10 Ways to Engage Readers on your Blog

On my previous posts I had mentioned the various ways on how to increase blog traffic and readers. But have you thought about how long your readers stay on your blog?

Check your stats to find out. If an average reader on your blog stays less than 2 minutes, you have to improve your blog to make them stay longer. You must aim to increase your blogs page views and readers length of stay. Here are a few tips I have applied to my blog.

1. Related Posts: A casual surfer that reaches your blog through Search Engines will skim your post to check whether it’s the information he needs. If it’s what he is looking for, chances are that he will leave as soon as he finishes reading. Why? It’s because he was only interested on that topic and probably got what he wanted. If not he might try searching on other sites.So how do you make such readers stay longer on your blog? The answer is simple, by providing them with more information related to the topic.

   If you are using WordPress, there is a simple plugin that returns a list of the related entries based on active/passive keyword matches found on a post. You can find it here.

   Place the list of related entries at the end of every post so that as soon as the reader finishes reading the post he can find more related interesting stuff and can stay longer on your blog.

   Those of you using other blog platforms might also find similar plugins.

2. Linking to previous posts: If you are writting a post that mentions something related to what you have written before simply link to it from within the post. This helps in engaging your readers by providing them more related stuff that they are likely to be interested in.This method is simple and effective at the same time.
3. Link to your Top Posts: As I have mentioned on a previous post, you should collect all the top posts of your blog and place them on a page called ‘Top Posts‘. Link to the page under every post. This will help your readers find more interesting articles easily and will also increase your blogs page views at the same time.
4. Link to Categories: It’s also a good idea to provide links to the Categories of your blog on the sidebar of every page, just like I have done on my sidebar. This will encourage your readers to find more posts on the same topic. This might be already done on your blog depending on the theme you are using. On K2, I did not have this advantage.You could also link to your Archives page.
5. Write a Series: Writing a series of posts on a topic is a great way of increasing your readers length of stay. For WordPress users there is a plugin called In Series that can help you provide navigation controls for next/previous within a connected series of posts.
6. Provide a Search Feature: Most blog platforms already have a search feature which enables users to search your blog for other posts. Again for WordPress users there is a plugin called Search Meter that keeps track of what your visitors are searching for. It even displays the keywords that did not have any results. Write posts on these topics to keep your readers engaged in the future.
7. Provide a Service: Provide a service like my WordPress Skin Library to increase your readers length of stay.
8. Encourage CommentsEncourage comments on your blog by asking questions at the end of each post. When a reader comments reply to the comments and try to keep the conversation going. Soon you will find other readers joining the conversation.For WordPress users, there is a plugin called Subscribe To Comments that allows readers to recieve notifications of new comments that are posted to an entry. This helps readers to continue the conversation and helps you to keep your readers engaged.
9. Quality Content: Writing lots of quality content will make your readers stay more. They are more likely to search your blog archives for other posts if you give them more quality content.In short, you must try not to lose your readers interest by giving them more articles that they might be interested in.

   You can use Popularity Contest, a WordPress Plugin, to display the most popular posts of your blog just like I have done on my sidebar.

   You may also display the not so popular posts randomly, if you wish, with the Random Post Wordpress Plugin.

10. Making your blog more interactive: Readers will want to stay longer on a blog that is interactive. There are many things you can do to make your blog interactive like starting a forum or conducting a quiz or poll.You can also start a Project and involve you readers in it. Another great way of making your blog interactive is to start a contest. People will come and participate if you are willing to offer a prize.

There’s no doubt that there are more ways to engage readers on your blog. What would you do to make your readers stay longer? I would love to hear your experiences in comments below.