Website Stickiness

Adding stickiness to your website is most likely the most important thing you will ever learn to better your website and make your visitors want to return again and again. When I first heard the term "Website Stickiness", the first thing I thought of was a website that didn?t link correctly which made the flow bad. Boy was I wrong! Imagine how surprised I was when I discovered the expression actually means making your website sooooo interesting, sooooo informative, sooooo entertaining that visitors will want to return time after time after time! Wow weeeeee! In one simple sentence it said it all didn't it!

Now that you know what the term ?website stickiness? means, and just how important it is to have, you can now start finding the different ways to start adding it to your site. Below we have listed several different ideas to think about. Keep in mind that these ideas will not work for everyone but they are an excellent place to start, especially for the beginning webmaster.

1 - Add a Webmaster page to your site.

Hummmm....... this sounds simple enough. It fits the description of adding information--- and adding interest. The subject alone...... "Webmasters" is a draw all of its own. Why? Because it's a whole lot of webmasters out there and even more beginner webmasters! So by making a webmaster page we filled a needed subject matter to our viewers. Once a reader clicks on our link and they start to read our pages, they find out that its helpful information that's not threatening and it's also not trying to fool you into buying something. Once a reader confirms this, they stay on the page and they continue to read the information that the site has to offer. See..... When you gain the confidence of your readers, you then add stickiness AGAIN! You see, many many websites have a webmaster page. You see them all the time when you?re surfing different sites right? -- But you never knew why everyone put them on their site. Some webmaster pages just focus on how they can make money from you visiting their page.......

But true Stickiness is----.

Interesting subject matter.

Subject fills a needed void.

Subject keeps the readers interest.

Gains the confidence of the reader.

Entertaining.

Informative.

Not threatening.

Reaching your target audience.

Now you know what Stickiness is all about!

2 - E-Mail this page to a friend option.

This is one of the simplest things that a webmaster can do to add stickiness to your site. Provide a button for anyone who wants to tell someone else about the page they have just read. Often a visitor to your website will want to share the information they have discovered with a friend. This is exactly what you?re trying to accomplish. When you add this option it guarantees that the link will be correct. And - An email from a friend is more likely to be read than unsolicited email.

3 - Make Your Site Interactive

Well what does that mean? Well add interesting pages to your site that will make the visitor actually interact with the page and have reason to return back again. When a page engages a visitor it will make the visitor return again and again and this adds even more Stickiness! For example: If you add a game or two to your site that your visitors can engage in then that visitor could easily get hooked on the fun of the game and want to return back again to play it. This adds stickiness to your website.

Let?s look at another example. Sending E-Cards/Greeting Cards. Greeting card sites are prime examples of adding stickiness. Greeting cards offer something that visitors interact with. When it's a Holiday, the visitor has a reason to return back again to the site and re-send more Greeting Cards. Stickinesssss Stickinessssss Stickinessss!

Now these are just examples of stickiness that is used on websites and they will not work for everyone. Naturally it depends on the theme and subject matter of your site as to which sticky tactic you use. I'm sure that once you think about what your own sites theme is, you will be able to think up several other ideas that will work for you.

Other ideas for your site would be...........

Travel Sites -- map search options

Financial website -- calculators

Weather reports

Web Blogs

Directories

4 -Something to return back for

Everybody lovesssss great reading content! Reading Content like Updating Headline News or Fresh Content that relates to your website is fantastic and adds tremendous Stickiness! If you?re planning on having e-zine, newsletter, ebook, print publication or you?re looking for content for your own website then finding places that you can get great articles is what you want to look for.

Now if you?re a really good writer then you can pick a subject matter and write your own updates on your pages each day. Now if you?re not a good writer or if you?re just short on time..... Then you can find great Articles just like this one from many places over the Internet. You also have an option of getting self updating News Feeds that you can place on your site that will update itself and you don't have to worry about it.

You see, the main reason a person even surfs the Internet is for resources. If you provide the resource for the reader then you provide the stickiness that you need to make a successful high traffic website.

About the Author