Page view metrics Vs. User engagement metrics
Right from the early days of WWW, many webmasters and website designers are keen on getting and increasing the traffic to their websites. Funneling traffic to a website is the foremost thing in the SEO business and at the same time we should keep in mind that the ‘User Engagement’ process also plays a significant role in improving the effectiveness of a website.
Need for User Engagement
Website designer’s needs to have clear idea about how to keep the visitors engaged once they visit a website. Page view metrics are essentials for a website to rank high in all the major search engines. But it is also important to note that bounce rates and immediate click-backs that are caused by lack of user engagement will result in a pull-down of your search engine rank. To avoid this, a web designer should focus on methods to genuinely engage the visitors.This can be achieved by reducing the information overload and by creating simple and easy navigation.
Threats & Facts
The information overload has been the biggest threat for a user engagement process. It will leave a bad impression about the website or may be about the business. As the researchers at the University of Missouri say, this information overload will make a brain cancel out its understanding and retention. Whether it is software or website, the major design principle is ‘keeping it simple’. This is the mantra that you always have to chant if your goal is to achieve better user engagement. Also ensure that the content motivates a visitor rather than irritating him/her. If the content can’t motivate the visitors then your website is not brain friendly and you will tend to fail in influencing your visitors. When the visitors are ready to invest their time on your website, you are supposed to gleefully accept it with both hands by making them genuinely engaged.
The research at the University of Missouri also says that there are two different types of viewers. One type of visitors will use all the features of the website and the other type will be cautious in using the features. Presenting the information clearly and making them easily accessible is the best way to engage the cautious visitors since hard navigation's will frustrate them more.
Finally,
SEO is not just about page view metrics. The effective user engagement holds the key for creating successful websites. Remember the fact that the success of the website relies on not only the content, but also by the method it uses to engage the visitors.