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While people may pop by your blog if they see something of interest to them, getting them to return time and again can be more difficult. Check out the 7 tips below, which will help you convert visitors into longtime readers!
If you really want to convert visitors into more than just visitors, you’re going to need to bring some strategy to the table. Your primary strategy, at least that which will be most effective, will revolve around truly defining a problem as it exists in reality, then giving a solution to that problem. In a word, you need to be “useful.”
Blog posts that are just as useful today as they will be next month are called “evergreen.” Evergreen posts are perpetually viable, even long after they have been posted. If you want a long-time readership, you need to have information readers can come back to, and keep coming back to, as necessary. That means you shouldn’t only write posts that are trendy or ephemeral.
You need to have articles that stand the test of time, provide links to resources, and are designed specifically for the sake of longevity. With that in mind, following are several tips to help you have the most successful, lasting, effective, conversion-facilitating content.
1. Cater To Your Market
You need to know who your market is, and how to reach them. What keywords are they searching for online? There are a lot of statistics defining SEO (Search Engine Optimization) today, and they can help you optimize your content. Write articles that answer questions. Look for FAQs, or Frequently Asked Questions, and write an article addressing each. Strategies like these can be effective.
2. Structure Content Appropriately
Your content isn’t going to be as effective if it doesn’t fit that which primarily defines readable content. You’re looking for short paragraphs, a reading level around eighth grade, proper keyword saturation, and length in the 500 to 2,000-word range. Include images and video where appropriate. This makes your content more visible, and brings in more readers. More readers lead to more longterm readers, statistically—provided your content is properly configured.
3. Be Interesting
None of the tips on this list matter if you’re not interesting. Include jokes here and there. They say sex sells, but it only sells itself; so going the “sensual” route probably won’t yield the returns you’re looking for. Still, if you’re smart about it, you can be entertaining and interesting without resorting to dirty tricks. To do this, you must know what your target market is interested in, and provide content to that effect.
4. Clean Website Design
If you want to convert visitors into longtime readers, it’s prudent to have a clean website design. If you’re looking for more info check this site—as it points out: “Web design plays a crucial role in conveying legitimacy. If your visitors don’t immediately trust your website, the chances of them converting are slim.”
5: Resources
Don’t just have useful, interesting, trustworthy, readable, likable content—include some digital tools and resources in there as well. Send people to a website with a calculator for interest rates, if you run a mortgage company or something of the kind. Provide useful tools, such as the list of blogging tools that are listed right here on this site.
6: Learn From SEO Professionals
It’s a lot easier to hit the target if you are working on your SEO know-how regularly. If you do not have an SEO professional on staff (and how many of us do?!), make sure to then at least read frequently and try to incorporate the SEO tips professionals are happy to share all around the internet. This Moz’ guide is a great start and you can also check out Lisa’s course, Introduction to SEO for Bloggers.
7: Experimentation
Once you have all the known factors controlled for, don’t be afraid to experiment. Viral ads, marketing, and videos have a science behind them; but new aspects of that science are being discovered all the time. If you’re savvy, you can get on the edge of the next trend.
More Effective Marketing
Marketing in terms of blog production that is properly, strategically designed in this way is going to be more effective in the long-run. Use such tactics to your advantage, and don’t just throw anything down on digital paper and hope it works. You get out what you put in. So put in some serious effort, and you’ll see some serious results.
Do Tell: What other tips do you have that will help convert visitors into longtime readers?
Ashley Lipman