Some website owners focus too much on getting traffic to their website and neglect another very important part of their SEO efforts, which is to generate user engagement. Engagement can refer to navigating through many parts of the website, sending an inquiry for a product, or even purchasing a product. Even with a lot of traffic, without any sort of engagement, efforts to send traffic to a website go to waste. No one will stay on a website if it’s uninteresting and does not have what they’re looking for. Here are 5 tips to increase user engagement on your website.

1)      Pick Appropriate Keywords

First and foremost, when trying to drive traffic to your website, you have to make sure that keywords leading to your website match your contents. If your keyword is ‘computer tablets’ yet you don’t make mention of them anywhere on your website, the user will not find what they’re looking for and will not stay on your website.

(Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/joyosity/2913165421/)

2)      Create Interesting and Relevant Content

Anything boring will not create any sort of engagement other than dozing. With users having greater amounts of distractions both online and offline, people have generally become great at filtering out what they don’t want to see. Uninteresting content will not fare well. Keep the user hooked to your website by providing content that is relevant to them in an attention-grabbing manner. The goal is to keep them hooked. How should you do this? Think like your end user.

Tip: Content that is shocking, funny, sad, informative, present an opinion and the like are generally popular reads. Show them in a concise, clear, easy to read format and users will have more reason to stay.

(Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gilmorec/5458794115/)

3)      Keep Content Fresh

There are two main reasons to keep content updated. One, what makes news noteworthy is the timing. The same goes for anything that is being published over the Internet. Content that is delivered in a timely manner is relevant to the user, therefore fresh content is vital. Second, by creating a flow of fresh content, users expect to come to your website to find something they’ve never seen before. This will create a cycle of users coming back to your website and thus increase engagement over time as compared to just one visit. If the content on a website is not updated, the user will less likely return for more browsing sessions. Therefore using fresh content will increase continued engagement.

(Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tormel/5413539841/)

4)      Use Visuals

Among the human senses, studies have shown that about 80% of human learning occurs visually. The rest is divided among hearing, smelling, touching, and tasting. Visuals are more interesting content and easier to absorb than something that is written out in text, therefore using images and videos on your website to complement the text will keep the user engaged.

(Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/modomatic/2952764039/)

5)      Employ Call-To-Actions

It is an effective method to guide the user on your website using call-to-actions. Take the analogy of having guests to your house. You might want to tell them to hang their coats in the closet, to use the washroom freely, or to help themselves with drinks in the refrigerator. As with your website, you might want to tell them to contact you, download a demo of your product, or to sign up for membership. A website is incomplete without call-to-actions that outlines what the user should do on your website. A common reason for lack of engagement is the lack of call-to-actions. Let the user know what to do or where to go.

(Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gustty/26900545/)