
By Amanda Rodhe on in Design & Experience
Try these 8 features to make your website stickier
What’s the first thing you do when you’re considering a new purchase? If you’re like 89% of consumers, you head to a search engine to do some research.
To get your brand in front of people in the consideration stages, you need a website. But not all sites are pulling their weight for the brands they represent. The real winners encourage visitors to stick around and get to know the business.
Unlike websites with high bounce rates, which offer a subpar or frustrating experience that drives people away, sticky websites have technical features, design elements, and a solid content strategy that encourage visitors to spend more time and explore.
What are the things that make a website sticky? We’re so glad you asked.
1. A simple, intuitive layout
People like consistency. It’s why chains like Starbucks and McDonald’s are so popular—no matter what outpost you visit in the world, your Pumpkin Spice Latte or Big Mac will always taste the same.
When it comes to your website, a little creativity is okay, but don’t reimagine the core elements. There are certain conventions of business site design that are universally embraced. Visitors expect to find a CTA in the upper right or left corner, a navigation bar across the top (or a hamburger menu on mobile), and your location and hours in the footer.
If you go “Picasso in his cubist period” on the layout of your website, rearranging locations for all the standard elements, people will quickly grow frustrated and potentially leave.
2. An accessible site
Everyone benefits from an accessible site. The push for accessibility may have been driven initially by a desire to design sites that welcome differently abled and neurodiverse people. Still, an accessible site is ultimately more pleasant for everyone to navigate. Who among us—even those with 20/20 vision—wants to squint to read off-white six-point font on a light gray background? (No one.)
Designing a site that’s welcoming to viewers of all ages, abilities, and ways of operating in the world allows you to attract and hold the attention of a wider range of people.
3. Good looks
We hate to sound shallow, but it’s true: Looks matter. If your site appears outdated and clunky, it’s hard to convince prospects you’re the provider of fresh, new products or solutions.
Good design is hard. Even with the proliferation of tools like Canva and drag-and-drop site builders, it’s worth hiring a professional to build a stunning website.
4. Personalization
If you’ve read any piece about marketing in the last, say, 15 years, it’s likely told you how important personalization is. Why does it keep coming up? Because it is, in fact, essential. Seventy-one percent of consumers say they expect personalization, and 76% report getting frustrated when they don’t get it.
Personalization works best when you can track user data and then serve customized content based on a visitor’s past interactions with your brand. But if you don’t have that capability, even some basic personalization will do.
For example, if you’re a global clothing retailer, don’t show the same content at the same time on your homepage worldwide. For the hemisphere that’s in summer, display shorts and bathing suits. For the people in winter, show them parkas and big cozy sweaters.
5. A fast, responsive site
How long do you wait for a website to load before you bounce? Statistics vary, but most agree consumers typically give it less than 10 seconds before moving on. If your site is sluggish, it might be actively deterring customers.
With most searches beginning on mobile nowadays, you want your site to be fast and responsive on any size screen. A poor mobile experience, with overlapping visual elements, giant type, or crowded, unclickable buttons, also drives people away.
If you’re unsure of your site’s performance across devices, use Google Lighthouse to test its desktop and mobile performance.
If you want to get yourself in front of consumers in the consideration stages, you need a website. But not all sites are pulling their weight for the brands they represent. The real winners encourage visitors to stick around and get to know the business.
6. Clear next actions
Have you ever wandered the aisles of a brick-and-mortar store, unable to find your desired item or a salesperson to point you toward it, and left the store dejected and empty-handed?
The same thing can happen online. If you don’t clearly indicate the next steps to visitors, they might leave in frustration. Give people a path to follow, and ensure you’ve created a next step for different stages of the customer journey.
- A brand-new visitor might want to sign up for your newsletter so they can continue to get to know your business.
- A prospect who’s already done their introductory research might want a way to contact your sales team for a demo.
- An existing customer might want to check the status of their order or log into their account.
You craft these various pathways to the next action by employing a straightforward navigation menu and CTA buttons, common-sense logic and organization of materials, and clear and concise copy.
7. A lead capture element
One of the greatest things you can do to encourage continued engagement with your brand is to incorporate a lead capture element into your website.
Invite visitors to sign up for your newsletter, or ask for their email in exchange for high-value downloadable content (think: proprietary research or a statistics-filled white paper).
When visitors can leave their contact information on your site, it empowers you to reach out via email—an even more personalized channel—and to stay in touch until they’re ready to make a purchase decision.
8. Content for everyone
When we talk about creating content for everyone, there are two ways to think about this. The first is creating a diversity of content. Some people are visual learners who love videos and infographics. Others prefer to read an in-depth article or scan a how-to checklist. Auditory learners might appreciate a podcast, while experiential learners will enjoy engaging with quizzes or other interactive content.
Second, think about how you can create content that speaks to people across the customer journey. While a total neophyte might appreciate educational blog content that provides basic primers on your area of expertise, someone close to making a purchase decision might want to see a case study or in-depth competitor comparison document.
Ready to spruce up your site so it’s a place where visitors want to stick around? FATFREE can help.