content posted in content  on 11 January 2008
by Andrew Lang 
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Turn first-time visitors into repeat visitors

It's easy to concentrate too much on search engine rankings while ignoring the value of repeat traffic - those who find your site for the first time, LIKE it, and subscribe to your RSS feed, bookmark your site, or simply make a mental note to return to your site soon to see what's new.

The biggest hook to getting repeat visitors to your website is to write informative / useful and unique information, and posting this kind of content regularly to your site. Why return to a site that has no sign of regular updates? But a site that has obvious signs of regular articles / news updates will bring you repeat visitors who like what you're saying - informative, useful, unique content - and they'll want to hear more of it via regular updates. Any news entry with a date alongside it gives a strong clue to the reader that the site is updated regularly (so long as the last date was fairly recent!). A website with simply a home page, an about us and contact page is really only worth a one-time visit - it's no more than a brochure, or even a business card.

RSS Feeds

A lot of people use RSS readers now to keep up-to-date with dozens of websites at the same time, in one convenient place. Writing regular articles/news updates to your sites means you can have a readership that doesn't even have to visit your site to see the latest articles/news you've posted - they simply subscribe to your RSS feed and read your latest news headlines through their RSS reader. They can easily return to your site if a title compels them to click on it and read further.

Building a brand requires repeat visitors

People are more likely to recommend a website if they're familiar with it. Repeat visitors are likely to remember your website's content, your opinion, your products - and recommend this information to others. A one-time visit is forgotten.

Enjoy writing!

Coming up with the goods (unique, interesting content) is all about motivation. If you write about something you enjoy, this is going to make things easier. This is what you should focus on. If you sell Hi-Fi equipment because you love music, write about what you like listening to. People want a narrative, not a tired sales pitch - so give them your narrative on what you like and why your products/services happen to fit around what you like.

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