Using Interactive Features to Captivate Visitors

A successfully designed website will attract visitors. But you don’t want those visitors to briefly land on your home page only to quickly navigate away. You want them to stay a while. And better yet, you want them to keep coming back.

There are a lot of ways to do this. First, your site should be easy to use. Design-wise, fancy graphics, images, and other visual stimulation are more likely to interest visitors than line after line of text.


However, sites that respond to the viewer using interactive features hold a viewer's attention and keep them coming back for more.

At this stage in the web development field, there are literally thousands of options in interactive features available. Some are fairly simple and then are others are quite sophisticated. For example, one interactive feature might be an image or slideshow that changes when the viewer clicks on it. It’s pretty simple, but at least the site isn’t completely static.

You might also include a site search engine allowing them to easily find information on your site. Simply have them sign your guest book or sign up for your newsletter. In other words, give them something to do on your site besides read and leave them with something to look forward to: a special message in their inbox, coupon, or other incentive.

You can also give your visitors the opportunity to learn more about your industry or test their own knowledge on your site. Post games, puzzles, quizzes, polls, or even multiple choice tests to give your visitors the opportunity to learn something interactively and spend a few minutes lingering on your site.

Establishing a changing section of your site via a news bulletin, blog, or other information source will give your visitors a reason to return. Establish a blog or news reel on your sight that visitors can regularly check into and expect to see new information. Better yet, allow them the opportunity to comment or post questions on your blog.


With the rising popularity of social media, it’s clear that internet users really like to interact with each other.

Interactive features that allow users to leave a lasting impact on your site and interact with you or even other visitors will definitely strike a chord. Discussion forums and message boards give visitors the opportunity to engage other visitors and stay tuned in to your site to maintain conversations on the message boards.

In general, it’s good to be constantly improving, updating, and adding to your website. Stores that are always changing their inventory experience more repeat visitors and business than those with the same merchandise year after year. Give your customers a reason to come back by guaranteeing they’ll see new and fresh content on a regular basis.

Interactive features give your customers the ability to engage you, your business, and your website in a way that’s more meaningful than a one dimensional website of only pictures and text. Give them something to do to attract new visitors and keep the old ones coming back.

 

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