Mia
There needs to be more to your pages than simply a place to display information about your company when it comes to user engagement. It should lead your visitors do take action, such as subscribing to your newsletter or share articles from your blog. If you want your visitors to stay (and come back) you must make them feel they have learned something. They’re not just visitors, but are somehow a part of your online community. Consider implementing https://viafoura.com/social-networking-software/ to increase user engagement on your platform.
In this article, we’ll outline 12 necessary features to increase user engagement on your website.
Simple/Clean Layout
If visitors open your site to an unorganized and busy page, they feel the need to back out almost instantaneously. However, if you have a simple, clean layout, the most important elements of your site can be seen. Plus, your site will load faster when you have a simple layout, which means less frustration from your visitors.
Readable Fonts/Colors
If your content is visually appealing, visitors are more likely to read and interact with it. Therefore, make sure that you are choosing complimentary fonts/colors to create hierarchy within your text. Of course, you don’t want to use more than 3 of each or it starts to get too busy.
You should have a font for your title, a different one for your text, and another one for your navigational items. When it comes to colors, choose a primary, secondary, and accent color.
Optimize Content
According to the experts, the average attention span of a human is the same as that of a goldfish. Therefore, online content should be attractive and concise. When you are trying to boost engagement, speed matters. One study has shown that if a website takes more than a few seconds to load, around 40% of users will abandon it.
Use White Space
This is not referring to the space that is the color white, but any unmarked territory free of text/images. For example, the space between content or the margins. Your website doesn’t need to be packed full of information for your users to enjoy their experience. Instead, you should be separating your features/ideas so that everything has a home.
Master CTA’s
A CTA, or call-to-action, is a short phrase that prompts your visitors to take action on what they have found on your site. These are things that call visitors to sign up for a newsletter or blog or to shop your products/services. To lead your visitors to those links, you need to draw attention to them. Choose a vibrant color, make the button larger, and place them where they are most likely to be seen.
Add Parallax
No matter what your age, everyone knows how exciting an IMAX 3D movie can be. You can translate this into your own website by using parallax scrolling. This is where the background images move slower than the foreground, which adds depth/movement to your site. In addition, this increases user engagement because it only works when they are scrolling.
Optimize for Mobile
According to research, smartphones are responsible for around 50% of website traffic, and that is steadily increasing. Since people are using their mobile devices more often than ever, it’s critical that you have a well-defined website so that they can interact with it. By making your website easier to navigate via a mobile device, you increase user engagement. Additionally, a mobile-friendly site is also appreciated by search engine bots and this is the main criteria considered when indexing/ranking your website.
Include Live Chat
Today’s website visitors seek instant gratification, so they want their questions answered right away. You can do this for them by adding a live chat option to your website. It makes you available for your visitors at any time to answer questions or send them to your knowledge base/FAQ section where they can locate the answer themselves.
Hub for Members
Retention and engagement go hand-in-hand. The best way to make sure your visitors return is to allow them to sign up as a member of a like-minded community. This has been shown to increase engagement from 2 to 6 times. A member’s area is a good way to encourage them to create an account because it allows them to interact with you and each other.
Captivate Visitors with Blog
As we stated earlier, content is king. Therefore, it’s a good idea to include a blog on your news website to provide expert tips and opinions on industry trends. This will encourage your visitors to reach out to you to debate, engage, or even argue their side.
A blog will leave an impression by building trust, educating, establishing your expertise, inspiring, and entertaining. The best part is, SEO optimization can help you increase your chances of being in the top ranked pages on Google.
Creating a blog along with your members allows your readers to engage even further as it allows them to share their own opinions, comment and/or react to posts, and interact with others in the community.
Create a Forum
One way to ensure that visitors engage in your website is with a forum. It can help build community around your website and business. A forum is a discussion board that allows users to start/participate in conversations about anything. They can actively share their opinions freely and as much as they want. Of course, as the forum owner, you should be the first one to engage. Therefore, make sure that you are proactive in posting and answering questions.
Forms for Feedback, etc.
Implementing forms on your website allows your visitors to fill in their information to provide feedback, receive help, or obtain other information about products/services. You can use forms in a variety of ways. Once a visitor has filled one out, you’ll be notified so you can fulfill their request immediately.
Conclusion
One of the most critical pieces to a successful website is user engagement. If users are not engaging with your website or brand, you are not likely to be successful. However, it’s really easy to make your website more conducive to engagement- just follow these tips. Before long, you’ll find that your user engagement is steadily increasing.
