TIP OF THE MONTH: 3 reasons visitors don't come back to your website, and what you can do about it

October 29, 2009 | Posted by Carolyn Pikoulas
So, you got your website up and running, and the analytics say that you're getting new visitors every day. Great! But what the analytics might also be showing is that those unique visitors are never coming back to your site. This is not a good sign because it takes about 7 brand impressions for a visitor to become a customer. How can you get your visitor to come back to your site more than once? To give you a hint, here are three popular excuses that visitors make for not returning to a site again:

1. "Been there, done that."
   Why would anyone want to visit a website more than once if there's never anything new to learn? You must keep your site updated with fresh content. And the content needs to be interesting or valuable to your customers. For instance, having articles or short stories related to your business may help to spark interest. Or try offering a nice discount or unique service every so often.
2. "The other guy had the answer I was looking for."
   If your website doesn't have the answer that a visitor's looking for, they'll move on to a website that does. Make sure to put yourself in your prospect's shoes and anticipate what they want to know. The problem is: you won't know what they want unless you take a look at your web analytics. Yes - it's geeky, but you need to see what people are clicking on and, more importantly, NOT clicking on. Without testing and measuring how effective the content and links are within your web pages, you're basically shooting darts in the air while blindfolded...with one hand tied behind your back...and arthritis in your other hand. Without testing, there's no way to improve.
3. "This is boring."
   Think about why you visit certain websites everyday. For example, why is DrudgeReport so popular? It only includes the most popular, entertaining news articles of the day, and it makes people talk. And it has new content every single day. How else can you explain how such an awfully ugly site has remained the same design for over a decade?
   
   Just because you're not a news organization, doesn't mean that your website can't be interesting or entertaining. This is where good ol' fashioned creativity comes into play. Why not add a little humor to your site? Or offer visitors a free gift for signing up for your newsletter (even if it's something of a joke, like "Today's FREE Bit of Wisdom"). Or have a place where people can post comments on your site - people love to give their opinions.

Not only are repeat visitors closer to buying a product or service from you, they're helping your website become more popular on search engines. This means your website isn't finished when your web designer launches it. It means you need to constantly find ways to keep it fresh.