In yesterday's post I was talking a little about the amount of time visitors were spending on this blog.Now I know that it's easy to get bogged down with statistics but at the same time they do give all sorts of indicators.
I've been looking again at Google Analytics for the amount of time the average visitor stays. This varies a great deal from different referral sources.
With search engines, for example, I see that Yahoo referrals stay almost two minutes longer than someone arriving from Google. With Yahoo they remain on average for 7mins 49seconds but only 5mins 58seconds with Google.
There are major differences with website and blog referrals. Times can vary between averaging nineteen and twenty minutes, from some sources, and as little as 1min 47seconds from what I always thought of as a good source of traffic. This shows that things aren't always as they first appear.
Whatever the figures show I'm sure that we all want our visitors to stay longer. So how do you do this?
Firstly, there has to be more than just the current posts on view, especially if they aren't very long. A lot of readers are skimmers and will shoot through a post quickly looking for something that interests them. There needs, therefore, to be something of interest to the reader besides your recent posts. Perhaps links to older, more important posts. Ones which you think are interesting and, of course, they need a catchy title - relevant to the subject matter.
There should also be links to previous posts within new posts, whenever possible. Refer to similar things you have written and may be of use to the reader. Since I've started doing this myself I have noticed the average length of visits has increased by three minutes on average.
It goes, without saying, that posts have to be to the highest standard we can do personally. Unfortunately we are not all natural writers and storytellers but we can check basics like spelling and double check to make sure that the message we are trying to convey is easily understood.
For example, I dislike blogs - often technical ones - that love to show off by using abbreviations and 'insider' terms that many will not understand. There's no need. As with any selling - and with a money making blog you are selling - you should keep it simple. Some call this KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid.
Other ways to retain visitors may be with such things as polls, lists of links and information that may be helpful.
This isn't meant to be an in depth post on How To Increase Average Visitors Time On Site. All I wanted to do was to raise a subject that is perhaps worth thinking about.
It's all about Quality Not Quantity - though Quantity and Quality would be perfection - and is no doubt The Secret To Making Money With Blogs.
Good luck,
Mike.
Other reading:
Money Making With Free Blogs - Part 1
Subscribe to Mike's Money Making Mission
Subscribe to Mike's Money Making Mission by Email
