How to Attract Website Visitors… and Keep Their Attention

Anyone can make their own website, but getting people to see it and stay on it is one of the biggest challenges of doing business digitally. The digital world is saturated, so gaining a solid following has become a hard task.

Day in and day out, high exposure to quality content makes people a lot more specific about what they like to see, and what they want to spend their time on.

Here’s how you can help your chances of getting a higher number of viewers – and keeping them interested.

Create a website worth visiting

No matter how brilliant your written content may be, users will only read it if your website aesthetic appeals to them – if they read it at all. Generally, Internet users will go to websites for information, however, they rarely read anything during their visit, and because of this your visual content plays a much bigger role in attracting a readership than you may think.

According to an eye- tracking study done by Nielsen Norman Group, world leaders in user experience research, on the average web page users have time to read at most 28 percent of the words on a page.

Moreover, users often read web pages in an F-shaped pattern; two horizontal stripes followed by a vertical stripe. Meaning, instead of reading the content fully, most web users skim read. So, be scan-ready and arrange your written content in a way that it is easy to consume.

Although you might want to push design boundaries, use these basic features to your benefit; try to not be too different.

Keep features standard

According to Nielsen Norman Group, users often leave web pages in 10 to 20 seconds, however pages with a clear value proposition can hold people’s attention for much longer. With so little time to keep users on your website, making them struggle with a complicated interface will not do you any favors.

Because of this, it is important to keep the basics that make the website user-friendly and easy to navigate. Here are a few standard website features and structures that users usually look for when visiting a website for the first time:

• A company logo

• A search area

• An ‘About Us’ and ‘Contact’ page

• A home page

• A site map

These are standard website features for a reason. And, although you might want to push design boundaries, use these basic features to your benefit; try to not be too different.

Good writing

Spelling and/or grammatical errors can be highly off putting. And while users may not read all your written content, quality writing still plays a significant role in maintaining a readership. A good website aesthetic coupled with well-written content can turn your website scanners/skim readers into loyal visitors.

You only have limited time to engage anyone visiting your website so, when it comes to writing, keep the following in mind:

• Clear catchy and informative headlines

• Subheadings summarizing the information

• A relatable writing style that speaks directly to your reader

• Useful hyperlinks

• Bite-size information in the form of lists and bullet point

Although these points may seem obvious, they are some of the biggest mistakes websites make. By following these tips, your website will be one step closer to securing a solid following.