User Retention Tips – How to Make First-Time Visitors Happy?

Every brand today dreams of having a loyal base of customers. In a world where the modern consumer has become more transactional than ever before, the value of a loyal customer has become even more important. There is a reason why people bet long on a company like Apple. Even if it doesn’t make a good phone every once in a while, it still has a base of customers who would buy their products no matter what. How many of their competitors can say the same?

User retention and loyalty have to be earned. No customer is going to become loyal to a brand unless something unique is being offered.

If you’re running a blog want to build a loyal base of readers, this challenge becomes even more daunting. This is because unlike a company selling products, you cannot offer people a personal possession to gain their loyalty. Instead, your website has to be good enough to stand on its own and inspire loyalty in the audience.

The first step in the process of ensuring user retention is making a good first impression. People coming to your website for the first time and having a bad time will never become loyal customers. Just as it is in life, first impressions matter. The same is spoken about in top ten digital marketing institutes and online tutorials.

In this article, we will cover how websites can make first-time visitors happy and build a decent user retention rate.

Have Optimal Page Load Time

The first thing you should do is optimize the load speed of your website. A slow-loading website is bound to hamper its perception in the eyes of a first-time visitor. Just imagine someone coming to your website and getting stuck for 10-15 seconds before your landing page appears. How does that look? Is there any way this person would like to come to your website?

Having a slow website also leads to Google ranking the website low in SERPs. Having bad rankings in SERPs and getting an overall bad reception from people who actually do come to your website is bound to backfire.

Avoid Having Ads on Homepage

Ads are a part of every website. They are important for marketers trying to monetize the incoming traffic. However, they often end up disrupting the experience of an incoming visitor. We all know a website or two we hate going to because of the sheer number of ads it has.

Since most first-time visitors are likely to come on the homepage, placing ads on the homepage is not likely a good idea. Marketers should also avoid adding pop-ups for lead generation as they end up turning a first-time visitor off.

Make Sure the Landing Page Content is in Line with Visitor’s Intent

When you’re writing content for any page of your website, you have a clear idea about where the page would get its maximum traffic from. For a normal long-form blog, the traffic will most likely come from search engines. Pages that discuss a price plan or a list of products could come from a variety of sources, although most likely paid search ad listings.

Whatever the traffic source is, those creating the page know its purpose. Thus, the landing page must convey the same clearly and quickly to the incoming visitor.

In Conclusion

Loyalty is a trait we don’t find often in the digital space. People surfing the internet are more transactional and expect companies to bend over backward to earn their business. If you’re running a website and need to build a base of loyal readers, the need to make a strong first impression is necessary. We discuss a few tips on how to make first-time visitors happy.

About the Author – Gaurav Heera is an SEO expert and digital marketing strategist with a long career in the field spanning more than a decade. He is currently heading work at Eduburg India, an institute known for its popular digital marketing course in Delhi