Keep Your Online Customers Coming Back: 6 Tips to Improve Your Website and Your Customers’ Experience There

The internet is a big place.  And let’s face it – in this day and age, we spend most of our days there.  With an infinite number of websites fighting for your customers’ attention, how do you bring them to your website and then keep them there?  Web consumers are savvy.  They won’t waste their time on a website that isn’t coherent or intuitive.  Here are some quick tips to help you better connect with your online patrons.

• Offer information in short bits.  Today’s internet browser doesn’t want to be bogged down with a vast amount of text.  If you really want your reader to read and retain what’s on your page, keep info blocks to around 200 words.
• Find interactive ways to connect with your readers.  Short introductory videos and one question daily or weekly polls on current topics are a great place to start.  Images are a good way to breakup text blocks and grab a reader’s attention.
• Help your readers to connect the information on your page to their social media outlets.  Including social media buttons that allow users to easily share the info on your page creates an interactive experience for your user and also provides free, word-of-mouth marketing for you.
• The internet is an informal media.  Readers want to feel in control of their experiences there.  They don’t want to be confused by industry jargon and highly academic language.  Use simple terms that broaden the scopes of your target audience and pull readers in rather than pushing them away.
• If you want your readers to connect with your business, tell them how.  Provide them with those “next steps”.  Display links to your Facebook, Twitter, newsletter, online coupons, customer surveys – anything with which you want to connect them.  Make apparent what it is that you want them to get out of your site as well as how best they can interact with the services it offers.
• Format your website for mobile devices.  Smart phones and tablets are now the most popular outlets from which to use the internet.  With internet users no longer tied to desktops, it’s important to start including formatting for those who use their internet on the go.

Content contributed by Melissa Houston, AKSourceLink.  AKSourceLink is a proud affiliate of U.S.SourceLink, America’s largest resource network for entrepreneurs.