The Sticky Factor
10 ways to make sure visitors come back time and again
You can spend a fortune (in time and real money) getting visitors to your website – so you can’t afford to have them sniff "Not for me" and look elsewhere. But let’s be honest here: very few people will find your website and do business with you there and then. They don’t know you from Adam, so they want some reassurances.
That’s why the sticky factor is just so darn important! It means getting visitors to engage with your website so they’re compelled to read on and give you their contact details. Then you can stay in touch and show them you’re the genuine article with handy tips (like this) and other shows of authenticity.
So, how do you make your site "sticky"? Here are 10 useful ways:
1. Scream relevance!
You know how it is, you only have a few seconds to impress. So the sub-text of your headline should be "Yes you’re in the right place!": in other words, know what your visitors are looking for and let them know you’ve got it. And that means appealing to their sense of self-interest, not talking about yourself!
2. Know your referral keywords
You can’t really understand what your prospects want unless you know which keywords are sending you traffic. So use your web stats package or Google Analytics to monitor "referral keywords", and ask "does your website offer what the visitor is searching for?" And if the answer is no, how can you change your message to give people what they want?
Of course the visitors you’re getting may not be the visitors you want – in which case you should make a list of your perfect keywords and enter them into Wordtracker. This system will show you some variations on your dream keywords that could send you the right kind of visitors. It’s worth doing – as long as you go on to optimise your site and provide content that suits the new set of keywords!