Driving traffic to your website is one thing, but getting visitors to stay actively engaged on your site is another.
Average session duration, or dwell time, is an important metric for measuring the engagement of your site visitors. On average, users spend only 2-3 minutes browsing a website. The longer a visitor’s dwell time, the more likely they will become loyal to your brand, return in the future, and make a purchase.
Since you’ve spent so much time, effort, and money building your website, you want to make sure your visitors are spending enough time on the content. Not sure how to start increasing your site’s dwell time? Take a look at the 10 tips we’ve compiled below.
1. Have a visually appealing site design
Your site design is your customer’s first impression of your website. If it looks outdated, disorganized, or unappealing, you’ll immediately lose visitors. Make sure you’re utilizing a design with high-quality graphics, modern elements, and complementary colors that aren’t hard on the eyes.
It’s also essential that your website design is optimized for mobile. Utilize a responsive design to ensure your site displays properly, no matter what device your visitor is using.
2. Write captivating headlines
About 80% of people only read headlines, while the remaining 20% read the full body text. That means if you’re not writing effective headlines, you’re losing customers fast.
Your website should, at the very least, contain an attention-grabbing headline at the top of your front page. To write a good headline, focus on the benefits of your product and how they help your customer. Use numbers, strong verbs, and questions to entice readers.
3. Provide valuable content
Your site content should be engaging while offering valuable information to your customers. Utilize immersive content like videos and blog posts to keep your visitors on the page. Also, update your content regularly to ensure you’re providing current, accurate information.
4. Use a conversational tone
Unless you’re in a highly specialized or academic industry, keep the jargon to a minimum. Using a conversational tone in your writing has been shown to be more effective than dry, matter-of-fact text.
That said, ensure that your content is still well-written with correct grammar and spelling, or you’ll lose your visitors fast.
5. Provide clear navigation
When it comes to your site menu, simpler is better. Place your menu at the top of your site where it’s easy to find, and make sure it’s visible on each page. Include a search bar so visitors can swiftly locate exactly what they’re looking for.
6. Make your content scannable
Your customers are bombarded with content daily, and they want to find information quickly. Most visitors will only scan through your site. If they don’t find what they need fast, they’ll look elsewhere.
Make your content easily scannable by using lists, graphs, and charts to display relevant information. Break chunks of content into sections and use short paragraphs with clear, concise language. Also, be sure to use subheaders that accurately describe the content in the following paragraph. Subheaders guide your readers to the exact information they need.
7. Use internal links
Internally linking to different pages on your website is not only beneficial for SEO, but it keeps your visitors on your site longer by guiding them to other content they’re interested in.
Link to relevant pages on your site in blogs, articles, and other text content. At the end of each blog post, provide links to related posts to direct your visitors to more information on a certain topic.
8. Reduce your page loading time
A fast page loading speed is essential to retaining visitors on your site, especially on mobile. Research has shown that over 50% of mobile users will abandon a website that doesn’t load within 3 seconds.
Reduce your loading time by optimizing images and graphics, using a performance-focused hosting service, caching your pages, and minimizing your JavaScript, CSS, and HTML code.
9. Add multimedia
Compelling multimedia like videos, infographics, and high-quality photos can go a long way in keeping visitors on your site. Videos are especially influential, as the brain processes them 60,000 times faster than text.
Short, entertaining videos give your business the opportunity to put a face to your name and engage more customers. They’re also highly efficient at increasing conversions. Some reports indicate that video on your landing page can increase conversion rates up to 80%.
10. Include a call to action
A call to action (CTA) helps you direct your visitors where you want them to go. Whether that’s to fill out a form, download an educational PDF, or purchase a product, a CTA is an effective method of guiding your visitors and increasing conversions. Include CTAs throughout the different pages on your site in places where they make sense.
High traffic vs. longer dwell time
Increasing your visitor’s average session duration can dramatically affect your bottom line more than just growing your visitor count. SEO strategies and marketing campaigns often focus on increasing web traffic, but if your visitors are bouncing from your site after a few seconds, you’re not going to make many sales.
If you’re struggling to increase dwell time on your website, Robintek can help. We can audit your website to identify problems with your site’s functionality and performance that may be driving visitors away. We also offer website design services to create beautiful, custom websites and content creation services to captivate your audience. Want to learn more? Reach out to us today.
Who We Are
Robintek is a Columbus, Ohio website design and website development company. We provide a variety of services to increase your visitor’s dwell time including content strategy and copywriting, custom website design, infographic design, high-quality photography and videography services, and more. Our skilled team of designers, developers, and marketers can help boost your company’s online presence, with services like logo design, content management systems, eCommerce marketing, and SEO services.
Our company has served over 600 clients with website design in Columbus, Ohio, as well as Akron, Youngstown, Wooster, Canton, and all across the state and country for more than 20 years. Ready to partner with Robintek for your next website design or web development project? Request a consultation today.
