Today we explore 4 ways to keep visitors on your blog with Igor Kheifets. If you would like to guest post on Blogussion, read here for more information.
As a blogger, one of the most frustrating things you can experience when checking on your Analytics stats is to realize that your bounce rate is sky high.
According to “Google Analytics help,” bounce rate represents the percentage of single-page visits or visits in which the person left your site from the entrance (landing) page. In other words, the more people exit your blog from the page they came in, the higher your bounce rate is.
The best way to lower the bounce rate is to increase readership. In this post I am going to show you 4 easy ways to do just that.
1. Related Posts
One of the effortless ways to increase readership is to install a Related Posts plugin which will prove a list of related posts and/or pages below every blog post. It will drastically increase your blog’s click-thru rates and navigation by providing your readers with more of what they want.
Yet Another Related Posts Plugin is a great way to implement this technique ASAP. Download YARPP here.
2. Popular Posts
Another great way to lower bounce rate and increase readership is to place a list of Most Popular Posts in your sidebar. This can easily be done by installing the Popularity Contest plugin which will produce a widget with a list of your most popular posts based on comments, views, links and time frame criteria.
Download Popularity Contest here.
3. Internal Linking
Internal linking is a great way to boost readership by linking to older, relevant content in your recent blog posts. However, don’t get too “linky.” Be logical about it. If you’re writing a blog about copywriting, it would be logical to link to an older blog post titled “7 Old School Headline Formulas” in a sentence about the importance of a powerful headline.
On the other hand, linking to a post titled “How To Improve Your Pagerank in 5 Easy Steps” when blogging about Social Media is a bit illogical. Logic and Rationality are your best friends when it comes to internal linking.
But as if increasing readership isn’t enough, internal linking substantially increases your chances of ranking higher in the Search Engines. I am not going to indulge into details, but trust me, it does.
4. Comment Luv
You can increase the chances of reader’s interaction by including a titled link to their last blog post or tweet at the end of their comment. Comment Luv allows you to just that.
The technical details are not important – what’s important is the fact that this plugin drastically increases user interaction on your blog. People are happy to comment if they know that they are getting extra exposure in return.
Download Comment Luv here
Conclusion
You need to remember that your goal is to not only get visitors to your blog but to keep them as well. If you have a high bounce rate percentage then people either aren’t enjoying your content or your navigation needs work. If people are leaving your blog faster than you can say “Subscribe via RSS” than something is wrong and it is up to you to fix it.
Get to work!
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{ 35 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m using all these plugins. CommentLuv is very important, firstly because of the user interaction (getting something in return for the comment) and secondly (consequently), when a new reader visits your site and sees the amount of comments, he knows something interesting is happening there. And that is sometimes the reason to stay and read your post and coming back again.
But you must still remember that “Content is king.”
BlogInterface.net´s last blog ..How To Get An Unique Domain Name
You are right about the # of comments being important to a site. If I go and see that there are 0 comments on an article that has been published for more than 24 hours then I think it is a blog with no authority. So get people commenting!
Seth´s last blog ..4 Easy Ways To Increase Readership On Your Blog
Great list of tips. I definitely need to do this on some of my posts. I also believe in installing the commentluv plugin and just wrote about that too.
Great list- I’m going to go tweet it.
All the best,
Eren
Eren Mckay´s last blog ..Why do people use online social networking ?
Thanks for tweeting this list, I really think commentluv is a fantastic way to build a community.
Seth´s last blog ..4 Easy Ways To Increase Readership On Your Blog
Well. I am following everything that you have specified except with the Internal Linking. I am not doing much which internal linking right now and all plugins that I have tried for internal linking doesn’t even perform anything.
BlogrPro´s last blog ..BlogrPro Gets a Design Makeover
Internal Linking is very important and I would highly recommend doing more of it.
Seth´s last blog ..4 Easy Ways To Increase Readership On Your Blog
Awesome stuff – I will definitely take the tips you outlined here into good practice. As someone who’s just starting, I think it will come in very handy.
Thanks for sharing the tip.
Great site BTW
Great points on keeping your readers around longer. One thing that gets me to subscribe to blogs is when they write a series of posts. If the first posts are good I’ll usually subscribe just to get the rest of the series. If I come in on a later point in the series I’ll almost always go back and read from the beginning.
Edward Rayne´s last blog ..Introduction to Twitter
That is true, series posts are a great way to keep readers engaged and returning.
Seth´s last blog ..4 Easy Ways To Increase Readership On Your Blog
Its a great at the end of an article to highlight related posts that may be of interest to those who like the current post and also to highlight the related posts within the content of your post, but all in all you should have good quality content, it should be useful, original, and interesting to the target audience
Web Hosting Blog´s last blog ..Influence of Web Hosting on SEO
I use related link and popular post to improve my blog readership. And both of it work great.
