Tips to improve user engagement on your website

When you are planning to create a successful website, always keep one thing at priority I.e. user engagement. User engagement in its simplest form means that when a user lands on your website, he is doing activities that you want him to perform like reading your content, clicking through links, watching videos, going on other websites from the keywords and links, given.

But to tell you the truth, user engagement is a much deeper concept. No matter how much traffic your website is getting, if there is no proper user engagement then your bounce rate will be affected.

You also must have heard of social media engagement, where people engage on your posts by liking, commenting, sharing, and saving your posts. It is pretty much the same with website engagement. The only difference is that in website engagement, the interaction takes place on your website.

Why is user engagement so important?

User engagement is defined as how much time a customer is spending on your website and if he is performing the desired action like responding to your call to action (CTA). The more important thing to note here is that if the user engagement on your site is good, then the customers will be more loyal to you and your website. They will in turn start purchasing from you if they start trusting you.

Also nowadays businesses use their website to sell their products online and offline. In fact, 47% of B2B buyers reported that the most likely way they find sales information was to go directly to a website.

Another interesting thing to note here is that Google and other search engines have an algorithm in which they measure the ranking of your website on the basis of user engagement. So, if your user engagement is good enough, then your website will be ranked accordingly, and people will know that your website is a reliable source of information. Therefore, if you don’t have a good user engagement, it does not matter if you are providing quality content, or your site is reliable enough.

• Types of website engagement

There are various types of user engagement when it comes to different websites and the goal of each one is different. They include:

• Reading and absorbing website content

When a user visits your page, he will read your content and as a way of engaging, he will click through links to know more about the website. It is hard for them to read all your content, hence, some websites add videos and descriptive images for such users. When users watch the video and view images it is termed, user engagement.

• Comments and discussions

Nowadays websites add polls, surveys, comment boxes, feedback forms, google forms, etc. as a way to interact with the visitors. These are some of the most trending user engagement ideas and they also help in making the website popular.

• Social shares

Websites have added media links so that users can share the content on their social media handles and other social media platforms. This in turn creates a buzz about your website and makes it popular and reliable in the minds of the user.

• Clicking relevant links

CTAs and contact forms are relevant user engagement ideas. When a user clicks through links and fills out forms, he is engaging with a website that helps you in branding your website.

Strategies for boosting your website engagement

Now that we have understood why you need user engagement and why it's important let's move to tips and strategies to help improve it.

1. Reduce page load time

Has it ever happened to you that you visit a website, and you click on a link, and it is taking forever for it to open? You wait and wait and then you eventually leave that website. A study found that pages loading just one second slower can experience a 56% increase in their bounce rate. Hence, you should check your site’s speed by using tools like google analysis, GTMetrix, etc. Also, it happens that images take longer on your site to open or load. So what you can do is limit the number of pictures per post or optimize their size.

2. Visual appeal-

You should make sure that your site is not filled abruptly with tons of things. There should be a proper hierarchy of setting things on your website.

Size- you should put things that are important in a larger size. And the general text in lower size. Also, you should make sure that tags and headlines are put in a larger size so it comes to the notice of the user.

Contrasting color-contrasting color catches more attention of the eyes, so you should always put important text in contrasting colors like red, etc.

Whitespace- there should be enough whitespace between your images and text so that your website should be easy to understand. Also adding whitespace helps your site to look less cluttered.

3. Streamline your site navigation-

You should make sure that the user finds what he is looking for in two or three clicks within the website. If the user doesn't find the desired information there are more chances of bounce rates which isn't good for your website. To simplify your navigation your homepage should introduce the website and explain clearly where visitors should go if they need more information. You should introduce the menu on your homepage and divide the contents of your website accordingly.

4. Improve your internal linking structure-

If you provide proper internal linking in your website, it will reduce bounce rates and make navigation easy which will increase your user engagement. A good linking structure should include descriptive anchor text. They should be specific and hyper-relevant and they should lead somewhere.

5. Display related content-

This is somewhat similar to internal linking. You can add posts, pictures, and links at the end of the page which are related to the information, the user was searching for.

6. Study your audience-

This is the first and the most important step in your website design ideas. If you do not know who your target audience is, how will you provide quality content and how will you increase user engagement on your website. This step is very important in your modern website design ideas as it attracts customers and target audience and gives them what they are looking for, which in turn will convert them into purchasing customers.

7. Lengthen your text-

It is observed that in a Website Design Company, the articles and blog posts include around 1000-3000 words. This increases user engagement because it lets the users stay longer on the website.

8. Break up your content-

It is difficult for the reader to read 2000 words at once if they are clustered. Hence, Web Design Jacksonville experts suggest you break up its content into paragraphs, subheadings, bullet points, and numbered lists which is a very helpful way of increasing user engagement. You can use whitespace, images, and videos to break up the content.

9. Add a chatbox-

A professional website company will always recommend you to add a chatbox on their website to help users with their issues. The chatbox should have a name, and an image so that the users do not feel like they are talking to a robot.

10. Be more mobile-friendly-

The majority of the users will be accessing your website on their mobile phones. So, make sure that your website is properly optimized for the mobile devices so that the user engagement does not suffer.

11. Add a search box-

Sometimes users visit your website to find something specific, and it will be helpful for them to search for it on the search box. Many companies like the Jacksonville website design company add their search box on the left side and it is advised that you should also follow the same format so that the user doesn't get confused.

12. Collect email address-

Website user engagement is not just about attracting users once. It's also about making them your permanent visitors by collecting their emails. Our Web design Jacksonville professionals use this technique to send their users new content and increase their user engagement.

13. Know what to expect from your audience-

Do not expect that your users understand what you want from them. You should state that, in clear language that you want them to fill out certain forms, surveys, watch their video or image, or you need their email address and want them to do a poll. This will help with clear and better communication between the user and yourself.

Conclusion

You should try to make the most of the above tips to increase the user engagement on your website as it is one of the most important parts of the success of your business. You should try to make your website design easier, friendly, and interactive.

Improving user engagement is an ongoing and arduous process. You may come across harsh realities about your website design that it is clustered or not appropriate, but you can always improve it. The only thing that you have to keep in mind is that you cannot expect results immediately. It takes time to achieve good user engagement. You can also approach Web Design Jacksonville experts.