London, UK
Successful bloggers do the best job keeping readers onsite.
Loyal readers, customers and clients typically spend a substantial amount of time on your blog.
Why?
You solve their problems consistently. Readers who appreciate your expertise stay on your blog for quite a long time.
I recall more than one reader who spent 2-3 hours or longer on Blogging From Paradise Dot Com. Individuals note time spent onsite via blog comments, inbox and by carrier pigeon. OK; joking about the carrier pigeon method but not about folks parking their rear ends in front of my blog.
Lowering your bounce also seems to be a strong ranking factor according to the Google algorithm. If most readers exit your blog after a few seconds it tells Google that your content:
- does not inspire trust
- does not gain page 1 status
Never mind that people need to stick around to buy your stuff or to hire you.
Your blog grows on resonant readers who spend a hefty chunk of time onsite. Some morph into:
- loyal readers
- customers
- clients
- referral traffic builders
- referral business builders
How do you glue them to your blog?
Follow these tips.
1: Publish Detailed Content
Write long form blog posts to keep people on your blog.
Publish 1200 to 1500 words per blog post. Readers need to stick around for a few minutes to read thorough content. Individuals also spend time onsite to take notes; at least the committed readers do.
List practical tips to follow. Drill down to publish in-depth content.
Observe this post. I list 10 tips for keeping readers onsite. I break down each tip into practical steps to follow.
Readers stay onsite to feast on the practical tips, steps and techniques shared via long form content.
2: Publish Weekly (At Least)
Publish one blog post weekly to build your content store.
Readers arrive and chill onsite to sift through your blogging resource consisting of many blog posts.
Currently, Blogging From Paradise offers 100’s of blogging tips themed blog posts. Some readers spend hours going through these 100’s of posts.
Publish a high volume of detailed content over a period of years.
Readers stick around to browse from your rich content store.
3: Embed Related Posts
I embed related posts via a plug-in to keep readers onsite. The posts pop up below every post on my blog. Every time someone finishes reading a post they have 6 more related posts to check out.
People may stick around to read a related post after reading similar content. Why send them to the cyber hills if you can keep ’em on your blog?
Add as many related posts as possible via the plugin but within reason. I suggest to add 6 related posts for a healthy collection of similar content for perusal.
You add a few parameters but the plugin does all the work for you, pretty much.
4: Embed Popular Posts
Similar to a related posts plugin, embedding popular posts courtesy of your sidebar keeps readers on your blog.
Popular posts boast the most appeal for community members. Followers keep their rumps firmly planted on your blog to click through and digest your most popular content.
I list the 10 most popular posts on Blogging From Paradise Dot Com. Different options exist as far as qualifiers. Some judge according to traffic. Others categorize based on social shares. Choose the qualifier based on your preferences to populate your sidebar.
Popular content keeps people around to read it.
5: Keep Comments Open
I closed blog comments many moons ago for a wide range of reasons for both you and me.
But you may want to keep comments open for gluing readers onsite.
Followers typically set aside 1 to 5 minutes to write genuine comments. Every reader who devotes this time spends an extra 1-5 minutes on your blog.
Yet other readers stay onsite to read blog comments. Lurkers never open their pie holes but spend hours perusing comments to gauge feedback from fellow readers. Add up those lurkers; that’s a helluva lot of time spent onsite.
Follow spam prevention protocol to maintain a civil environment. Delaying premature graying or hair loss are two sugary sweet benefits of keeping spam in check.
6: Use a Simple Theme
Simple themes increase time spent onsite.
Easy to navigate, clear blog designs compel readers to hang out on your blog. No lack of clarity tells ’em to head for the blogging hills.
I sprint from complex-looking blogs. The experience tells me to “stay away”. Complexity is the last thing I want in my life. Consider the “UX House of Horrors” that is most weather websites to see what I mean. I spend 10 seconds checking the temperature and precipitation potential before exiting stage left for the fear of being crushed to death by obnoxious ads, garish images and painfully slow loading pages.
Clean themes draw me in. I stick around for the soothing user experience.
Practical Tips
- use ample white space
- think *basic* as far as design
- reduce all distractions
Which brings us to….
7: Remove All Non-Essential Elements
I recall shooting down a few ideas for my blog design based on the concepts being non-essential.
Readers stay to gorge on valuable content. Readers leave by being blitzed with non-essential content.
For example, some suggested adding a tracker displaying my current world location. I get how following my map pin appeals to some but the majority frame it as not important. Why? People predominantly follow my blog to get smart blogging tips not to track me like Santa Claus and his reindeer. Readers stick around to get blogging tips. Readers would bounce for the hills often if I cluttered my blog with non-essentials, including the titanic unimportant embed of reader locations. Spotlighting where my readers hail from seems cute but is it necessary for increasing your blogging success? Nope.
Strip your blog of unnecessary add-ons to increase reader time spent onsite.
Make everything work for your readers to keep them around.
8: Add a Personal Element
In this day and age of AI blogging humans keep readers onsite.
AI bloggers usually send readers packing because humans want human help and avoid artificial assistance. AKA, someone screaming at robo-call cues, yelling for “OPERATOR!!!”
Prove your humanity by adding personal elements to your blog.
For example, read this post:
Personal posts like the one above glue readers to Blogging From Paradise for a while because no one gets this content anywhere else. No one has lived my intimately personal experiences, offering me exclusivity which readers stick around to appreciate.
Practical Tips
- add personal vignettes to blog posts
- embed selfie snap shots
- embed selfie videos or video interviews like this one
9: Build Reader Trust
Read and reply to comments to give readers a reason to stay onsite.
Publish posts based on reader feedback to keep readers planted firmly on your blog.
Build reader trust. Trusting readers spend significant time on your blog.
Listen to their needs. Solve their problems with your blog. Engage. Connect. Bond.
Build a loyal blogging community to draw a hefty volume of readers onsite for a bit.
10: Add Internal Links
Observe the links above.
Readers who click each link spend greater time on Blogging From Paradise.
Add internal links to cement readers on your blog for an extra 5, 10, 15 minutes or more. Building deep internal links dramatically reduces your bounce rate. Readers click to stick around for a while.
Conclusion
Revisit the tips above.
Do you see how every one deals with genuine service and not inauthentic manipulation?
Be truly helpful.
Publish detailed blog content to solve reader problems.
Improve your reader experience.
Keep people onsite.
