Never mind SEO: Is your website worth coming back to?

I don’t mean to downplay the role of SEO when it comes to organic search traffic. Many sites depend almost exclusively on search traffic, and the pages need to be optimized with that in mind.

However, what many people forget is that getting traffic is just part of a larger picture.

Once someone comes to your website for the first time, you need to engage them sufficiently to ensure they read your pages and, just as important, return to your site again and again.

If your first-time visitors don’t return, you are placing yourself in a position where you depend on a steady stream of first-time visitors, all clicking through from search engine results.

The problem you face here is that, generally speaking, first-time visitors are less likely to buy, sign up or subscribe. After all, they are strangers. A fleeting visit to just one page on your site is unlikely to give them reason enough to become a customer or subscriber.

Your best customers will come from those who come back to your site again and again. Repeat visitors know you and your site better. They trust you more, and feel more comfortable about parting with their contact information, or their hard-earned money.

It is for this reason that SEO becomes job one of out of three.

Job two is to write great content that keeps those visitors reading.

If a reader comes to your site for the first time, as a complete stranger, they are unlikely to return or take any significant actions on your site if they don’t even finish reading the first page they find.

This is why content-mill content may work as a way to get people to click on an AdSense ad, but it doesn’t cut it if you are trying to engage your readers and encourage them to return or do something on your site.

If your business model depends on having your visitors take an action on your site, each entry page to the site has to be of a quality that it will engage new readers, make them want to read the entire page – and want more.

This may sound self evident. But very few marketers and writers recognize the need to write content which is of a quality to make readers read an entire page.

Job three is to get people to come back to your site, again and again.

There are a few ways to get people coming back.

Some websites build return visits into their basic business models. For example, it makes no sense to go only once to sites like Google, Facebook, Twitter or the iTunes store.

But for those of us who have sites comprised primarily of content pages, the challenge is a little different.

Usually, a content site is just one of dozens, hundreds or thousands of sites offering information on the same subject. To get people coming back, it isn’t enough simply to keep adding more pages.

Here is what you need to do:

- You need to offer content that is of higher value, when compared to competing sites.

- You need to add great content more frequently, so people know they should come back for more.

- You would do well to invite readers to participate, through a comments function of some kind.

- You should take full advantage of social media communities, to get people talking about your latest pages.

In summary.

The bottom line is that every content site operates within a competitive environment.

If you want visitors to come back, become engaged and then sign up as a subscriber or make a purchase, you have to stand out from the crowd by offering a quality of content and conversation not found elsewhere.

Put simply, your content has to be good enough to make people want to come back to your site, again and again.

[NOTE: If you enjoyed this article, you’ll doubtless enjoy the daily content ideas I publish for Web Content Café members. Learn more about membership here...]