We Love Numbers. So Here are Three Steps to Guaranteed Web Visitors*.
*your experience may vary.
We’re semi-reflective today, thanks to Google Analytics. We’re looking at what drove you, the visitor, to our site and what kept you, the visitor, at our site.
Before we do that, though, let us thank you, the visitor, for (1) visiting and (2) coming back.
We know that some of you are in the midst of your own blogging journey. Or you’re building your business a brick at a time. Or you’re trying to make sense of where you’re taking things (personally or professionally). Glad we can help, even if it’s just for an average of 1 minute and 37 seconds per trip.
Behold, the dangers of Google Analytics.
4 Minutes and 20 seconds per visit on St. Patrick’s Day?
Was it the Greening O’ The Site?
Did we hire one hour of a Filipino Developer’s time to just read our site?
This leads to the Question of the Day:
How do you guarantee that people visit your site AND stick around?
Some thoughts, culled from analyzing traffic the day before AND the day of our 4:20 average visit.
1. Explain Stuff.
On March 16, we explained Internet Marketing. Turned out to be a well-tweeted post. Wasn’t too controversial – at least using number of comments as a gauge. (Just 2.)
But it brought new people to the site AND it led to RSS subscriptions and repeat visits. Setting us up for the following day:
2. Have a Point of View.
We love this. In fact, corporate blogs and corporate bloggers are deathly afraid of this – so, when folks like our new BFF Anne Buchanan posted that some people will never get hired by her firm, it struck a chord.
It was also right in line with the chord we like to strike – make yourself stand out, have common sense, be unique, don’t act like a goober.
You can read the entire post here: https://area224.wpengine.com/ensuring-hirability/
3. The right plugins.
Soapbox time: WordPress is the only way to go. Self-hosted is preferred. Get a good theme – we use Thesis (AFFILIATE LINK HERE: Thesis Theme for WordPress: Options Galore and a Helpful Support Community.)
BUT, beyond that, fine feathered friends…
We bumped into two plugins that have done wonders, the Analytics say, for keeping you “engaged.”
Plugin 1: LinkWithin.
Why did this work? Look below every single post. Think there’s something else you may want to read?
Plugin 2: Hellobar.
Why did this work? It’s like the popup, but subtle and not annoying. And you can make changes on the fly if you want.
Remember, your experience may vary.
But, darnit, 4 minutes plus a visit – probably worth plugging in some of this mojo.