6 Ways to Increase Website Engagement and Increase Traffic

You may have heard this over the last few years – if you want to truly engage with your audience, you need to offer digital solutions with excellent user experiences. Today, apps, platforms and websites need to go the extra mile to delight users, because these users have come to expect that software doesn't just need to work: it needs to delight.

This is especially true for websites, which have undergone a major transformation over the last decade. Once thought of as just a bunch of informational pages with a dash of flair, websites are now closer to mobile apps than the static pages the world has ever known. This means they can now combine top-notch functionality, remarkable performance and beautiful design. That's a winning combination, and aiming lower is setting yourself up for failure.

But what happens if you have all of this but your engagement is still low? What's there to do if you've invested in an amazing design strategy, but it's just not getting attention and your competition is beating you to the punch? Don't worry. It's a common mistake to think that having a beautiful website will be enough to increase traffic and engagement. Fortunately, there are a few things you can do right now, all of which we review below.

#1: Boost Your SEO Efforts

Having a great website without any search engine optimization (SEO) work is like opening a bar without telling anyone. This is because an SEO strategy is the best way to organically direct people to your website when they are searching for the types of products and services you offer.

SEO is a complex, layered practice that requires you to pay attention to many aspects, from your site's loading speed and mobile-friendliness to the type of content you have and the way you build your pages. Examining all the aspects that make up a good SEO strategy exceeds the scope of this article. But it is worth mentioning as SEO is one of the crucial factors that could be negatively affecting your website traffic.

#2: Create useful and relevant content

There was a time (not so long ago) when the mantra “content is king” resonated in every corner of the internet. The driving force behind this was that people wanted relevant information about products, services and just about everything under the sun. So, the idea was to create content that added value and was useful for the target audience.

Although the mantra has thankfully been set aside, the idea remains. People love to consume content in all its forms, so your website needs edited content that combines a promotional side with a more informative approach, all packaged in different content, from blog posts to videos. You need to find out what your target audience wants and needs to know about your industry and topics of expertise and start filling your website with that.

#3: Sophisticate Your Feature Set

Since websites are more like apps than ever, you need to make sure yours is just like that. To do this, you need to refine your website features. Forget the simplistic idea of ​​creating static pages with static content – ​​you need to go beyond that, adding features that can further engage your audience and provide a captivating and useful experience for those who arrive on your website.

AI-powered chatbots, interactive forms, hyper-personalized content – ​​these are all cutting-edge features that can take your website to the next level. Basically, anything you can add to your site that looks different and provides extra value to your users will do. Keep in mind, though, that the important thing is to have a smooth and pleasant user experience, so don't ask for bells and whistles just because. A purpose-driven website is always a better choice than an appearance-driven website (plus, you can have it both ways).

#4 Test, test, test

You can do a lot of things to improve your website, but if you don't test your efforts and adjust accordingly, you'll never know what worked and what didn't. So, you need to measure everything you do on your website to see which of your changes have a positive impact on your traffic and engagement. You might think adding videos would be a good thing only to discover that your audience prefers more direct, written communication. These are the things you discover by testing.

How can you do that? Constantly work on new features and changes to your site and release them in a “dark” way. By this we mean launching the new version of the site to a small group of users who can provide feedback on the new design and features. This is perfect for running A/B tests for free while also having the opportunity to collect valuable feedback that will lead you to more informed decisions about your website.

#5: Analytics and Business Intelligence, your greatest allies

When it comes to doing all of the things above (and many more you could do with your website), you need to start adopting analytics and business intelligence tools as integral parts of your strategy. On the one hand, analytical algorithms will provide data to better understand your users and their behavior on your website, which in turn will reveal possibilities for improvement. If you assist the analysis with AI, you can automate the analysis and collect more relevant feedback over time.

Business intelligence comprises a broad set of tools and strategies that have a specific objective: to provide detailed reports about your business and its assets. While BI certainly goes beyond what you do on your website, it certainly applies there as you can use BI tools to collect the information that you will later use with analytics algorithms to better understand your audience. Additionally, BI will provide capabilities to granular information, allowing you to easily visualize data and dissect it.

#6 The engineering team to boost the website

As basic as all of this may seem to some people, the reality is that these are the core elements of any successful website. Without any of these components, a website is doomed to fail, regardless of its beauty and performance. It goes without saying that although they may seem basic, all of these points contain many possible actions and tasks that can impact your website.

Packing

If you liked this, be sure to check out our other articles on web development.

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