How to Increase the Amount of Time Visitors Spend on Your Website

The casual internet user enters and leaves new websites very quickly. It’s been said that you generally have about 15 seconds to catch their attention.

This short timespan doesn’t give you much of a chance to convert these casual visitors into readers or customers. There simply isn’t enough time to prove your worth.

Visitors are more likely to convert into customers after spending more time on your website.

They learn more about your services and give you the opportunity to explain why you’re the best option to provide them.

So how do you keep people on your website long enough to explain to them why they should become a customer?

There are some basic web design tactics that can help your Nashville business to convert your website visitors.

Here are some things you can do to hold the attention of potential customers.

Provide Interesting Content
Optimize Speed and Performance
Incorporate Responsive Web Design
Arrange Content in an Intuitive and Appealing Way
Utilize Encouraging CTAs and Internal Links
Frequently Update Content
Make It Interactive

1. Provide Interesting Content

People will stay on your website as long as they have something holding their interest.

Well-written and informative content can play a large role in giving a visitor a reason to spend more time on a website.

This can be seen in how long a visitor stays on a particular page, but it can also affect how willing they might be to dig deeper into your other pages.

Crisp images will also draw a visitor into your website. Pictures more quickly engage visitors than text, although they can also be used to supplement important information.

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2. Optimize Speed and Performance

You can annoy your visitors to the point of leaving your website if it doesn’t perform as well as they feel it should.

Websites can lose readers before they even fully enter the site by taking too long to load.

Here’s how you can tell if your website is performing too slowly and what you can do to fix it.

Reducing redirects, using correctly-sized images, and more can help your website quickly pull up the necessary information. Internet users have high standards for the websites on which they choose to spend their time.

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3. Incorporate Responsive Web Design

There are a variety of differently-sized screens on which a person can view your website. Mobile devices have become the most popular way for people to view the internet, but it’s not the only way. Phones, tablets, and desktops can all show the same website in different ways.

Is your website set up to look good in each version?

Responsive web design takes this into account. Visitors will leave your website if images are out of proportion to the rest of the page, or text fields run offscreen which forces them to scroll.

Your website needs to look great in all variations and responsive web design is the way to accomplish this.

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4. Arrange Content in an Intuitive and Appealing Way

Your website is not going to be a one way street, but it should still guide the visitor through the different sections.

Introducing information in a coherent fashion helps you shape the way a visitor views your products or services.

Your visitors won’t want to stumble their way through a disorganized and unappealing website. It’s difficult to find specific information and it can become frustrating.

Keep your pages clean-looking and have your navigation bar in a prominent location. This will make it easier for your visitors to hop between your various pages as they learn more about your business.

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5. Utilize Encouraging CTAs and Internal Links

This goes toward the same end goal as arranging your content in a coherent fashion. The point of your website is to convert your visitors into customers. This means you want them to move from one page to the next until they ultimately order or purchase your service.

A well-placed call-to-action (CTA) inspires the visitor to move to the next phase. Internal linking provides opportunities to act as your own source for information.

Both practices result in the visitor digging deeper into your website and spending more time with your content.

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6. Frequently Update Content

Fresh content gives return users a reason to continue coming back.

This could come in the form of videos, blog posts, or ebooks.

All of these provide a benefit to the visitor and will continue attracting new people at the same time.

Users are going to visit websites that provide them with a service. And no matter what industry you are in, knowledge is a free benefit you can offer your potential customers.

This extends to your website copy, as well. You can tell when a website hasn’t updated their copy in years. Out-of-date information is often deemed useless and can give a visitor a reason to look for more contemporary information.

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7. Make It Interactive

There are many ways you can engage directly with the visitors to your website. There are tools that can be incorporated through web design that hold the visitor’s attention.

For instance, a mortgage calculator on a financial institutions website provides a service while also holding their attention. This can also take the form of quizzes and polls, or even comment sections on blog posts.

Web design can be utilized in a variety of ways to intrigue potential customers and hold their attention on your website.

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