9 Ideas to Make Your Customers Stay Longer on Your Website

Most businesses count on their websites to attract and retain inbound leads. Once they land on your pages, the goal is to make them stay longer, convert and retain.

The average time spent on a page gives strong signals about a website’s performance, usability, and engagement. Moreover, it can provide insights about the best and worst-performing pages, so you can analyze and improve based on that.

However, according to Hubspot, about 55% of web visitors spend less than 15 seconds on each website. And that’s only if you give them a good reason to stay there.

The website bounce rate is another metric that helps you understand what percentage of your web visitors go to your pages, do nothing and leave your site. Having a high bounce rate is often a concern for most websites as it usually means there is something wrong. It could be the performance, the content, the design, technical errors, or even the UI/UX.

It might also indicate that you are targeting the wrong audience, as they might be exiting because it’s not what they are looking for. A high bounce rate also signals that the website’s overall quality may be underwhelming and not inviting enough.

But keep in mind that a poorly implemented tracking code could cause fluctuations in the data.

Simply put, you have to analyze the performance of your pages and their elements. Here are some ideas to make your customers stay longer on your website and eventually turn into converting customers.

Stay True to Your Topic

When it comes to blog posts, you should always make it a point to go straight to what your title or headline is saying. Avoid fluff and tackle the most important matters in the second or third paragraph of your article in order to avoid a high level of website bounce rate.

Additionally, click-baiting is never a good practice and should be avoided altogether. Your headline should always match your overall content so your patrons will trust you.

Remember that people will close the article and leave the website if the first few sentences don’t match your headline. Also, keep the introduction short, then go straight to what you are supposed to discuss.

Choose Your CTA Wisely

Avoid CTAs that are too “salesy”, as this can easily turn your customers off. Don’t force your readers to click on a button – instead, try to encourage them to do so without sounding too bossy.

Try avoiding call-to-action that pop-up on your page since Pop-ups can turn visitors off, which might lead to them leaving the website. Most people want to get to know your brand first before they decide to engage with you. So make your intentions clear and provide the information that they need before asking them to sign up.

Try placing a CTA once they have reached the end of the blog post – this way, they can easily decide whether they’d want to interact with your brand or not.

Additionally, you can also place subtle CTAs on key webpages. Align the whole theme of the page with the CTA so it wouldn’t look too forced. Relevant and enticing offers will help retain your guests’ attention, which can eventually lead to them converting.

Work on Your Images and Design

People like seeing visually-appealing photos, so make sure to work on your graphics. A poor web design can make your visitors leave the website right away. It’s important to keep the balance between your text and images because graphics may be easier to digest, but the text provides a better understanding.

Additionally, you should also work on compressing your images. Graphics that are too big will make the website load a lot slower, and most people do not have the patience to wait for it to load completely. According to Curatti, 47% of online users expect the web pages they visit to load in about two seconds or less. If not, then they feel compelled to leave and find another one that loads faster.

Your Website Should be Easy to Navigate

Websites that are difficult to navigate can easily make your guests leave in a jiffy without looking back.

To help your patrons find what they need, put a search bar at the top of your page. Make it visible and easily accessible. Some visitors may already have a question in mind before they even go to your site, and if they cannot find it in less than 15 seconds or so, then they may feel compelled to leave.

The search bar will help eliminate the need to navigate deep into your website just to find what they are looking for.

Additionally, your backlinks should also take them to where they are expected to be taken. Chances are they are coming from a blog or social media post, and you’d want to gain their trust by redirecting them to the page that they are looking for. Avoid taking them to the homepage or somewhere else on your website, as this will make them leave fast.

Add an Exit Intent Pop-Up

Consider adding an exit intent pop-up to your website to encourage your customers to stay engaged. There is a low chance of your consumers going back to the website after they have abandoned their shopping carts, and you’d want to make sure that they stay on the site until they have checked out.

You can try to make exit intent pop-ups based on these ideas:

• Offer other products that they might like.
• Suggest some of your most popular blog posts that they would be interested in reading.
• Ask them if they want to chat with a customer support agent.
• Invite them to sign-up to your email list in exchange for enticing discounts and special offers.

By doing this, you are maximizing your chances of making your guests stay longer on your website.

Improve Your Load Time

Many people bounce from one website to another when they find out that the former takes too long to respond. With the Core Web Vitals about to become a ranking factor in May 2021, it will be more important than ever to improve your website’s loading speed. It will both benefit your organic profile and benefit your website visitors.

Reducing the page loading time will help keep your audience stay on your website. Even the best type of content or the highest quality images won’t mean anything if your website takes too long to respond. Because users would have already left.

Here are some ways you can speed up your website’s loading speed:

1. Compress large images without compromising the quality.
2. Reduce the redirects.
3. Work on your server response time.
4. Optimize your images.
5. Employ a content distribution network or CDN.
6. Make it a point to leverage browser caching.
7. Consider removing unused codes and code comments.
8. Get rid of render-blocking JavaScript.

Update Your Content

Old and outdated content is never enticing to anyone, while timely and relevant content will encourage your readers to stay on the site longer and lower your website bounce rate. Revisit your blog posts every once in a while to make sure that they are still up-to-date and add key information that you know your customers will appreciate.

Here are some of the things that you should remember when updating old content:

• Read through the article and decide which parts you want to omit and update.
• See if your keywords are still relevant.
• Refresh your headlines.
• Check if your CTAs link to the right number, website, or email address.
• Remove broken links.
• Get rid of grammar and spelling mistakes.
• Update your statistics and data.
• Re-promote your updated article.

Work On Your Thank You Pages

Link a “thank-you page” when your readers click on that CTA button. People like feeling appreciated and even just a small gesture can make a world of difference. This page should pop up once the person engages with your website – for example, clicking on the “subscribe” button.

Your thank-you pages should contain useful information and links that offer relevant and useful content. Make it personalized so there is a higher chance that they will click on these links.

Make Use of Videos

Millions of people spend hours on YouTube, so it only makes sense to create videos to make your website look attractive to your target market. Wordstream claims that over 45% of people on Facebook or YouTube watch more than an hour of videos per week. If you are having a hard time coming up with new video ideas, then consider repurposing your content into short clips.

Here are a few ways you can use video to make your customers stay longer on your website:

1. Upload product videos. Your customers are likely on your site because they are intrigued about what you have to offer. Encourage them to buy your products by creating product videos. These should be short, informative, and useful.
2. Turn your testimonials into a video. People love seeing other people talk about items that they are about to buy. They need to see what other people are saying to make sure that such items will add value to their lives. Not only will this make people stay longer on your site, but it will also increase your social proof.
3. Place your videos on the website correctly. Think of the overall context of the video and see which page is most relevant. For example, demo and tutorial videos should be placed on the product page, testimonial videos on the testimonials page, and company culture videos on the “About Us” or “Meet the Team” page.
4. Explainers and product demos. These types of videos can encourage your audience to stay longer on the website, as it helps them familiarize themselves with the products and services that you offer. Describe the features of your products within the first 60 to 120 seconds.

Conclusion

Users leaving your website is sometimes inevitable. However, making them stay as long as possible will help improve your conversion rate and lower your website bounce rate. Gaining your customers’ trust is also vital to making a business succeed, and you can do so by following the pointers that we have shared above.

Try applying these tips and let us know if it has improved your engagement and conversion rates.