In this article, our guest author Erik Watson shares 10 tips that can help you tackle low website engagement and level up your digital presence
There are currently 1.11 billion websites in the world today and nearly 250k new websites are being created every day. In this fiercely competitive digital era, making your website stand out from the rest of the crowd is a skilled asset.
This astonishing piece of statistics will make you feel relieved in the knowledge that you are not the only one fighting to gain and retain the attention of the digitally smart public.
With such a plethora of website options available to the general public, their attention span has flickered to mere seconds.
If the viewers don’t immediately see the information they seek on your website or find it worthy, they won’t waste another breath before switching to a more promising website for their search, resulting in low engagement rates for your website.
Low website engagement directly converts to low click-through and lower revenues.
There are a lot of factors that can lead to low customer engagement. Therefore, here are 10 tips that can help you tackle low website engagement and level up your digital presence.
1. Up And Ready To Run: Speed Up Your Website Loading Time
The faster your website page loads, the more satisfied your customers will be regarding the information they seek. We live in times of 5G speed networks, and the patience of the public regarding page loading time wears thin.
If your page takes more than 3 seconds to load, you have already lost the interest of your customer. 47% of people expect a webpage to load in less than 2 seconds.
The quality of your content or your website design won’t matter to the public if accessing your web page is a time-consuming process.
If the web pages on your website load fast, customers will be encouraged to click on more product pages, spend more time on your website, and engage in your content along with learning more about your brand and business.
This way you will not only improve your website traffic and engagement but also generate more revenue.
Hence, the first and foremost tip to increase your website engagement is to reduce the loading time of the web pages.
2. Stay With The Trends: Ensure A Mobile Responsive Website Design
In 2024, mobile devices accounted for nearly 58.99% of global web traffic substantiating that people mostly use their mobile phones to access websites instead of switching to desktops or laptops for a quick search and solution.
Ensure that your website has a mobile responsive design so that you don’t lose out on potential customers because the mobile version of your website was too slow to load.
Oftentimes, customers will reach your website by clicking on social media ads that interest them. By having a website that favors a mobile layout, you can effectively engage your customers by offering quick services and similar products that interest them.
3. From Here To There: Develop A Strong Internal Linking Strategy
An internal link is a link from one webpage to another on the same website or domain. Strengthening your internal linking game will help you generate more relevant web traffic for your brand and drive higher customer engagement as well.
A strong internal linking strategy also benefits your SEO strategy and helps viewers navigate your website better since they can easily get related content through the internal links.
This way you can easily increase the webpage engagement by making the viewers enjoy and indulge in your content resulting in lower bounce rates as well as higher time spent on the website.
One important thing to remember in strengthening your internal linking strategy is to not overdo the links. Pasting a link in every sentence will only break the flow of the reader, so be mindful of spacing and distributing your internal links throughout the website or content piece.
4. Design For Functionality Not Just Aesthetics: Simplify Your Website Navigation
A majority of viewers come to websites with a purpose, if they can’t find it, they are likely to quickly exit the website. The UX of your website lays the foundation of your website’s aesthetic but also for its functionality.
Having a website that viewers find hard to navigate can turn your website engagement efforts to waste since the customers might find it frustrating and switch to another website.
The most notable thing about the best eCommerce websites is their minimalist approach to design so that users can quickly click on the icons they wish to explore without doing a lot of searching.
Creating a clutter-free website will give your webpage a clean look and users will be able to focus on important links and CTAs (Call To Action).
A pro tip to remember while working on your website design is to leverage simple navigation bars and precise categorization of content.
5. Leverage AI: Use Pop-Up Chatbots
The smartest way today to quickly grab the attention of your audience is to provide quick solutions.
Instead of making them search and scan your website for information, add an AI-powered chatbot that helps them solve their query or direct them to their relevant links within seconds.
Website users rely on chatbots to give them quick solutions to their queries which results in higher customer satisfaction and better engagement rates. The faster response time paired with 24/7 availability is just too convenient to pass up.
Not to mention that AI-powered chatbots help businesses reduce operational costs by up to 30%.
6. From Clutter To Content: Refine Your Writing
Good content trumps all other website engagement tips to positively gain the attention of your audience.
You need to refine your existing content to look for things that are not performing well, as well as things that are performing better to identify which writing style is more lucrative to your audience.
We have observed that an easy-going, conversational tone works wonders for most content on websites as it makes the content a little more personalized for the audience.
If the reader feels like he is being engaged in conversation rather than given dry instructions on what to do or where to find what, he/she will feel more comfortable continuing to browse the website.
Always keep in mind that users will be more likely to engage with your website if they find your content, product, and services relevant and authentic.
7. Know Your Audience: Take Action On Customer Feedback
Viewers and customers often leave feedback and comments on your website.
To make their website experience more engaging and satisfying, it is essential that you implement their ideas. The customers will feel valued when they see their opinions being brought to practice.
You can check user queries with your chatbot to figure out the roadblocks they face and work on sorting them out.
You can use pop-up surveys that are only a few clicks long so that users don’t feel like they are being disturbed while using your site to get their input on how things are going and what additions or modifications will help them engage better with your website.
8. Free Free Free: Offer Discounts And Deals
Humans have a tendency to gravitate towards free products and good deals and discounts regardless of their original intentions.
Hence, pop-up deals and discounts, new user offers, etc are a few ways you can use to engage your customers or new visitors with your website. Not only will this trick help you gain more customers but it will also work as a great marketing tool to promote your website, brand, and products.
Furthermore, you can hold giveaways or contests that are sure to engage customers with your website as well as act as a promotional tool for any new products you might want to test out.
Pro tip: Make sure to promote on social media so that such advertisements can direct more users to your website.
9. Searching For Something?: Make Your Search Box Prominent
A lot of websites overlook the importance of a simple old-school search box.
Many times there are things that customers want to search for that are not covered in the chatbot pop-ups or visible so clearly on the website drop-down options. For that, a search box is an important toggle to keep on your webpage.
Ensure that you keep the search box in a prominent position, most likely on top of the navigation bar on the left/right side so that website visitors can easily type in their searches and get quick results.
10. Know Thyself: Keep Auditing Your Website Regularly
Auditing your website for broken links, content updates, and page loading times is a very basic activity that you can routinely undertake to ensure that your website visitors are not facing any issues.
Auditing your website routinely assures you that the information on your website is authentic and up-to-date so that your website can rank well on search engines and get organic traffic.
Users are less likely to engage with your website if they find broken or dead links as it signifies that your website is not a priority of your business and hence even the information provided falls under the scrutiny of doubt.
You can use any of the paid or free website auditing tools available on the internet to ensure your website runs smoothly.
Wrapping It Up
In this digital era, website engagement is an important criterion that impacts the success and growth of your business.
It is important to improve the performance of your website and we hope that the above 10 tips will help you tackle low engagement issues to create and maintain a loyal customer base.
Always remember that customer is king and so is content, so creating a user-friendly and interactive website might just be the key to the success of your business.