5 Ways to Keep Readers on Your Blog Longer

This is a guest post by Jessica Sanders.

reader stay longer Keeping your blog updated, looking good and sporting solid posts can be difficult and time consuming. In our crowded blogosphere, you need to stand out. I extend a warm congratulation if you’ve achieved that.

Now that you have, though, you want people to do more than read one post and move on. While great content will invite readers to continue through to other posts, attention spans wane, and it’s easy to lose even an interested reader.

Get your readers to linger a little longer with 5 simple steps.

  1. Link within the blog

    You don’t write a great blog post for it to be archived three days later. If you have posts that can be made relevant again through another post, use it! When you link to other stories within your blog, it encourages further exploration. Not only does this give your story more meat, but shows the reader that there are more interesting posts they have yet to discover. Regardless of whether they leave after that first post or not, you’ve given them reason to come back.

  2. Related posts plug-in 

    When your visitor finishes the post they came for, you intend for them to move onto another. What you should remember here is that the reader isn’t going to want to work, so you have to do it for them. By installing a related post plug-in you’ll be able to help them easily access another article they’ll like with a simple click. No looking around, no fussing with your archives or home page. Most plug-ins allow for customization as well. You can decide how it chooses the posts based on content, title, tags, etc.

  3. Video content

    While people love great written content, video takes the cake. With over 48 hours of content being uploaded on YouTube every minute, web surfers are becoming more and more attached to online video content. Even better, there are two positives to adding video.

    • At the very least, giving the reader a video to watch simply means that they will spend an extra few seconds on the post than they would have before.
    • Adding video can also help broaden your readership. While many people bounce through blogs because they enjoy reading great content, YouTube gets over 2 billion views a day.
  4. Suggest another post

    At the end of every post you want to present your reader with a suggestion to do something. When you compel readers to interact within your blog, you’re inviting exploration. There are a few ways you can do this.

    • You can ask a question and suggest they give their opinion in the comments section. That extra two minutes they take to comment might make the difference between whether they look around more or not.
    • You can suggest they check back in a couple days for a follow up blog, etc. If you’ve put together a good post, this will give them a reason to come back when they have more time.
    • You can point them in the direction of a previous post that backs your point or emphasizes what you’ve discussed in the text. If you gained their trust in the article, they are likely to read another one based on your recommendation.
  5. Make use of your widgets

    Within your blog, you can do so much more than write a post. With the addition of widgets, you can add more depth. Giving your readers more to interact with will give them a reason to stay longer.

    • You can use a Polling Widget for multiple things, including emphasizing or enhancing a particular post.
    • A Top Commenters widget may give avid readers a reason to be more active, coming back to read and comment more frequently.
    • Adding a Twitter Widget can give them better access to your posts. A Technorati study found that more than half of bloggers use Twitter to promote their posts. Assuming this is a tactic you use, they can easily click through to new blogs as they are updated on your Twitter feed.

Your blog is your baby. For those of you who put a significant amount of time into crafting great posts, there is a sense of pride in the work that you do. Whether for personal or business, you want to get the most out of the hard work put in. By enacting various tactics you can get your readers to stay longer, and perhaps grow your readership as well. You put a lot of effort in your content, so don’t let it all go to waste.

Image credit: Michal Marcol / FreeDigitalPhotos.net


About the author
Jessica Sanders is an avid small business writer touching on topics from social media to merchant services. She writes for an online resource that gives advice on topics including credit card processing for b2b lead generation resource, Resource Nation.

26 comments to "5 Ways to Keep Readers on Your Blog Longer"

Anonymous,  January 31, 2012 at 11:08 AM    

these steps have been discussed before but your post post hit straight to the point, lovely. i'm still contemplating video and twitter, though :)

Arham Sukardi January 31, 2012 at 6:43 PM    

thanks for share master..

