These days, people who are browsing the Internet have short attention spans.
They want to find the information in a hurry and then move on to something else.
If they cannot find what they want quickly, they will move onto another site and hope to have better luck.
With that said, there are some steps you can take to get the attention of someone to your site.
What Do They Want?
One of the first methods to get people to stay on your site is to make sure that your blog content is what they want to read about.
Figure out what your audience is interested in and use that for creating content.
For instance, look into what search terms are bringing people to your site.
If you keep seeing the same terms coming up, it is a sign that you need to post more content on that topic and you can use those terms to come up with some search engine optimization (otherwise known as SEO) strategies.
You should be checking the bounce rate on your website.
If people are not staying on your site very long, it means you are not providing the content that they were looking for and they left.
But if the rate is low, it means you are doing a good job and they are finding what they want.
If your site is good, they may bookmark it and return when they need more information on that topic.
Structure
Another method to keep people’s attention on your page is to make sure that the content is presented in a way that makes sense and that they can digest.
For instance, bullet lists and bold type can be helpful as they can find the information easily.
Creating headings and a quick summary and tips at the end of an article will help people remember what they saw in your article.
Mix up the Content
Good images can make it easier for people to read the content and then be able to digest what they read.
It helps to break up the text and makes the page more appealing to a reader.
A page full of text looks overwhelming and too technical but by adding some images and breaks in the text, it becomes more inviting and makes the information easier to read.
A great way to use an image is to add a bit of text on it such as statistics, quotes or other information the reader may find helpful.
People are more likely to remember these little things and they are great items to share on social media.
If you aren’t too thrilled about images, you may want to consider using other types of media when it comes to content marketing.
Infographics can be a great way to get information across in a more condensed method.
Slides or videos tend to catch people’s eyes and can draw them in to see what is there.
Consider a podcast instead of a blog post or have the post available as a podcast in addition to the written word, this way people can listen while they are doing a variety of different activities.
Length
You may think that a short attention span means a short article but that is not necessarily the case.
A longer blog post may be advantageous as you can really get into the topic and post a lot of information.
The biggest thing with a long post is making sure that it has good content and value or else it is a lot of fluff that no one is going to read.
If writing is not your strong point, you may want to look at blog content outsourcing as a method to create these posts.
You provide a variety of information and how long you want the post to be and they will handle the rest of it for you.
Build Relationships
Not only do people have short attention spans but they can be cautious about the sites they visit and who they listen to on topics.
For this reason, you will want to build relationships with others out there.
If they see your content and find it valuable, they will share with their readers.
Because it comes from someone they trust, those readers are more likely to visit your blog and listen to what you have to say.
How many times have you visited a business or a blog because a friend referred you?
This is the same on the Internet.
This is not an exhaustive list of ways to get people to come to your website and stick around.
But it is a good starting point and will give you some inspiration to get going.
