3 Unknown Techniques to Boost User Engagement

You get only 2 seconds to convince your visitors about your relevance. If you fail, the visitor clicks the back button and leave your site for good. Here's how you can stop it.

According to Brian Dean, one of the most talked-about Search Engine experts of our times, you have got only two seconds to convince your visitors about your relevance.

If you fail to do that, the visitor clicks the back button and leave your site for good.

That’s bad for your site, right?

Turns out, it’s bad for Google as well.

Google wants to make sure it guides its users to the right website which offers them the right information they need.

So, if Google realizes your website is not a good fit for a search query, it will gradually drop your page from its rankings.

Therefore, you need to make sure your website gets more long clicks and fewer short clicks.

Long Clicks vs. Short Clicks

Long Clicks happen when a searcher clicks on a search result on Google, enters a site and stays there for a long time. It’s a sign of user satisfaction and Google factors it into its ranking algorithm as well.

Likewise, a short click occurs when a search clicks on a search result, enters a site and then immediately leaves the site to visit another site.

If you’re using Google Analytics, you may have noticed Google shows you the Average Session Time and Bounce Rates per page. These metrics are a strong indicator of visitors’ satisfaction.

Therefore, you can no longer sustain your search rankings if Google continuously finds your website perform poorly in user engagement metrics.

Now that you know how important the long clicks are, here are some tips to make your visitors spend more time on your site and show Google that your website is a good fit for the search queries you’re currently ranking for.

How to Convince Your Site Visitors in 2 Seconds

Proving yourself to your site visitors (both new and returning) within two seconds is hard.

However, it’s not impossible.

Brian Dean claims the following techniques can help any site owner improve the quality of their conversation and boost better engagement.

Bucket Brigades Make Your Conversation Engaging

Bucket Brigade is an attention-grabbing word or phrase in the middle of paragraphs. Bucket Brigades offer your voice a personality, making your readers feel they’re listening to someone speak in person.

As a matter of fact, copywriters have been using for decades. However, it holds a key role in making your tone more engaging, especially when your content is fairly long.

Here are some examples of Bucket Brigades…

Here’s the deal:

But there’s a catch.

What’s the real story?

How can you actually use this?

The best part?

Why does this matter?

That’s not all…

As you can see, each of the examples above is meant to draw your attention towards the next point, prompting you to read further.

Brian says he’s been able to boost the average session duration on his site by following this method.

If you’re looking for more examples of bucket brigades, here’s a great piece for you.

Write Benefits-driven Sub-headings

Apart from bucket brigades, writing sub-headings can also help your readers skim through your content easily. However, you cannot just use random words to split your content into paragraphs.

You need to make your sub-heading sounds compelling and keep the readers hooked to the content.

You can do this simply by showing benefits to your readers. By writing benefits-driven sub-headings, you give your readers a preview of what’s in store for them.

Here’s an example:

01_boost-user-engagement

This is a screenshot from Brian Dean’s guide on SEO Copywriting which contains many attractive sub-headings.

Use APP Formula to Seduce the Visitors

The APP Formula (also Agree-Promise-Preview) is a framework that is designed to make your content live up to (and surpass) site visitors’ expectations.

So, how do you do that?

Agree: When you write a piece of content for your target audience, make sure you understand their state of mind. In other words, someone finds that you know their pain points and feelings, they’re much more likely to stick around.

The first couple of sentences should offer show empathy, making the visitors establishing an emotional connection with you right off the bat.

Here’s an example, again from Brian Dean’s blog.

02_boost-user-enagemenet-on-your-website

As you can see, Brian has used the first sentence to empathize with the visitors because he knows how they must be feeling about the problem.

Once he gets them to agree with him, he promises them a solution to their problem.

And, finally, he gives them a previews of what the post has in store for them.

This is exactly how he keeps his visitors engaged and asking for more.

The result?

He boosts his site engagements and therefore, higher rankings.

Have you ever used any of these techniques to boost engagements on your site? Let me know in the comments below.

About Susanta Sahoo

I'm the founder and content marketing head at Top League. Our team can help you build great content that helps you rank high on Google and generate high-quality leads. Get in touch with us and let's discuss your project. I'm on LinkedIn & Twitter, just so you know.