Web surfers visit your website for a reason – they are either interested in a product/service you provide, or they’re looking for some information. Either way, your website or blog needs to have a powerful online presence if you wish to attract regular visitors and build a steady flow of traffic.
While Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can help improve your website’s chances of getting found by surfers searching the web, what happens once visitors start showing up? How do you ensure your audiences take the time to explore all the wonderful resources your website has to offer and don’t click away – lost and never to be seen again?
After all, your website is only as good as the audience it attracts and retains!
Like it or not, today’s web audiences are busy folks with an amusingly short attention span and they’re spoilt silly with huge choices in websites, blogs and apps, all vying for their attention.
In such a scenario, your website must impress your visitors within the first few short seconds of their arrival, liaise with them, engage them and form an instant connection. If not, you risk losing your precious visitors and website traffic to your countless competitors out there.
How to Build a Profound and On-Going Connect with your Website Visitors?
1. Write from the Heart
By now, most of us know and understand how important it is to have well-written, relevant and highly targetted content on our websites and blogs. Still, there is one element of effective web content writing that often gets overlooked, and that’s the importance of writing from the heart.
No matter how effective and targetted your content may be from the SEO point of view if it lacks the subtle yet crucial ‘human-factor’, your audiences will fail to identify with what you’re saying – a clear mistake on your part that will have costly repercussions.
Irrespective of what you blog about, your content must have the ability to strike a chord with your readers. Whether you’re giving them advice or offering a solution to their problems, when someone reads your website/blog content, he/she should feel as if you’re talking to them and them alone.
In the absence of the human touch, your website will look like a heartless platform that’s been thrown together without prior thought or effort.
Add to it a human voice, and you have a powerful medium that engages your readers, interacts with them, and talks to them just like you would!
2. Share your Story
The WWW is like an ocean full of web properties, competing against one another to build a flourishing customer base. No matter which industry you’re in, a simple Google Search with your focus keywords will show you just how many more players there are in the market, offering the same products, services or advice as you, and this rivalry is only bound to grow with time.
Though it’s easy to get intimidated by the mere realization that you’re surrounded by stiff competition, we all must understand and accept that there’s always going to be a website that’s bigger and better designed than ours and more aggressively promoted than ours; and that’s okay too.
The question to ask yourself is – How can I differentiate my brand from all the others out there? What makes me different and unique? How can I create a visible niche for my website/blog?
The answer is usually simpler than we think – Use your website content to tell your brand’s story in an honest manner. Be genuine in what you say and how you say it and your readers will empathize with you.
3. Use a Conversational, Free-Flowing Tone
While magazine and newspaper content is read in a leisurely and relaxed manner, websites and blogs are usually scanned through in a hurry by individuals who are pressed for time.
So whether you are writing the content yourself or are planning to outsource content development to a dependable content writer, ensure that you use a conversational, free-flowing tone of voice that’s easy to read, understand and absorb.
There is a thin line between professional content and content that’s outright boring so make sure to know the difference and avoid using a lot of big, fancy words as they’ll make your web content-heavy and difficult to digest by the average online reader.
Instead, opt for a conversational writing style that is light, friendly and engaging at the same time.
And while you’re at it, be generous with the white spacing between blocks of content on your blog/web pages so readers don’t have to strain their eyes to read what you have to say to them.
4. Provide Value to your Readers
We all have our favourite websites/blogs on the internet, the ones we instantly bookmark or subscribe to, so we can come back to them again and again. Why? Simply because these websites stand-out from tons of other similar websites in terms of the value they offer to us.
So when it comes to your blog, make sure that you offer similar value to your readers and they’ll love coming back to you often.
There is often an ongoing debate about quality vs. quantity. While it’s important to build a healthy, ongoing resource that caters to a maximum number of people, it is also equally important to maintain the quality of your posts.
Give your readers access to pure, unadulterated content with valuable information and see how they come back to you again and again!
Did I say again? 🙂
5. Interact with Readers & Invite their Feedback
Making your presence felt online is a lot about interacting and communicating regularly with your user-base.
I often get emails from readers who share their feedback about an article of mine that they read online, and believe me, there is nothing more satisfying than hearing from someone who has liked what you have written.
Share good quality articles and content with your readers, and chances are high they’ll write to you with their encouraging feedback and appreciation!
What methods do you use to interact and connect with your readers? Share your tips in the comments section below!
