Have you been churning out content but aren’t getting the results you’d hope? You wouldn’t be the first.
Many people start their business blog with fantastic ideas only to find the only person reading them is their mum or a colleague. Other businesses start a blog out of necessity because they see everyone else is doing it and don’t want to miss out on those positive SEO results.
There’s little point in spending money on advertising campaigns if when a visitor arrives on your site they don’t like what they see and leave within a couple of seconds. Much like there’s no point continuing to put out the same content that you know is not getting read or shared.
What is bounce rate?
Bounce rate is the percentage of people who land on a page on your website and leave without clicking on anything else. A high bounce rate could indicate that the entrance page isn’t relevant to your visitors.
A 2015 study from Microsoft found that attention spans were affected by the volume of media consumption, social media usage, multi-screening behaviour and the adoption of technology. All of these have increased in recent years meaning that it may be more difficult to hold people’s attention for very long.
That means your content has to be engaging enough to keep people reading. A lot of website visitors will simply read the article they clicked on and move on. However, in an ideal world, you want people to stay on your website as long as possible and visit other areas, particularly the page that takes orders or signups.
Here are some simple ways to improve your content and keep people engaged:
Break up walls of content
No one wants to read a huge block of text. Would you? The mind wanders, you lose your place and you don’t come back.
Shorter paragraphs are better with subheading breaking up the text so that it’s easy to skim. The truth is that most of the time, a reader will only skim over the text. So you need to make sure your content is easy to read in this way or your readers might not make it past the first paragraph.
Make your titles eye-catching
The best way to get people to read your article is to have a good title. When people look for something to read, they don’t just go for interesting topics. They go for titles that address a need or problem that they might be having. Focusing on addressing a need will help to propel your content into becoming genuinely helpful.
If you want to keep people engaged past the first article, you could include a list of related articles in your sidebar, all with helpful titles.
This way you can keep people on your site for longer, taking in more of your content and hopefully prompting them to learn more about your business (and eventually to buy from you).
Some people skim through sub-headings before deciding to read the whole thing. Make sure your sub-headings are helpful and relevant so that a reader can find exactly what they’re looking for.
Give the reader direction
If you want people to visit other areas of your site, including links to other articles or information pages will help give the reader something to do next.
In order to increase sales or signups, make it as easy as possible for visitors to buy from you. This could mean using a sticky button that’ll always be there no matter where you are on the website or links within an article to a sales page.
Get into infographics
Everyone loves a good infographic. They’re easy to skim and gain information from quickly. They’re often more likely to be shared than a simple article and can help you gain a footing on social media channels like Pinterest as well as others. Pictures and videos are also a good way to break up the text so it’s not just paragraph after paragraph.
Back up your points
When illustrating your points, try to include examples, statistics and details of relevant studies that can back them up. This will help to give your content more authority and will build trust with the reader.
Use a call to action
What do you want readers to do after they’ve finished with an article? Preferably not leave the website. You may want to improve engagement and interaction or increase the number of quotes coming through.
A call to action is usually a final line in the article asking for comments or for you to sign up to a newsletter or a trial service. A good CTA can help to improve bounce rate by giving readers a prompt to visit other pages, therefore improving the overall effectiveness of your website.
Use pop-ups wisely
Pop-ups are usually annoying for visitors but they can help to grow your email list. Just make sure you’re only using them for a good reason and that they’re relevant to the page a visitor is on.
Rather than setting a popup to show immediately after someone visits a blog article, have it come up when they’ve scrolled down a bit or after a few seconds. Having a “join my email list” pop up before the visitor has a chance to decide whether they like the article or not is almost always going to have them clicking no.
Make sure your website is speedy
People are impatient. Everyone wants what they want now and if they don’t get it they’ll move on quickly. It might sound harsh but there are so many other websites out there that a visitor could go to instead of a slow one. Don’t miss out on traffic or sales over something as simple as poor loading time.
Hire someone to take care of your content
You may decide that content is a lot of work and that you simply don’t have time to maintain a blog and run your business at the same time.
In this case, you could hire a content writer to join your marketing team. However, if you’re looking for a more cost-effective solution, a freelance writer or an agency might be better.
We provide a package of SEO work, social media management, content writing and more. If you are interested in learning about our services, you can take a look at our services or get a free website review from us here.
Are you having trouble with your bounce rate? Or do you have any tactics for creating compelling content? If you have any thoughts or questions, please pop them below.
