Getting people to your site is essential — you know that. But if the traffic coming to your site is leaving straight away, the time and energy spent driving that traffic would have been better used making Bloody Marys in the sun to forget your problems.

With the technology available today, tracking the “Engagement Levels” on your website is essential for many reasons.

First of all — if people are just “window shopping”, you don’t want to waste your money driving them to your site in the first place. You want to make sure you are getting the right traffic that converts and responds to the stimuli on your site.

Secondly — Google knows your engagement rates. If your website is scaring off more people than rotten.com, there is a good chance they will take you down a peg or two in the rankings.

Lastly — when user experience is not good, you don’t get any social shares, word of mouth buzz, or connections in the marketplace.

Here are six powerful tips to increase your engagement with your target market, please the search engines and up your revenues.

1. Split test your content

If you have written some content for your site, and never tested whether your market actually likes it, you are likely leaving a lot on the table. Newspapers, television commercials, corporate websites and authority sites like Gumtree, Amazon, Ebay, Qantas, Virgin all religiously test their headlines, offers and content, to try and keep their users on the site for longer.

A simple A/B test is easy to implement, and you can play a game of “Beat the Best” by writing up a new headline for your site and analysing which headline created a higher engagement.

2. Make design a priority

The dark ages of tabled HTML sites built with editors as your only option are gone. Also, having a website loaded with ads, clashing colours and mixed messages is inexcusable in this era. Content Management Systems (CMS) like WordPress or Joomla are powerful, functional platforms that look beautiful and are highly customisable. The only caveat with these is…

2. Watch your loading speed

It’s been rumoured that even the Dalai Lama cringes when he has to wait longer than 5 seconds for a website to load. CMSs can become cumbersome and slow loading if they are bogged down with too many plugins and apps, so use a program like GT Metrix if you have a WordPress platform to improve your speed.

4. Keep on topic

There is nothing more soul destroying than being “Rick Rolled”. If you aren’t sure what this means, it is internet slang for a bait and switch technique, where you click on a link hoping for something, and instead being served up something different. Even in 2014, some webmasters still plaster completely non-related content and advertisements all over their websites, which drives engagement through the floor.

5. Track, measure and adjust your engagement ratios

Starting with an independent variable such as your main headlines is a good place to start. There are many tools available to track metrics such as:

  • Time on site — did they bounce off within 2 seconds, or did they read your message?
  • Depth of visit — how much navigation did your visitor do?
  • Activity level — is the user looking through your page, or have they just left it open?

Google Analytics is a good, free way to start doing this.

6. Give us a call

Increasing engagement levels is just one of the many different areas of a comprehensive digital marketing strategy which should include a mix of SEO, PPC and Social. If you want to supercharge your strategy and really capitalise on your online presence, get in touch with us via the contact form, give us a call, or drop in and see us if you are in the Brisbane CBD.