As a blogger, I know how much effort it takes to write great content.
You spend hours researching, writing and revising copy to keep readers interested, but the reality is, most readers will simply just take a glance, looking for keywords or phrases that they’re interested in.
For any website’s success, website engagement is an extremely important metric; even if you gain a lot of traffic, it won’t mean anything unless your visitors are engaged.
Because, engaged visitors are more likely to stay on your website for longer, interact with your blog posts, sign up to newsletters or email lists and return to your site again and again.
With that in mind, here are 6 ways to keep readers on your blog.
Understand Your Audience
First things first, you need to understand who your audience actually is.
It sounds obvious, but it’s a step most content creators skip, but if you can clearly identify who your readers are, you can figure out what they want to read and place content that’s easily accessible to them.
You may have already done this, but with some research, reach out to your audience and find out what they want from you. Ask current readers:
- How old they are
- Where they live
- What they do for work
- What social media platform they prefer
- What types of content they enjoy
- What topics they want you to cover
Again, fairly obvious questions but they are a great starting point.
For instance, if you find your audience is predominantly made up of 30+ year olds who live in the city, use LinkedIn and enjoy topics around current events in the industry, you can refine your content strategy to tailor to their needs and interests.
Make Your Content Look Appealing
As the saying goes, don’t judge a book by its cover. But this unfortunately does not apply to your content.
Your visitors will judge, instantly.
So you cannot assume that anyone who lands on your blog post will read it, they’re going to judge how it looks then decide if it’s worth their time.
As such, your blog posts need to be consistent in its style, and if it looks well presented and put together, readers will stay on it for longer – and the longer they stay, the more content they will consume.
Some things to consider include:
- Fonts
- Colour scheme
- Pictures
- Dividers
- Icons
Simply having your own spin on these elements will keep your readers interested and make it more likely they’ll stick around.
Structure Your Text
Another important way to keep your readers on your blog falls down to its structure.
Since most visitors will just scan through, heavy blocks of text will only discourage them from engaging.
A whopping 10 million blog posts are published every single day, and digital readers want access to information in digestible chunks.
Which begs the question, how can you stand out?
Well, to start off with, make sure each blog has a clear introduction that outlines what your post is about; you need to make it absolutely clear why someone should carry on reading.
Simply, ask yourself what problem you are trying to solve before you start writing and then only focus on that one problem.
Secondly, ensure you incorporate headings or lists that allows skimmers to get a general gist of your post, as well as being able to refer back to the points they value most.
Next, you want to keep your paragraphs short, so don’t waffle – this just makes reading it harder. Not to mention, it doesn’t look particularly inviting and looks pretty overwhelming on mobile devices.
In addition, don’t make sentences too complicated either, just write in plain English. The more difficult you make it, the harder it is to retain your reader’s attention, so always keep it simple.
Add Visuals
Visual content generates up to 94% more views on a single blog post.
So consider adding some visuals, be it charts, graphs or screenshots that help illustrate your ideas.
For a lot of people, when they think visuals, they think graphics or images. But the truth is, visual content is so much more – you can add videos and infographics too.
Simply, using any form of visuals that ties in with what you’re talking about helps to break up your text and keep your reader’s attention.
Just keep in mind, you don’t want to stuff stock images just for the sake of it, it needs to relate to the contents of your blog in some way.
Include Internal Links
Internal links are fantastic for improving website engagement, but it can also help you rank higher in SERPs too.
To put it simply, internal linking is when you link to other pages or posts of your website in a blog. We’ve done it at the bottom of this post where you can check out similar articles around blogging.
The main purpose is so that readers can click on that link and it will take them to more of your content and encourage visitors to stay on your website for longer, which positively impacts your page views.
Remember though, when internal linking you should use descriptive anchor texts and keep this relevant, ensure the links work and don’t lead to a 404 error, and don’t overuse internal links in a single post.
Reduce Loading Time
A website with a slow loading time will affect how your audience engages.
In essence, if a page takes too long to load, your visitors will not wait. They’ll just hit the backspace and head to your competitors instead, which will impact your bounce rate.
Ideally, your blog posts need to load within 3 seconds, and there are plenty of online tools available to check your loading time.
You can also check our previous guide on how to speed up your website here, and take the right actions to ensure readers don’t feel frustrated waiting for content to load.
The Takeaway
Nowadays, people are clicking away from tab to tab without really retaining any information.
Hence why it’s so important to put in some extra effort to make your content stand out in the digital jungle.
Ultimately, if someone takes the time to read your blog and it resonates with them, they’re more likely to share it which will result in more readers – a positive loop of engagement that will lead to your brand’s success.
You may already be writing a valuable copy full of important information, but these simple tips above will help grab your reader’s attention and stay on your post for longer.
For more information, please get in touch today.
Connected to this blog, if you would like your content to come up in search engines searches, you will like our video below:
