One Method For Increasing Time On Site
Blogs are notorious for having a high bounce rate. It’s not necessarily a bad thing. Blog readers typically read the latest blog post and move on to something else so they aren’t clicking from page to page to read the information. New readers might, but loyal readers won’t.
But also keep in mind that loyal readers may not necessarily read every blog post. They do have their own lives, after all. They’ll read the posts that interest them, for sure. But they will likely just read those and not many more. One way to keep those readers on your blog longer and increase your time on site is to write a series of posts on the same topic. Here are my recommendations for making a good series:
- Write an introduction to the series first. It doesn’t need to be long. Just provide a good introduction and tell readers what to expect from upcoming posts along with an outline of your series. This doesn’t necessarily need to spell out what each individual post will be about, but it does need to cover your entire series so that readers can know what they will be getting. It builds reader expectation.
- Strict to your outline religiously. If you do need to change it have a good reason and state to your readers why you are veering from the outline.
- After you have written each new post in the series, go back to the previous post and add a link at the bottom of the post that gives readers a chance to read the next in the series without having to back up to the home page and click another link. Make it easy for them. This not only keeps your readers in the loop, but it also builds link juice from post to post and you’ll have more readers overall. As those posts age and you start getting more organic traffic from the search engines, new readers of the blog will be able to follow the series easily.
- Don’t make your posts too long. Try to break down each part of the series to a readable level. If you write more than half a dozen paragraphs in any one blog post, add subheads to break up the text, and it wouldn’t be a bad thing to add graphics either.
- Don’t make the series too long. Shorter series do much better. You can have a 5-7 blog post series with no problems, but when you start talking about 30 posts in one series then you are talking about a big commitment for your readers. You are likely to lose some of them.
Don’t do too many series posts, but every now and then it’s OK to add a series to keep your readers on their toes. Your loyal blog readers will love it and new blog readers will get a chance to see what you have to offer in a continuous strain. Building blog loyalty takes time. Time on site is one measure of loyalty, but don’t swear by it.
