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We all do it, go to a website, scroll through the page, then leave because we don’t find anything appealing to read. But working so hard to get the readers to your blog, if you are just getting site-scrollers, it is pretty much pointless. How can you lessen the site-scrolling and increase the actual reading?
A few simple steps:
-Add pictures throughout your post- Even though you may be adding pictures at the top of your post, if you tend to have little graphics throughout, it breaks the post up into smaller parts, along with the probability of a reader seeing something they like leading them to read the whole post. While adding pictures is good, don’t add too many where the post is just a picture post- unless it is a picture post, then add as many as you like!
-Change the font through your blog- I don’t think you need to change the font within the same post, however changing the font from post to post, can surely draw more attention to individual posts.
-Make it easier to be able to tell advertising from content- Some “money maker” bloggers might say that this is a bad idea if you want to increase ad revenue, but think about it yourself…when you are visiting someone else’s website, doesn’t it annoy you when you get interrupted with a big advertisement, or worse yet, you can’t tell the ad from the content and you actually click the ad, then the whole read is messed up because you are diverted to a different site.
-Don’t have a crowded site- While you don’t want to have a dull site with only text, don’t make your site the next Million Dollar Homepage and garble the readers with a bunch of content, leading them to just be lost within your site that they actually don’t read anything. Also try to make it easy to tell one blog post from another- I have visited a few blogs that barely have spacing between posts. This makes people just scroll through from start to end.
-Remove that “Are you subscribed to my newsletter?” pop-up- I’m pretty sure that the pop-up window is getting people to subscribe to your newsletter, but is that the first thing you want people to see when they visit your blog? I personally believe that the first thing that readers see when they visit your site, usually the title of your first post, should intrigue people to actually stick around.
-Lose the sales pitch- Often times I visit blogs where the blogger is trying to sell something to the readers or get them to sign up for something, while it may not be a bad thing, when visitors see that, it makes them feel like the whole blog is just a big garage sale. When people visit garage sales, they don’t analyze products like they do when they are at a real store buying something. It’s either a go or no go.
-Have a great site design!- This is, by far, one of the most important things to have in order to get people interested, instead of just scrolling your site. I will admit, I do visit sites that have a really interesting design or layout and sometimes I just stare at it. When visitors see something cool, they take a minute to soak in the goodness!
Do you have any thoughts on how to lessen the site-scrolling?
