In the agency business we regularly get asked by clients, “What’s wrong with my site?  I did keyword research, I put those keywords into the content, I paid for search engine marketing – so why are visitors leaving?”

If your website isn’t doing a great job at attracting the right visitors or converting them into buyers, try these tips for creating “sticky content” – content that will pull readers into the site,  keep them there longer, and give them a reason to come back.

1 – Make your site interactive.
It’s easy to become blind to the fact that visitors to your website don’t want one-way communication.  After all, you have a great product or service and you can’t imagine why everyone else isn’t as interested in it as you are.  But readers online want to “do” – not just read.  So try making your site more interactive.  Add a slide show, a readers poll . . . anything that will grab visitors’ interest and entice them to spend more time on your site.

2 – Keep it updated with news.
When something new is happening in the world, whether it’s BP’s recent oil spill or Tiger Woods’ fooling around, people are interested.  So if something in the news relates to your field of expertise, put it on your site.  This helps you in a couple of ways: 1) it lets your readers know that they can visit your site frequently for up-to-date information, and 2) you boost your chances of getting listed higher in search engine results, especially with Google’s “Quality Deserves Freshness” algorithm.

3 – Make sure your headlines are compelling.
Too many people today write headlines to appeal to Google, using keywords instead of solid headline copy in an attempt to influence their position in search results.  But with all the information being thrown at us today, online readers are scanning headlines to decide what to read and what to ignore.  So it’s critical that your headlines grab their attention – and give an accurate idea of what’s to follow.  Just because we live in a world of high-tech communication doesn’t mean you can forget the basic principles of copywriting.  Your readers are human beings – not Googlebots.

4 – Add a resource list.
Resource lists are some of the most popular pieces of information online.  People love lists like “The Top 10 Web Press Plug-ins” or “The Top 10 Most Popular Social Media Sites.”  Do some research and create a resource list that’s appropriate for your site.  Your readers will not only spend more time on the page, they’ll appreciate the helpful information.

5 – Create how-to articles.
People also love how-to information.  Just look at the shelves in Barnes and Noble.  Add how-to articles and tips to your site (obviously, they need to be appropriate for your business), and the helpful information will bring your readers back for more.

Pick one of these at a time to work with, and see if it doesn’t make a difference.  If you want website visitors to stick around, give them something to stick to!