Webmasters have so much information available to them on the
Internet about how to increase traffic to their web sites, but
how do you keep visitors on the site when they get there? If you
happen to use the articles format in order to provide
interesting content for your readers, have you considered what
they do when they finish reading one of your articles?
Actions the reader will take, will include: navigating to
another part of the web site (if you are lucky and have a well
designed site); typing another web site address into their
browser; and, closing down their browser and doing something
else ? perhaps resuming their work after a lunch break. If you
are a webmaster, the first of these would obviously be your
preferred outcome. But a reader who randomly navigates through
your pages at speed, is not the ideal. How do you not only keep
a reader on your site, but also keep them engaged with your
articles and possibly the products you are offering, while they
finish the second half of their lunchtime sandwich?
The answer is very simple really, but many webmasters do not use
the strategy I am about to outline, when they place articles on
their sites ? the inter-linking strategy. What is it? It is
simply the practice of linking one article on your web site to
another related article and clearly signaling the link to your
reader. People who write articles in different steps or parts
use it already e.g. at the end of ?Tips on How to Save Money ?
Part 1? they will have a link to ?Tips on How to Save Money ?
Part 2?. But there is no reason why we should not all be taking
advantage of this simple but very effective strategy.
For example, you may have written a general article about dental
floss (ok so you have a really tough job on your hands of
keeping your reader onboard!). In order to ensure that your
reader does not leave your site after reading the article, you
could include at the end of it a once sentence paragraph that
says ?If you have ever wondered how they get the mint flavour
into dental floss, click here for an article which explains
all?. This is a much more powerful strategy than just having a
long list of ?other related articles? at the bottom of the page,
which the reader may not even be able to see because they have
not scrolled down far enough. Another benefit of this strategy
is that with some clever and imaginative wording in that last
one sentence paragraph, you can steer your reader towards a
particular page, again possibly with information about a product
that you wish to sell. As with all strategies, there is lots of
room for experimentation to see what works best. As well as
playing with words to come up with a sentence that will ignite
your reader?s interest, you can try different formats for the
text itself. For example, if the last paragraph looks just like
the rest of the article, it will almost certainly be read and
taken in by the reader.
Implementing this inter-linking strategy may take a little more
time and thought, if you have previously only carpet-bombed your
site with as many articles as possible. However, it is
definitely another valuable tool for the webmaster?s toolbox, or
weapon for his armory, depending on how fanatical you are about
keeping visitors on your site as long as possible!
About the author:
Emmanuel Mendonca is the webmaster and publisher of
Debt Genius at www.debtgenius.com -
a free source of information and advice on debt consolidation,
getting out of debt and on saving money.
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