The secret formula to a successful website isn’t so secret…

Traffic + Conversion = Success

One of the easiest ways to increase both traffic and conversion is to get visitors to return to your site- over and over again.  Returning visitors are easier to convert into paying customers because the more often they return to your site, the more trust they have in you.

Here are 5 ways to make your site “sticky” and keep your visitors coming back:

1. Start a forum

When you start a forum, you are providing your visitors a place to voice their opinions and interact with others who have common interests. As conversations build up, a sense of community will also follow and your visitors will come back to your site frequently.  Forums are also a great way to have a ton of fresh, keyword-rich content, which the search engines love.

Many of the big webhosts include the software to set up a forum on your site with your hosting account. Simply click a button in your hosting control panel and presto - instant forum.

2. Start a blog

We just did a short series on why you should be blogging. We can’t overstate the benefits to your business - online or offline - of maintaining a blog enough.

Wordpress is, I think, the best blogging platform available.  And its free.  Like forum software, it’s included in many hosting packages.

3. Do polls or surveys

Polls and surveys are another form of interaction that you should definitely consider adding to your site. They provide a quick way for visitors to voice their opinions and to get involved in your website. Be sure to publish polls or surveys that are strongly relevant to the target market of your website to keep them interested to find out about the results.  Turning the results of your surveys into new content is a sure-fire way to keep producing fresh content that is relevant to your visitors.

You can easily find hundreds of free or very low cost options to add this functionality to your site.

4. Offer quizzes and assessments

People love interactivity.  Giving people questions to answer and then providing some feedback can not only keep people coming back to your site, but can “go viral” as your visitors send links to your site to their friends.

5. Update frequently with fresh content

Perhaps this one is obvious, but is also often overlooked. Update your site frequently with fresh content so that every time your visitors come back, they will have something new to read on your site. This is probably the most effective method of attracting returning visitors. No one wants to browse a site that never changes, so keep your site updated with fresh content.

There you go, five things you can do right now to keep people coming back to your site.