So they came! Hooray! But are they staying?

Today’s discussion is about how to encourage people to dig deeper on your website and/or blog to get at the truth, value, potential of what you have to offer.

Website owners have the ability to quickly move us around their pages with simple click on links and a bit of code (shown below).

Bloggers have at their disposal a really simple bit of code accessible through a plugin or by easily typing the characters of that code into a jumping off point of their post.

The Webpage Code - serves to create the illusion of inside pages without actually taking anyone off that same page. Handy for buy now links to jump your customer to the spot to pay, or to reference another point you’ve made further down the page that you want to emphasize.

Actually, its uses are limited only to your imagination. That code is (replace the * with the “less than (shift+comma)” and “greater than (shift+period)” on your keyboard to open and close each section of code):

=======================

*a HREF=”#Point1″ target=”_self”* Words You Want Clicked On*/a*
*A NAME=Point1* */a* Area You Want Them To Land On

=======================

Note while the first bit of code with the closing code surrounds the words, your targeted landing spot does not. Copy the code carefully. You can rename “Point” to any word you like, just be sure to also rename it in the landing code, too.

For bloggers, it’s even easier

The Blog Code - inserting a simple line of code from the HTML tab (in Wordpress) as you write, you will create the illusion of a break in your post. This comes in handy if you want to list several recent posts on a front page, not just multiple long entries.

By limiting the size of what’s shown “out front” you are able to help your readers see, at a glance, your last several posts. The idea is that you never know what might grab a newly arriving reader’s interest. So why make them hunt?

The code (you again need to replace the stars I’ve used for demonstration purposes with the “less than” “greater than” signs opening and closing your code:

============

*!–more–*

============

Just in case that is hard to read it is - “less than” exclamation dash dash more dash dash “greater than” - all run together as one word.

[Sorry to harp, but remember, don't use the *'s use the less than/greater than signs on your keyword, opening and closing as you go.]

The question though is “Why should I use this?” and the answer is very simple, to appease the search engines

If you run Google Analytics codes on your pages - be they website or blog - you can quickly tell if people are arriving on a front page and leaving in a hurry, or if they are sticking around and digging deeper into your site.

The lovely “more” tag, especially for bloggers, and the “to read more click here” (or whatever words you choose to use) result in an interior page visit deeper into your blog. Google (and we’re sure other search engines as well) love it when people want to stick around. Analytically, you are able to trace how many choose to read nothing more than your current post, who decided to read further, and what else did they do when they were visiting.

Coupled with the wordpress blogstats plugin (or equivalent), this gives the blogger tremendous insight into what posts generated the most interest. This is one way you figure out what to write more about. For instance, every time we write about Jumptags and programs similar, we have a wonderful upturn in new visitors and repeat readers. So… down the line, I will again cover that subject - assuming we do have something striking to say, and a reason for writing. Don’t just do it for the sake of doing it, provide value (another no brainer, sorry).

But getting back to the point at hand here, but using simple code you encourage people to dig. They find more value, the search engines love you.

When we say the search engines love you, here’s why. If you have a main page that is the only thing hit by visitors, and they don’t stick around, this inaction is “held against you” by the powers that be in search engine algorithm programming. Your website and/or blog is judged by “who, what, where, when, and how long.” These factors are all tied up in placing a judgment value on your blog or website. So why not make both your visitors and the spiders and bots happy? Especially when it’s this easy!

You will find a few people out there who claim to hate having to click on a “Continue reading” link. I have no clue why they would think that, and yes they are entitled to their own opinion.

The value in terms of search engine awareness is priceless, plus our visitors get to discover tons of information to use for either the first time or build on by digging deeper.

And that’s a good enough reason for us

* * * * * * * * * *

COMMENT, QUESTION, FEEDBACK? PLEASE TELL US!

Tags: access, blog, blogger, bloggers, blogging, blogs, building, clue, code lt, comma, comments, customer, demonstration purposes, demonstrations, doings, easy, front page, ful, ger, get, glance, google, greater than signs, hand, handful, help, html tab, illusion, imagination, information, insight, instances, jumping off point, keyboard, keywords, less than value, love, make, new, news, pages, people, postings, s, sake, tabs, tagging, truth, website, wordpress

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 19th, 2008 at 10:58 am and is filed under Increase Website Traffic, Other Strategies, Recommendations, Social Media Strategies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.