9 Simple Ways to Get People to Read Your Site
Even if you have a great website, you still need to get people to stay on the site and read your content. This means you need to have the best possible content with great phrases to help improve your SEO, and interesting information that will keep people reading and wanting to return to your website.
Improved content can certainly help with this. However, many businesses, whether they are just starting out or they have been building their website for some time now, still have trouble when it comes to creating engaging content. When they hit publish on their content, it goes live, and then the post never attracts anyone. Very few people read it, and there are no comments or shares on social media. It is a virtual version of a tumbleweed spinning through town.
What is it about the content that is not working? There could be several problems with your content, which we will discuss below. Fortunately, they tend to be relatively easy problems to fix.
Short Paragraphs
People who are reading online tend to be impatient. They are accustomed to getting information quickly, and they want that information to be as easy to find as possible. This goes beyond just having a good SEO ranking. When those visitors click on your page, they want the information to be laid out in an organized and easy to read manner.
You want to have plenty of line breaks in the text so your visitors are never faced with a wall of text. Each paragraph should have one to two ideas per paragraph, and those paragraphs should always be as short as possible while still being able to get the point across.
In fact, you can even write some paragraphs that contain just a single sentence.
Good Subheadings
In addition to breaking up your text into easy to read chunks, you should further break up the content by using subheadings. These subheadings should be compelling and make the reader want to continue. They should include keywords or phrases, and they should provide the gist of what the reader will find in the next section of text.
Lists
One of the other great ways to help break up your text to make it more digestible is to utilize bulleted lists. People love lists, and they are easy to read and scan, while providing the readers with some of the most important elements in the text. In addition, they provide a visible difference to the text that will draw attention.
Use Bold and Italics
So long as you do not overuse bolding and italicizing, it can be an effective way to make your content scannable and to impart important knowledge quickly. Just make sure that you are not trying to highlight too many items in the text, as this will end up being more of a distraction and a hindrance than help.
Using Links
In some cases, you might also want to add some links to the content. Utilizing internal links is a fantastic way to have people read even more of your content. However, external links are possible, as well. Try to utilize links that help to support your content and that are from reputable sources.
Fresh Content
Today, it is very important to have a large amount of content on your site, and to continually post content if you want to remain relevant. Consider just how many competitors you have out there. If you are not creating content daily, you are falling behind.
Fresh content for your blog compels your visitors to keep returning. It also helps you with search engine rankings.
Compelling Content
When people come to your site, they do not want to read rehashes of the same material that you have posted before. Even if you are covering similar topics, as often happens, make sure that you take the time to make each of your posts unique and that you provide people with information they find important.
Keep in mind that “important” will vary based on the type of site that you have. In some cases, it might be putting up content that is entertaining. It might be writing content that is trying to teach someone how to do something. You need to know your audience and what they want, and try to tailor your content around those visitors as much as possible.
There are many different types of angles that you can use when you are creating content, so you never have to worry about it getting boring. The following list includes just some of the things that you can do.
- Behind the scenes content
- Lists
- Reviews
Visual Appeal Using Images
While the content of your site – the written content – is arguably the most important element, you cannot overlook the power of images. People like images, and it can often keep them on a page longer. Finding usable images that are royalty free, or that you have taken on your own, and adding them to your content can help to add visual interest.
Connect on Social Media
Most people today have at least one social media site that they frequent. It might be Twitter or Facebook, for example. You should make sure that you have accounts on those sites for your website, and then start cultivating an audience.
Find likeminded people, comment on their posts, and work toward getting more followers and fans. Post content that will then link back to your blog.
In addition, you should have social media icons on your site so people can easily share the content from your blog with just a click. The more people who share your content the bigger your audience can grow.
Start Making Your Site Better
When you work with Umbrella Consultants and use the integrated WebTextTool.com features, you will get not only a website, but also tools that can help you to market your business and your content much better.
