Small Business Design Resources

Create a ‘Sticky’ Website: Make Visitors Stay Longer & Return Often

After putting time, energy, and money into your small business website, you’re eager to welcome visitors and show them around the place. You know some tips for attracting traffic, but how do you convince visitors to stick around and return often?

Content

• Catch the web browser’s eye with content that is interesting and unique. If visitors see something that piques their interest, they’ll stick around and check out what else your small business has to offer.
• Make regular updates so people have a reason to return. Provide links to new information from your homepage, or offer email updates–returning visitors will appreciate the ease of seeing what’s new.
• Ensure that the people who find your site are interested in your content by optimizing for the right keywords.

Design

• A professional-looking website inspires confidence in your product or services, encouraging people to trust your website’s content and consider browsing your site worth their time.
• Organize your content in a way that makes it easy to browse. Provide your visitors with a natural path through your website, so they continue moving and checking out new pages.
• Avoid Flash intros and other design choices that will make your website load slowly. People often have limited patience and will move on without waiting for your page to load.

Interactivity

• The Internet is growing increasingly social, and people appreciate websites that provide ways to interact. Comments, ratings, and polls all encourage users to become more invested in your site, and can also help you learn valuable information about their experience.
• Include internal links whenever they’re relevant, so visitors keep discovering new parts of your website. Avoid outbound links on your homepage–you don’t want to direct visitors away before they even have a chance to see your site–and have them open in new tabs or windows so your website stays open.

Keep these principles in mind, and you’ll find that your website visitors will stick around longer (a lower bounce rate) and return often, resulting in higher conversion rates and improved visitor response.

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