1 Simple Step To Keeping Visitors On Your Blog

We’ve all been there. It starts with one article on a blog you have never come across before. You start to read – the content is good. Very good. The subject matter strikes a chord with you.

The post links to various other articles within the content, and before long, you have 5 tabs open on your browser. It is overwhelming, but in a good way. There is just so much content to read. You find yourself signing up to the blogger’s RSS feed and email list without hesitation – after all, if just one article has placed all of this quality content in front of you, the blogger must have a great deal more to offer.

That is the power of effectively interlinking your posts. It may not sound like much, but trust me, it can make all the difference.

Old Content Doesn’t Have To Go MIA

The greatest weakness of many a blog is the way in which archived content is presented (or not, as the case may be). It is not unusual for historical posts to almost be lost for good once they have fallen off the front page.

But fear not – there are highly effective ways of keeping your old content exposed, and linking to old articles from new posts is definitely one of the best methods. If a reader likes your content and you put a link to even more relevant content right in front of them, they won’t be able to help themselves.

What About Categories And Tags?

You may argue that you have categories and tags for readers to find your archived content. Whilst those two navigation options are helpful for any reader, by far the most effective way to lead your audience is to place links within the content they are reading. Don’t force them to look for fresh content – put it right in front of them.

That 1 Simple Step I Mentioned…

So, I want you to add one simple step to your article publishing process. Just take a couple of minutes once you have finished a post to see if there are any opportunities to link back to old posts within the content of your new article. I personally like to quickly scan over the headlines of previous articles to see if anything sticks out. Alternatively, you might look at posts in the same category/categories, or with the same tags.

Turn Your Blog Into An Engagement Production Line

The key is to always keep your reader rolling onto new content. You do not want them to get to the end of your article and not know what to do next. Think of each article as a conveyor belt – each one should lead to at least one more (and if your conveyor belt leads into several more, all the better).

Creative commons images courtesy of Antony Stanley and Pawel Kadysz

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