Don’t worry, because, in this article, we have talked about everything you need to know to build website engagement.
#1 What is website engagement?
Website engagement is a measure that determines how likely your users will stay on your website and convert into subscribers or buyers. It is measured as the average time a user spends on a website and the number of users visiting it in a given time.
Website engagement is expressed in percentages. It also takes into account other actions like how the user clicks on an ad, how the user contacts you to communicate, how the user contacts the online customer representative, and so on.
Website engagement is important because users spend less than a second judging your site. So make that count and compel the user to stay on your site for longer.
Know that every user is busy and spending some of their valuable time on your website to see what you offer. Making them wait for long with a slow and unresponsive site can be detrimental to your website engagement and your sales too.
While a good user experience may attract your customers to return to your site repeatedly, a bad user experience may turn away a potential customer forever.
Moreover, you will lose many potential customers if your site is not optimized for mobile users.
#2 Website engagement facts and stats
Do you know that users make their first impression about a site within first 50 milliseconds?
57% of internet users say that they won't recommend a business that has a poorly designed website for mobile
39% say that they won't engage with a website if the images take too much time to load
51% of people think that proper contact information is an important aspect missing today from many corporate websites.
47% of a website’s traffic spends time on checking a company’s product and service pages than any other pages
86% of website visitors, when landed on the homepage, want to learn more about the service and offerings
All these data and facts further reinforce that website engagement is essential if you want to grow your business online and convert leads.
#3 What are website engagement metrics
If you are focusing on building website engagement for the first time, you may feel overwhelmed about which metrics are important to measure! So here we have listed seven important metrics that are a must to measure in website engagement.
1. Page Views
Page view measures the number of times a page on your website is viewed by a visitor. Each time the page is loaded on the screen is counted as a single page view. So if a user loads a page once and refreshes it again, it will be counted as two page views. Seeing a continuous upward tick in page view means you are doing it all right. Double down on your efforts. However, only measuring page views won't always reveal the complete scenario. For example, high views can result from a campaign you are running. Or it could simply indicate a performance issue for which the user has to refresh the page repeatedly.
How to measure it
You can easily measure page views from Google analytics. Create a Google account and click on the view report link next to the website link that you want to track for page views.
2. Bounce rate
Bounce rate is an important metric that helps you determine how well your content answers the users' questions. It measures the number of website visitors who opened your page and returned to Google. Bounce rate prompts you to investigate what is wrong with your website that’s forcing them to leave the site as soon as they land on them. Are there too many calls to action? Is it too sales-y? Or is it poorly designed? A detailed site analysis can help you find the cause of the high bounce rate.
How to measure it
Look for pages that have a high bounce rate. This can help you easily identify areas that need to be fixed. Also, remember to check your bounce rate from time to time to ensure there is no increase in the bounce rate.
3. Pages per session
As the name suggests, pages per session determine how much time the visitor is spending on each page during their stay on your site. Are they spending time on one or two particular pages, or are they exploring all the pages per session to answer that question? If you notice more page load per session, that is good for your site. However, a lower page session can be a good sign too. For example, if you have written an in-depth, lengthy article, pages per session will be fewer since the visitor is probably spending time reading the page.
4. Average session duration
Average session duration is an important website engagement metric. It tells you how much time a visitor is spending on your website. A higher average session duration means the user intent is met and the visitor spends time with your website. However, if the average session duration is high ( more than 60 seconds) and you are still not seeing conversion, check if your call to action is aptly mentioned.
5. Traffic sources
Where your traffic is coming from is an important metric to measure that influences your website engagement. Some of the common parameters to look for are:
Organic search: Is the traffic coming organically? This means that you have done all the SEO activities right, and your website ranks on the search engine, driving traffic without paying anything for the advertisement.
Email: Is the traffic coming from emails that have an embedded link to your site?
Paid search: The visitors are clicking on the ad that you have paid for and are landing on your website through the ads.
You can measure traffic sources through any website analytics tool like HubSpot and Google Analytics tool.
6. Exit rate and top exit pages
If your exit rate is high, it means more people are leaving your website, creating a drop in your website engagement. Look for the top exit pages that are forcing your audience to exit. Analyze these pages well to understand the problem. For example, it might have too much content (that can overwhelm the user) or too little content ( that may confuse the user). Lacking a clear call to action can be another reason for the exit.
Once you analyze the reason for the exit, fix them and see if there is a boost in engagement.
7. Link sharing
When users like your content and share it in their content or on their social media profiles, it boosts your website engagement in a domino effect. Thus your website is being presented to a new set of audiences who share the link with their audience.
Measuring link sharing thus should be an important metric in your engagement analytics.
#4 How to keep customers on your website and increase web engagement
When a visitor lands on your website, you want them to read your content, sign up for your newsletter, click the demo button, or make a purchase on your site. These are what essentially translate into increased web engagement. Few things that you can do to improve your web engagement:
Reduce page load time
Page load time can increase your bounce rate and reduce engagement. To improve your engagement, conduct frequent page load tests to ensure your page load time is not too high. If your page load time is high, reduce it by removing unnecessary elements from your page. For example, too many images can increase your page load time, so you may want to check on that.
Display related content
A common but effective way to increase website engagement is displaying related content at the end of the page. This helps the reader easily find related topics that they are reading and would be interested in learning more about it. You can do it manually or use any free WordPress plugins. Here’s an example of the related content from MarbleFlows. The blog displays related content at the bottom of the blog page.
Make navigation easy
You don't want your website to become a maze for your visitors! So keep the navigation simple. They might just leave your site if they need to spend too much time finding their way around. So keep the navigation simple and easy.
Choose your writing style
Is your content resonating with your users? They will come back for more if they can relate to your content. So identify your target audience, analyze the kind of language they use, and determine your brand tone. For example, a serious and formal tone may resonate more if your website is for corporates. At the same time, an e-commerce site may find a casual, friendly, and quirky tone more appealing to its target audience.
A search box is useful
Your visitors might be visiting your site to find something specific. So make it easy for them to find what they want by adding a search box. Keep it simple at the top right of the page so the visitor can locate it easily. Having a search box can significantly increase your website engagement. Some additional features like a drop-down menu or an auto-suggest feature can also help boost engagement.
Encourage them to come back for more
Website engagement is not a one-time activity. You want to return customers who come back to your site regularly to consume more. Encouraging them to sign up for your blog can be a great idea to improve engagement. You can add the subscription box at the end of the blog or as a pop-up on the blog page.
Boost engagement with contests and giveaway
Contests and giveaways are always a great way to boost engagements. So, it can be an excellent strategy to boost your website engagement. Tie your contest/giveaway with actions the user needs to take to reap the benefits.
Here’s a good example from Mailmodo that the brand used to increase website engagement. To reap the benefit of unlocking their masterclass for free, you have to invite friends to sign up!
Key takeaways
If you want to grow your brand's online presence, having a website is given. But building the website engagement takes a lot of hard work. If you are feeling overwhelmed at the moment and wondering where to begin, the above-discussed points can help you get started.
Written by Chayanika Sen.
