Thursday, October 29, 2009

How do I keep readers on your page longer?

Have you ever noticed that when you visit a website and see a link how sometimes it opens in the same window and sometimes it opens in a new tab or window?

This is because of how you insert your hyper-links to open. An example would be in GOOGLE Blogs while you are in posting mode. At the top you see where the link is, hilight the word that you want to link from and than your done. Think again, you are not done and you are losing visitors when you use this quick little short cut.

When you click on the Edit HTML link in your blog posting window and search for the string that says Your link you are missing one thing. This is the link you need to open your reference link in a new tab and/or window. After the word URL you want to add target="_blank".  Click here for more information on how to open a hyper-link in a new tab.



Now your reader will have a new tab open, and your blog will still be open at the same time in the original tab. This simple little trick lets the reader eventually go back and visit your site and probably will also remember what other topics on your site caught their eye in the first place upon visiting your blog.

On my Elizabeth's Hot Topics blog, if you hover your mouse over the CoolText link just below my site's logo you will notice that it is one of the top 10 links. When you click on it you will also notice that the link opens in a new tab. If the reader likes my logo idea and want to use it they can, and after clicking on it I still have my reader.