Omemee Pigeon eFlyer (editor) January 31, 2012 at 9:00 PM    

Great post.  Something else Bloggger Sentral demonstrates is the importance of having outside links open in a new tabor window.  I discovered  two more ideas being implemented  as well at the Technorati article as well. Offering a podcast of the content, and posting a list of guest bloggger's article. We have a number of regular guest writers,, and this would work well for us..

zulkbo February 1, 2012 at 12:56 AM    

salam..
alway the best tips
thanks Bro :)

Md Shaiful islam Talukder February 1, 2012 at 1:26 AM    

I Vote for this site Social media Awards 2012. I requested another Vote for this site.

Party Labour February 1, 2012 at 7:58 AM    

thats great , thanks

branded items February 2, 2012 at 6:58 PM    

linking to another post or showing related post can trigger the reader to read another content. Especially if you post good articles that they seem useful and informative. After they read they will try to find another stuff within your site. And this is were the related videos, post and top articles do it's part to attract the viewer.

Trading Pro System Review February 2, 2012 at 10:47 PM    

Thanks,i have been having problems adding social network icons on my blog,but now you've solved the problem for me.Thanks

Spatch Merlin from How to Blog February 3, 2012 at 9:09 AM    

I am inserting videos everytime I publish a new posts. And I have seen great effects on my traffic. About the links within your site, it also is great in making use of old blogs. Great ideas!

Spatch Merlin
How to Blog Guide

Usemeplz February 5, 2012 at 10:07 PM    

Thanks for this manual! In 2012 I have reducing the number of blog hits, and I hope that these ways can help me.

Loc February 8, 2012 at 5:58 AM    

I totally agree with you about having a video in your blog. In the past, I wanted to try something new so embedded a video into my post. A lot of people tend to go to the post with a video in it, the video was from one of my youtube.

blackberry developers February 8, 2012 at 5:52 PM    

I think that another point may be addded to this list - you may notify about new article through the profiles in different social networks. Thus your followers and friends will know that something new appeared on your blog.
And surely the use of viedos on your site will increade its popularity. The only thing is that sometimes it's hard o find intereting and relevant videos.

Linda@Facebook script February 8, 2012 at 8:10 PM    

Great post ...adding up images and video to a post really makes it more attractive ..pretty cool idea ..i hope this os happening nowadays in many posts

Prayag Verma February 9, 2012 at 2:20 PM    

Really helpful tips. I am trying to get started with the videos things for my blog

Greenlava February 10, 2012 at 2:11 AM    

Thank you all for the comments.
Adding a video to a post is going to be on my to-do list this year.

kewin February 10, 2012 at 6:15 PM    

5 simple tips but very useful for me.Great post ..

Unknown February 19, 2012 at 2:34 AM    

Really helpful tips. I am trying to get started with the videos things for my blog
salam..
alway the best tips
thanks Bro :)

iPhone February 19, 2012 at 3:14 AM    

Really loved reading your tips, i'll be adding a video in my blog...:) It was very well authored and easy to understand, appreciated

Erick herianto February 25, 2012 at 10:09 PM    

Really like your post,,nice to meet you

Ajnabii March 10, 2012 at 10:22 AM    

Really awesome post you shared with us! i like points, Videos in post, related post and Poll idea is also good.

Thanks for sharing.

Shazy March 28, 2012 at 6:09 AM    

Thanks YOur For Sharing This Post :)

Crawl Space May 20, 2012 at 10:26 PM    

I am glad I found your site. I have been working for days trying to get the buttons on my site to line up. I tryed to cange the CSS style on the like button..on and on..thank you for a solution that works!

CIK TOM July 11, 2012 at 12:50 PM    

thanks for this excellent tips!!

Honeybee August 1, 2012 at 2:37 PM    

i should experiment with adding video on my blog too. thanks for the brilliant idea.

click September 21, 2012 at 7:54 PM    

These tips like using plug – ins, video content and links makes a blog interesting and makes a person spent time on it. But I think that above all, the style of writing is important. Using jokes in an article will make it interesting.

visit the site January 2, 2013 at 9:08 PM    

Blogging has become a popular way of sharing thoughts and ideas to the general public. Reading quality blogs has made me surprised and helped me know about things that I might not otherwise know. Your post about the importance of keeping the readers engaged and wanting to come back to the same site is really informative and practical.

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