Increase Organic Interactions on your Website:
Doing SEO in the Philippines, or elsewhere for that matter, is like solving a puzzle. The crawlers are getting smarter, but specialists have all the tools, tactics, and even best practices to outsmart – not game – the search engine’s ever-innovative system.
This is also important that the users are in the pursuit of new devices to use. Nonetheless, their expectations regarding the digital experience stay the same. As a website, you ought to provide for that experience.
From bounce rates to eventual drop in ranking and traffic, how and how long a user spends time on the page matter to SEO. The question: how can SEO specialists increase organic interactions on the website for the users to stay longer engaging with its content, among others? What can the specialists advocate for their clients’ sites?
Here’s the H-O-W.
Table of Contents
#1) Prioritize interactive web design
Before anything else, know that: interactivity is at the heart of engagement. Interactive web design is not just about how easy navigation is, although this is fundamental. It also means finding new and appropriate ways to deliver the content of the page and giving the users an option to contribute.
Going back to navigation, make sure that the navigation is the go-to element on the website, wherever the user may be on the site. The navigation bar must tell exactly where they are upon clicking a section or tab.
#2) Publish engaging content
This is non-negotiable—content is the biggest traffic driver onto the website, and it should also be the reason for staying there. Boring content scares the user away, affecting your bounce rate in the process too. Content can be texts as well as videos, images, infographics, GIFs, and memes. The goal is to mix textual and visual content on a page and make them relevant and contextual to what the page is about.
Another form of content that is gaining the buzz now is user-generated content (UGC). Inviting a comment is the most common UGC nowadays. Some other forms are reviews, testimonials, and on-site discussions. Contests that require submissions of illustrations and short-clips are getting popular these days as well.
#3) Integrate micro-interactions
In delighting your users, the website may use micro-interactions. These interactions create the moments that your users deserve and are more humane than other elements on the page.
You have seen one for sure but just didn’t notice how such elements make the experience as seamless as possible. Examples are prompts like swipe left or put your info here. Apart from that, when inputting the password, filling up a form, or reading a blog, you see a progress bar to tell you where you are at exactly. Animated buttons are another example of micro-interaction.
#4) Put clear calls to action (CTAs)
A CTA can be a micro-interaction too. However, it must tell what it wants the users to do precisely and stand out on the page. Strong and relevant CTAs mostly grab the attention of the users. As such, these buttons compel the users to take action and convert.
Not just clear CTAs, though, but the wittiest you can get. Gone those days when you hyperlink to ‘click here.’ Some great examples are below.
- Swipe left for more (to view all the slides or gallery)
- Better with sound on (to click the sound button)
- Your voice matters (to join the survey)
- Discover more (to browse other content or pages)
Then again, the words you use are just one aspect. The CTA must be clickable or tappable, in the right size, blend in with the rest of the elements on the page despite the emphasis on standing out.
#5) Encourage social shares
Social sharing buttons encourage the users to share the information they found on your website with others. SEO-wise, the process increases referral traffic. Also, users who interact with social sharing tools tend to become loyal brand followers than those who don’t.
At the page level, of course, you need to make the content as share-worthy as possible. One way to do this is by answering their questions, providing a tutorial on how to use your products or other not-so-well-known hacks about the product, in general.
6) Encourage more actions
Options are endless—from subscribing to the newsletter to answering a survey. Share, click, vote, browse, select, pick, search, and comment is other words that you can use to encourage actions. A pop-up chat window that is common in real estate websites may also do the trick.
The most important thing in increasing organic interactions on the page level is the connection. Even when these are micro-interactions on the website, when they don’t connect with the users positively, they will still leave.
Your website should be functional and entertaining at the same time. If the users find their time on the site as a pleasant experience, they will stay and come back later. If they find it annoying, they will immediately close the browser and find another website, staying away from your site for good.
Don’t be that annoying website!