Dana@Online Knowledge´s last blog ..ShoutMix as Guest Book
Some bloggers forget to consider some points in your list. That’s the reason why some of their readers stay away from their blogs. They don’t know how to build a friendly relationship with their readers. Well, I still don’t blame them cause some of the visitors are only there just to make spam posts in their blogs.
Michael Frost´s last blog ..Choosing a Layout for your Kitchen
Thumb up and many thanks to Igor Kheifets! Being the owner of internet marketing company I appreciate this blog and read all posts carefully. I have launched my own blog recently and look for good advices and tips on how to improve it. This seems to be a really good place for me to begin with.
Interesting blog indeed. Many useful articles especially for blog beginners like me. Thanks for share.
I highly recommend more people to use internal linking since it is not only a great method to get your visitors into reading more articles, but also a great method to give away some linkpower to your other articles.
Stefan´s last blog ..16 Bright Wallpapers
Internal linking is something we are focusing on here at Blogussion and it is very helpful.
Seth´s last blog ..4 Easy Ways To Increase Readership On Your Blog
I’m using all these plugin to my personal blog. These are well recommended. Content is also the key to increase readership. Post unique, informative and fun posts.
Great Post.
I’m using all of them on my blog as well, it;s very handy. It does keep readers longer on your blog as you are giving them a chance to look at other realted post.
Teen Blogger´s last blog ..Blogger vs Wordpress- Who’s The Boss?
I agree with Stefan and internal linking leads also to more page views what is very important.
BlogInterface.net´s last blog ..How To Get An Unique Domain Name
Superb post!!
Oh my! You are really a Genius.. You see a lot of bloggers are really looking for good strategies to increase their readership. And you created one of the best references for them to use. I admired your blog here..it’s superb!!
Keep on posting amazing entries!!
jesa´s last blog ..Bloggers Payback
CommentLuv has greatly worked for my blog, though related posts hasn’t done much in terms of increasing bounce rate. I’m toying with the idea of removing related posts at the bottom of the post, maybe to the body of post to see if any improvements are made.
Muzi Mohale´s last blog ..20 Random questions on 2010 Soccer World Cup and tourism
Related posts are definitely something to play with. I think this is a great point to make here… toy around with the smaller elements of your blogs design and find out what works! Maximize your design to boost more readers and to get them to stay longer.
Wow!
I had no idea my post will get so much feedback!
Thanks everybody!
Igor
Igor Kheifets-IgorHelpsYouSucceed´s last blog ..How To Apply Law of Attraction In Internet Marketing To Make More Money Today
Thanks so much for this post!!! its helped alot especially the Comment Luv, i was wondering what that was…
Introducing myself, My name is Lam and im the new kid on the Blog (block), im at the beginning phase of taking my blog to the next level so im always learning and open to advice and ideas (even criticism), im doing Darrens Probloggers 31DBBB course at the moment and looking for a post to link into, theres so many good posts here cant make up my mind!
Looking forward to meeting everyone in the blogosphere!
Cheers
Lam Nguyen´s last blog ..How To Win Friends And Influence People – Part 1
Excellent list and advice. All 4 items are very useful in getting people to read more of your content once they are on your site. I have agonized over my bounce rate at times and have found the tactics you describe to be very helpful in making my site more sticky. Thanks.
Computer Tech Tips´s last blog ..Microsoft Windows 7 Release Insights
Keeping your visitor is a great accomplishment on your blog and having those plugins is really a great help.Thanks for sharing
Ronblogger´s last blog ..Blogging Tips and Techniques
This is one interesting post given the number of replies and comments.
Getting your blog to retain good and healthy readership is something 99% of bloggers struggle with, but the 1% that succeed do great work indeed.
Thanks for sharing your tip
Helen Hunt – Free Links´s last blog ..Free Back Links!
yea the main goal is to keep our visitors happy with useful posts and not just for commenting and this will increase bounce rate as well. Good points shared. i will surely need to follow this to keep my blog readers updated and returning.
There are a lot of things which help to increase the readership.Some of them may be to provide the links , giving attractive headings, posting quotes,displaying previous statistics etc.
Internal linking is most important with proper use of anchor texts.
Blogging Tips´s last blog ..How to add three columns to footer
Thanks for the tips, I used all the plugins you mentioned, but CommentLuv. Hmm… that’s maybe the reason my blog doesn’t have many comments (if at all in most case
).
I still believe that content is king and SEO is the queen. While quality is for human, SEO is for the search engines.
But hey… my bounce rate is still well below 45%. How ’bout that?
Panduan SEO´s last blog ..Faktor Pemeringkatan On-Page – Bag. 2
Great article.I have all the 4 plugins installed.But still my bounce rate is more.I think I need to work more on my navigation
Blogging Tips´s last blog ..Paypal resumes local bank withdrawls to India
Here are great tips that is usually over looked, i always believe commenting on other blogs in your niche is a great way to gain readers who are already blog-savvy and interested in your subject
Wow! Thanks so much. I am going to load “comment luv”.
Jason´s last blog ..How much would you pay for this?