In the world of e-commerce, bringing visitors to your site is the hardest thing to do. Perhaps that’s why it feels particularly unpleasant when you look at your site’s traffic statistics and see that a significant number of the people who visit your website leave after viewing only one page. Surely there must be a way to make some of those people change their minds and stick around instead of leaving your site so quickly?
As a matter of fact, there is. Some consultants receive very large paychecks for optimizing the user experiences of clients’ websites, but the fact is that improving your site’s conversion rate is something that you can largely do on your own. It all begins with keeping people on your website longer – and these tips will help you do exactly that.
Implement a Real-Time Chat Function to Answer Customers’ Questions
If you have an e-commerce site, one of the most effective things that you can do to prevent potential customers from abandoning your site is providing a way to answer visitors’ questions instantly. When someone has a simple question, he or she may not want to wait for an email response – and some people don’t feel like picking up the phone if they think they can find an answer to their question elsewhere. The last thing you want is for a potential customer to leave your website for any reason – even if it’s just to find the answer to a question. Top e-commerce merchants like V2 Cigs UK have solved that problem by adding real-time chat functions to their websites.
When you add a chat function to your site, you can have customers’ questions routed to your computer or phone – or a customer service representative’s device – for immediate answering. It’s even possible with many real-time chat solutions to implement a “chatbot” function that answers some types of questions automatically without the need for a human response. In that way, a chat function can actually keep people on your website longer while reducing the load on your customer service staff.
Add Recommended Blog Content to Keep People Reading
Your blog will always be one of your website’s most important traffic generators. Blog posts, however, will often have high bounce rates. That’s because people will visit your blog just to find the answer to a single informational query, and then they’ll leave. Your goal is to keep people reading long enough that they become interested in what you’re selling – or at least to keep them reading long enough that they remember your company’s name after they’ve left your website. The longer someone stays on your site, the more likely it becomes that the visit will implant your brand more firmly in their mind.
To keep people reading your blog as long as possible, content recommendations can be very effective. Some people install website plugins that place content recommendations at the bottom of each blog post automatically. The problem with those plugins, though, is that they don’t always do a good job of recommending content users will want to read. It’s generally most effective to add content recommendations to your blog posts manually. You know what your blog’s highest-quality content is and what you’ve spent the most time researching and perfecting. You want to call attention to your website’s best content to keep users engaged as long as possible.
Use an Exit Intent Popup to Discourage People from Leaving
An exit intent popup is essentially your last-ditch effort to keep people on your website after they’ve demonstrated their intention to leave. The popup appears when the user moves the mouse pointer in such a way as to close the browser tab. You can also configure the popup to appear after the user has remained inactive for a certain amount of time. Companies most commonly use exit intent popups to offer coupon codes to new customers with the hope that those people will complete their purchases rather than leaving the website.
If you’re going to implement an exit intent popup, you should test it extensively before using it on your live site. If the popup appears before users have a chance to view your content, they’ll simply close the popup without looking at it. They’ll know that you’re offering a coupon, though – so if they want to buy, they’ll try to leave your site and come back with the hope that the popup will reappear. If the popup doesn’t reappear, they may not buy at all. That complicates the process unnecessarily. You should also keep in mind that offering a coupon code could mean that you’ll end up giving every new customer a discount. Make sure that the endeavor will be profitable for you.
Audit Your Website to Eliminate Basic Usability Concerns
The final thing that you should do to keep people on your website longer is audit your site for basic usability concerns that could cause users to leave in frustration because the experience isn’t what they expect.
Start by using a variety of different devices to view your website. Remember that most web traffic is now generated by mobile devices. While it’s important to check your website on a computer and on a tablet, smartphones are more important than anything else. When you view your website on a phone, do you find the text large enough to read easily? Is it easy to open the menu and navigate to the different areas of the site? Are the hyperlinks and other tap targets large enough to tap without accidentally touching something else?
Next, you’ll want to analyze your site’s content for readability concerns. If you want people to stay on your blog for a long time before they leave, you need to make sure that you’re giving them a great reading experience. Structure your content for easy scanning by using short paragraphs and adding bullet lists that help people absorb the information quickly. To maintain users’ attention, use subheadings to organize your content logically and insert plenty of images into your content.
