Want your traffic to stick around? Give your blog to a two year old

Blogging for business is all about the bottom line, and everything we do in relation to our blog is geared toward this outcome.

Whether you are driving organic traffic through keyword optimisation and backlinking, or spreading your quality brand through social media and blog interaction – it is all contributing to the idea of getting as many people to visit your site as humanly possible.

Internet Marketing in general is a numbers game, the more the merrier – but what’s the point of spending all this time and energy driving traffic to your blog if no one is sticking around to subscribe, buy, learn, engage, comment, irritate , or just quietly judge.

Give your Blog to Harrison.

My son is 2 and a little bit. Have you ever seen what happens to anything that comes into contact with a 2 year old? Even if Harrison just got out of the bath, if he then plays with a toy it will still inevitably end up sticky! I have no idea how it works, I honestly believe that children under three have self generating stickiness built into their pores or something.

Needless to say, when Harrison is done playing it is not surprising to find a dinosaur clinging desperately to his sock, and only after I started online did I look at this situation and think, I’ve got to get my blog some of that!

The importance of making your blog as sticky as possible is a topic often overlooked in the desperate race to outdo the next blogger in the traffic generation game, and I think if we devote even a fifth of the time we spend on marketing to making sure our blog was engaging and interesting, we would get a much better return on our investment in the long run.

Top 5 ways to increase Average Visitor Site Time

1. Make your blog post engaging, use images and subtitles, lists and bold points.

This is actually a subject owned by the ‘How to write a compelling blog post’ camp but I am stealing it here because the same applies for overall stickiness. The easier it is for a visitor to scan through the information, the more chance they will stay engaged. Remember that at least 50% of your new visitors come directly to your blog posts, so prettying up your front page is useless if your post doesn’t invite them to find it in the first place.

2. Ever heard of a map? Or common sense perhaps?

50% of your new visitors will come via the front page, but more importantly – your subscribers will come to know it quite well.I have seen so many blogs, even those that I am subscribed too where finding the latest post, or the archives is like trying to put a wetsuit on in a car.

If you want people to stick around, make it easy for them to find your content – but more importantly, make your content logical! If you have 657 categories and every post is listed in 346 of them, chances are no matter how easy you make the navigation, I’m going to get cranky with the apparent randomness of the posts that I will leave – never to return.

3. Social Proof

You wouldn’t think to associate average site time with social proof but now that you’re thinking about it it makes perfect sense doesn’t it If visitors see that your site is popular, frequented a lot, and/or is current and active then there is a greater chance they will stick around.

If your current posts is crap then instead of leaving they will think, if all these people are here then there must be other good stuff around, so I’ll stay. Social proof in this instance is not restricted to the RSS feed and Twitter Follower numbers either, a lot of comments/ RT’s and general sharing works too.

4. Introduce yourself and add your personal touch ASAP

50% of your new visitors may come through your posts, but the other half will be showing up via your front page. There are heaps of different options you can have, depending on your theme and your knowledge of code, but you still need to introduce yourself right off the bat with a welcoming message and smile.

Whether you put this in the sidebar like Bailey Ing has done ( I use Bailey as an example because he has used video and I think it is particularly engaging) or you do what I have done here, which is actually integrating my opt in form too, does not matter, so long as you can ingrain your personality into the page from the moment they arrive. Your blog is unique, but only because of YOU , so make sure your prospective subscribers see this as soon as possible.

5. Make them feel at home.

When you’re out and about and you feel peckish, chances are you will stop into Macca’s (MacDonalds) to satisfy that craving. You know Macca’s is really bad for you but you go there anyway. Why? Because it’s familiar to you.

You could probably get a much tastier and healthier alternative next door but you don’t know for sure what you are getting at the big M, and although it is actually the most horrible tasting thing you can fathom, you happily tuck into that McChicken, smothered in the warm security blanket that is a medium fries and a coke by your side.

The same can be said for blogs and going out on the freaky ‘I’m too cool for school’ limb is sometimes the perfect way to shoot yourself in the foot. Call me old fashioned, but I like my nav bar at the top with links to contact, about, services, etc. and I like the sidebar to contain the latest posts and archives, at the very least. You can do whatever you like AROUND these factors but just make sure you include them. People like familiarity.

6. Be consistent

If you write in a certain style, then make sure everything lends itself to that style. Don’t go talking about how you hate social media because you are so outrageously awesome and then go and promote twitter tools in your sidebar, for example. Obviously the content should be consistent, but not necessarily consistent to the theme of your blog.

Write about whatever you want, but as I mentioned in point 2, categorise it appropriately. I think satying within your defined niche is nigh impossible after a while anyway, so write about everything, just keep it ordered and logical. Don’t go changing half way through, like saying you have the ‘top 5 ways’ to do something and then giving them 6… or something like that, that was just an example though – it could be anything like that, not necessarily that per say.

How do you increase the average time on your blog?

What tips can you share that help decrease your bounce rate?

How many questions does it take to increase my average site time?

I am thinking 4. What do you think?

Alex Whalley is the author of The Keyword Research and Niche site marketing blog. Alex recently quit his fulltime job to concentrate on niche site and search engine marketing. Subscribe to his Keyword Newsletter, or follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his Blogs RSS Feed. Want to guest post on HowToMakeMyBlog? See more info here.