I understand the effect the recent Google updates had on some of yours search engine traffic. Unfortunately, I have even seen many webmasters and pro bloggers losing their entire business. But we can hardly blame Google or be mad at them. They are just doing their business, and now it’s your turn to do yours.
Have you ever though what you did with your hard earned search engine traffic once they visit your site? Of course you hope and (most of the time) try to make them read an article, click on an ad or make them buy something from you. But what’s next? What after they have done what you want them to do? Don’t you want them to come back for more? If yes, what are you doing to bring your readers/ visitors back to your site again and again? Believe me, this is the ONLY way to stay profitable in this cut-throat competitive market. You need to engage your visitors with your website or blog. When a website fails to do so, it means the visitors do trust or feel engaged with your particular site. And if your reader don’t feel engaged with your content, don’t blame Google the next time you lose rankings.
I know you have tried everything from creating unique and original content to optimizing them with proper keywords. You have been really working harder to retain your visitors. So this time why don’t try something more, apart from creating amazing content. Work to bring them back again and again and spread the word out about their amazing experience with your site to their friends. I have a few tips for you:
Tip #1: Building Subscribers
Try to encourage your readers to subscribe to your blog instead of motivating them to click on Ad-Sense ad to earn you a mere $0.10. Pop-up ads are indeed annoying, so are the other ads. Avoid placing ads in your site’s best content and rather leave them for sidebars or other pages. The only purpose your best content should serve is to impress the user and letting them like your blog and subscribe to your RSS feed or newsletter. In doing so you might lose some money from advertising or affiliate revenue but believe me you will the gainer at the end. It will earn your readers respect and trust and of course, a few more subscribers, which is far more valuable than earning a few cents from a one-time visitor.
Tip#2: Creating Followers on Social Networks
As a marketer you are aware of the value of word-of-mouth. It helps to create a viral effect on the digital sphere. In this age of social media you best bet is to get people like and follow your content/ page on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn etc. People who start following you in a social network are more likely to follow you forever. And when you create and share some interesting stuff on your blog, these people will not only come back but will also like, share, recommend or retweet the link to their friends and followers. This is one of the best ways to bring your readers back to your site.
Tip #3: Encouraging Contribution
Okay, you have done everything mentioned in this post. What’s next? Why can’t you still engage your readers? This is something you should ask yourself. Would you like to visit a place where you have no say – where all you do is listen (read in this case)? I guess no; none of us would and this same theory applies to your readers. Encourage them to voice their thoughts – ask them to share whatever they think or can contribute. Comments are the most common and simplest form of contribution. Unfortunately, many blogs disable comments in fear of spammers. Believe me there are numerous ways to get rid of spammers other than disabling comments. Allowing comments, on the other hand, has many advantages. It encourages discussion and your readers are more likely to come back to blog just to see the response their comments got from other, if not anything else.
You can get more creative with encouraging people’s contribution. Ask for guests posts. This means free content for your blog and for them, it is the inbound link that they will receive. Besides, guest bloggers are more likely to promote your blog in social networks in order to promote their guest posts. And free publicity will undoubtedly bring more numbers of readers to your blog. If your niche allows, you can even encourage your readers to share pictures and videos, code snippets, tips, recipes, and community news etc. Reviews, ratings, likes and sharing too are good ways to encourage readers for contributing to your site.
Tip #4: Surveys, Quizzes & Tests
Quizzes, surveys and tests too can help you encourage your readers to come back to your blog. People love to show your achievements to the world and your readers are no exception. Besides, such practices improve your reader’s engagement with your blog. Publishing knowledge tests and quizzes will motivate people to come back to your blog to learn more and improve their results. Also, give out badges, as people love to share them on social networks. Finally, be creative while creating content for your quizzes, surveys and tests. Create original, interesting and preferably long quizzes.
Follow these tips and I’m sure you don’t need to worry much as Google launches its next update.
