Administrator’s Corner

The number of web pages on the Internet is closing in on 1 billion. It’s easy to point to industry research showing that retaining web site visitors may be the primary challenge for anyone wanting to succeed in the Internet marketplace.

Getting customers to your site is indeed half the battle, but retaining traffic is what really counts. Customer retention is synonymous with success. While this may sound simple, many companies do not spend any time or effort on this concept. Stores in traditional shopping malls constantly offer sales, discounts, coupons, or helpful information to entice that important return visit. Most websites fail to meet the needs of their visitors or offer any incentive to return. Does your site give the user what they really want? How about your competitor’s site?

What to do? Most people connect to the web at an average connection speed of 33k. Think of them when you plan your site. Compress the graphics you use into faster loading sizes. People don’t want to wait around for your page to load. Most graphics can be under 4k in size. To further improve download speeds, use text as opposed to graphics wherever possible. The largest text loads faster than the smallest graphic.

Some useful tools for attracting return visitors are dynamic news, weather and stock tickers. These simple, (usually free) tools add ever-changing content without increasing any real maintenance requirements at your end. People like to see things changing.

In summary; minimize the download speeds for your page and add interesting content to your site. Give your visitors a reason to come back. Do it and you’re on the road to retaining those valuable clients. Oh yeah…Don’t forget those coupons!