programs available (Google Adsense) or looking to increase reader's interest, then one statistic you should always work to increase is your pageviews per visit. Increasing pageviews gives advertisements on your website a better chance of being clicked on. This is very helpful when using PPC (pay per click) advertising. Let's look at how you can improve this statistic.
The theme that you should take away from this list is quality and interest. Let me show you.
- Create interesting content that readers can't find anywhere else. Make sure your content is true and interesting. Nobody wants to read a boring article or web page.
- Make a website that people feel is a valid source. Two ways to do this are (a) to write good, factual information and (b) make a trustworthy and clean web design. This creates a sense of trust that is valuable for retaining visitors.
- Put related articles at the bottom of blog posts. People will look to read more articles if they see more helpful or related articles.
- Make your site easy to navigate so that visitors can easily find the information they need or want. You can do this by organizing your pages neatly and in an intuitive way. You could also add a search box to your website. Google offers free search boxes. To create your own, click here.
Keep in mind that sometimes few pageviews can be a positive thing if readers are finding what they are looking for on the first page of your website, but only if you want your readers to find your website helpful. If you are advertising, then you always want to increase your pageviews.
Problem : Short Average Visit Duration
No matter what, you want your readers to spend a lot of time on your site. Longer time means more involvement and thus you are more likely to reach your goal of whatever your site is made for (whether that be make revenue from ads, increase sales/conversions, or being helpful). For our last look at using basic statistics to improve your site, look at the list of suggestions for improvement below.
- ALWAYS make quality content. Readers will never want to spend a lot of time reading bad content, because there are better websites to look at and do. Make sure that you publish QUALITY content. Even if you don't have a lot of traffic coming to your website, quality content is the best long term solution.
- Make an appealing and trustworthy web design. The better your website looks, the less people question the legitimacy of your site. This means that they will be more likely to use your website as a resource and will look deeper into your site.
- Put related articles at the bottom of blog posts. People will look to read more articles if they see more helpful or related articles.
- Make your site easy to navigate so that visitors can easily find the information they need or want. You can do this by organizing your pages neatly and in an intuitive way. You could also add a search box to your website. Google offers free search boxes. To create your own, click here.