This blog post is based on Episode 35 of the ProBlogger podcast.
With so many websites all competing for people’s attention, you have to try to get people’s attention quickly and keep it for as long as possible.
But how exactly do you do that? Well, here are 15 ways to keep readers on your blog that you might want to try.
1. Give users options to Subscribe, Follow, or Connect
You might think this is pretty obvious. But it’s amazing how many people haven’t really thought this through.
First of all, you need to find out which option is best for you. Personally, I find email works best. Social networks can be good too, but they don’t always give you full control over how you communicate with your readers. For example, Facebook filters your updates so you can’t guarantee that everyone will see them. But with email, you can generally reach everyone and have a lot more control over what you send.
What you decide is ultimately up to you. And you can choose to choose more than one. But if you do, I highly recommend making one of them your main focus and getting everyone to use it to subscribe. A clear call to action will be less overwhelming and less confusing for people.
And don’t be afraid to bring up this call to action in a variety of ways on your blog. This could be a popup, a slider at the bottom of the page, or part of your menu or sidebar. We even have one at the end of every blog post. Try different ways on your blog (yes you can use several at the same time) and see which works best.
2. Ask people to subscribe to your content
You may also find a great opportunity to ask people to sign up when you’re writing your content. If you are blogging about how to get more followers on the newest social network to get on the internet, this is a perfect opportunity to ask them to follow you.
3. Make a great first impression
These days, you only have a few seconds to convince people that your blog is relevant to them. So you need to make it clear what your blog is about as soon as they arrive. And you have to do it quickly.
If you don’t, chances are they won’t even stick with it, let alone subscribe.
How can you provide this information quickly? You can do this with elements like title, tagline, categories, navigation and design of your blog.
Speaking of design …
4. Make your blog as inviting as possible
The first thing people will notice about your blog is the design. Once they arrive, they will quickly judge whether it is professional, whether it is relevant and whether it is branded for you.
So, you need to design your blog to be as clear, clean, and inviting as possible.
You also need to consider how you will structure your actual posts. If they’re not attractive or too difficult to read, your readers can leave as fast as they arrived.
Using images in your blog posts can really make the difference between reading your post and not reading your post. Try to make your posts scannable using headings, shorter paragraphs, formatting (bold, italic), and lists. Even the headings of your blog posts and how accessible they are can make a difference.
And don’t forget to check how everything looks on mobile. What does your blog look like on your phone? Is it beautiful and engaging? Or is it crowded, confusing, and difficult to use?
5. Build anticipation
For those of you who have subscribed to someone’s blog or follow them on social media, can you remember why you did so? I suspect you thought they were delivering content that would improve your life in some way.
In other words, they created a sense of anticipation with their blog.
And they can create a similar sense of anticipation in you.
One way to build anticipation is to make a series of posts on a specific topic. When people know there are more posts coming up on a topic they’re interested in, there’s a good chance they’ll sign up to avoid the risk of missing out.
Another option is to have a regular type of post on your blog. For example, every Friday at Digital Photography School, we ask our readers to take a photo on a specific topic and then share it. And some of our readers have signed up to read only and are contributing to these Friday posts.
Maybe you can post an opinion piece for your blog every Tuesday or rate a product every Wednesday. Whatever you choose, let your readers know that it happens and that it will keep happening.
6. Link your posts
Another way to keep people on your blog and get them to subscribe is to link your posts. Linking up with other posts you’ve written is a great way to get people to read your content. And the more great content they see, the more likely they are to sign up.
If you mention a topic in your post that is not exactly related, but could still be of interest to someone, link to old posts you have written on that topic. A great place to do this is to have a “More Readings” section at the bottom of the post
There are tools and plugins that can do this for you automatically by pulling other posts in your categories or your most popular posts. You can also curate these lists yourself.
7. Create a “sneeze” page
If you’ve blogged for more than a few months, you probably have a lot of posts in your archives. And while they all still contain great information, they are not easy to find.
To solve this problem, you can create a “sneeze” page that links directly to content in your archive with a common topic or theme. This is a great way to get people to look back at your archive posts, possibly for years to come.
8. Use social evidence
When choosing a restaurant, do you choose one with hundreds of 5-star ratings or one with a few 5-star ratings?
I think it would be the one with hundreds of reviews. Why? Because you have social evidence that it’s good.
You can post social evidence on your blog. If you have a lot of subscribers, let people know how many you have. If you get a lot of comments on your posts, mark how many people left comments. And if you have a lot of followers on social media, show these numbers as well.
9. Increase interaction
It’s much more likely that people will return to your blog after they’ve left a comment, voted on a poll, entered a competition, or participated in a challenge.
So, invite people to leave comments and participate in your blog. Create challenges and encourage your readers to participate. Let them interact with your blog, with you, and with each other.
10. Be as personal as you can
Over the years I’ve found that people are much more likely to subscribe to and connect with a person than with a brand.
That’s why you often see my face on ProBlogger. It’s a way to personalize the brand. The way I see it, people like people.
You can personalize your blog using your photo, storytelling, and various media such as podcasts and videos. That way, people don’t just read your words. You can also hear your voice and even see what you are Really look like.
Your readers will feel like they have a real connection with you. And they’ll be more likely to come back.
11. Remove the data in your old blog posts
I admit that’s a bit controversial. And it depends on the type of content you are writing. But if you write a lot of evergreen content, people will no longer think it’s useless just because it wasn’t written in the last month or so.
I do this at the Digital Photography School because we talk a lot about concepts that don’t change over time. I’m still linking to a post about Blende that I wrote eight years ago. And I don’t want people to judge the content by when it was written.
But I keep the data in our ProBlogger posts because the content there is more time-sensitive. We’re talking about tools, plugins, and techniques that work today but may not work in a month’s time. Therefore, it is important for us to retain the data for these specific posts.
12. Give people an incentive to subscribe
One way to encourage people to subscribe to your blog is to offer them something in return, such as a free download. Keep in mind that some people might sign up to get what you offer and then sign out.
A better option might be to give them ongoing benefits. You can offer them a free course that you email them over several weeks. That way, they’ll have more incentive to hang around.
Just make sure that what you are offering is high quality and relevant to what your blog is about.
13. Work on your info page
One of the most read pages on a blog is the About page. People use it to find out:
- What is your blog about?
- who is behind it
- whether you are credible and know what you are talking about
- What is your style
So make sure to use it effectively. I use it to tell my story. This is a great way not only to be in relationship but also to talk about the benefits of subscription.
14. Have different messages for different readers
Not everyone arrives on your blog in the same state. They all have different intentions. One way to tell is to find out where they came from. And there are some great tools that you can use to send different messages to people depending on whether they landed on Google, Facebook, Twitter, or anywhere else.
15. Make sure the parts of your blog are getting traction
If a particular post on your blog has a lot of visitors, try to take advantage of that traffic. For example you could:
- Add an invitation to subscribe
- Add some “related” links to other posts in your archive
- write a follow-up post.
In the early days of the Digital Photography School we published 10 tips for portrait photographywhich went really well. A week later I followed 10 more tips for portrait photographyand then linked the two posts together. Linking the second post to the first brought a lot more traffic to our website.
How will you keep Your Reader?
So there you have it: 15 ways to keep readers on your blog. So which are you going to try first? Let us know what you’re up to in the comments.
Photo by Kristine Tanne on Unsplash