Thanks to Andy Jones, Technical Team Leader for writing this article.

I have been using the Internet and visiting websites for over 14 years. As a keen sportsman and avid golfer, the first website I ever frequently revisited was www.golf.com. The content on this site included PGA tournament results, news headlines, equipment reviews, educational resources and an online golf game. A leaderboard displaying the best daily scores enticed me back to the website, as I vowed to claim the bragging rights associated with being ensconced firmly atop the rankings.

Although I was 14 years of age, I understood the underlying concept. The www.golf.com website marketing team wanted to keep me on their website for as long as possible and keep me interested in returning to their website. There are a heap of golf websites online, but the team at www.golf.com had the best strategy to maintain user interest and website revisits. The key ingredient in their digital marketing arsenal was INTERACTIVITY.

It is a common occurrence to see a website sport fantastic search engine rankings and a high bounce rate due to the lack of interesting content or interactivity on their website. I want to step you through some crucial weapons that will help maintain revisiting users through interactivity.

Host a blog and ask for user feedback. This is a simple and effective way to prevent your website from becoming a ghost-town. Provide information to your audience on how you can help them achieve their aspirations. Provide your audience with interesting and engaging content. Ask them questions and encourage them to respond. Why not even take a back seat and make your audience become the contributors? Ask for topics and set discussion themes. For best results, you’ll need to respond as quickly as possible, otherwise the novelty can easily wear off.

Run a webinar on a relevant topic to your industry. Webinars do not have to be formal, in fact you can pre-create a webinar. A fantastic website to help you setup your own webinar is www.slideshare.com.

Encourage audience interactivity on your website by providing them with tools. Loft client Endeavour Financial Services have loan calculators, while Loft client OptimumHMS has an energy profile. Loft client Tom Smitheringale of One Man Epic has expedition tools on his website, informing users about the climate and conditions associated with his record breaking North Pole expedition. If you can provide your audience with interactive features that aid your sales process, you’re saving yourself time and money.

Share your information using social media. If Facebook was a country, it would be the 10^th largest in the world. With this in mind, you should snare the opportunity to share your content with an audience that substantial. You can use Digg, StumbleUpon or Twitter to achieve the same result. Establish a list of followers, and you’re on your way.

While interactivity is essential in creating return visitors, you should also ensure your content is written for PEOPLE and not SEARCH ENGINES. Too often I stumble across a website that has been keyword stuffed to take advantage of search engine algorithms. The SERP results might be fantastic, but if the website content is boring, this can contribute to a high bounce rate.

Last of all, proof reading your content is essential. Simple spelling mistakes such as ‘thankyou’ (sic) or using the wrong variation of there/their/they’re even your/you’re is enough to discourage a user from revisiting your website.

With these tactics in mind, feel free to contact The Loft Group for advice on how to turbo-charge your website and hit the ground with the wheels spinning.