5 Engaging Ways to Engage Your Audience

• The Best Damn Web Marketing Checklist for Login and My Account Pages
• 14 Website Usability Guidelines That Keep them Coming Back for More
• Developing Exciting Copy that Speaks Your Visitor's Language
• Four Quick Ways to Improve Your HELP and FAQ Pages

These are some very true, helpful tips. I would add that every page should have some kind of call to action as well, whether that be something as simple as subscribing to an email newsletter, filling out a quote form, investigating a product further or making a purchase. After all, if you don't want people to do something on your site,why do you care if they come?

Good point manizesto. I didn't make the point in this post but have made it in several others in this usability series. Thanks for bringing that to light.

Great post! I think another thing that should be noted is (like you said), you want to grab the attention of the reader and not lose it in any way, shape or form. One big way to prevent users from staying engaged is by putting something unneccessary and distracting on your home page - such as a forum (if your site is new) and/or other brightly-colored ads or moving objects. These take away from the intent of your website and although may "look nice", may ultimately damage you!

Great stuff, Stoney. I would argue that the "What's In It For Me?" point may be the most important. As a small business marketing guy, I deal with hundreds of entrepreneurs who want to talk about themselves in their brochures and web sites. Successful marketing begins with knowing what your customers want.

Keep up the good work, mate.

Engaging an audience is so hard. When I make a landing page I try to put only enough content to keep the attention of the pre-qualified customer 6 seconds. After they see what they are looking for they select the text link.

Granted landing pages and SEO are slightly different. But the principals still remain the same when it comes to a conversion.

Great point Chris. Again I have made that point in other parts of this series but it really should have been included here as well.

"From the moment visitors land on that first page you need to grab their attention. This doesn't require any gimmicks, but it does require the ability to organize your information in a compelling and visually friendly way."

Really? This is so funny considering that I am sitting here trying to read this article on a page with so many ads and blinking junk that it's hard to concentrate.

I think this site might want to practice what they preach for awhile before handing out advice.

@LJ: "This is so funny considering that I am sitting here trying to read this article on a page with so many ads and blinking junk that it's hard to concentrate.
I think this site might want to practice what they preach for awhile before handing out advice."

Nah. Just because a writer makes a great suggestion doesn't mean it's great for every site or that I'm going to follow his advice.

Ads pay the bills. No ads, no site. If you can't put up with ads in exchange for free information, then this probably isn't a site for you.

I'm not trying to be harsh but neither writers, vendors, or the government accept happy thoughts as payment. Pesky critters all want money. :-P

Nice article! Very helpful tips. Folks can also consider A/B with specific pages as well to accurately measure what pages/features are working best! Thanks again!

Don't forget to measure the engagement using analytics. Without a measuring tool, you have no strategy for improving the engagement of your readers.

r. Dabney and Jay Hamilton-Roth... good points on both. thanks for your comments.

This a a very helpful post! One of the most important points is that it highlights how crucial it is to create a site that is specifically targeted to the type of visitors you are hoping to attract. You want the design, visuals, content, and layout to be geared towards those potential clients or consumers, otherwise they will inevitably lose interest before being convinced to explore your site further.

Nice. But there is simplier method. What If when creating website you feel for a while as your client? Do you know what your potential client thinks, feels and needs? What he is scared of?Hmm...