If you check your blog‘s analytics right now, chances are you‘ll see a sobering statistic – over 75% of your visitors never come back after their first visit. In fact, the average blog only has around a 20-30% return visitor rate.
This means the vast majority of people who land on your blog posts won‘t stick around for long. They‘ll read that one article that brought them to your site, and then they‘re gone, likely never to be seen again.
Obviously, this isn‘t ideal. As a blogger, you want to build a loyal audience of regular readers who keep coming back for more of your content. One-time visitors are better than nothing, but return visitors are far more valuable. They‘re more likely to share your posts, engage with your content, join your email list, and eventually buy your products or services.
So why do so many blog visitors vanish after a single visit? And more importantly, what can you do to fix it and start getting more people to come back to your blog? Let‘s dive into the main reasons your visitors aren‘t returning, and the steps you can take to turn more one-time readers into loyal fans.
Why Your Blog Visitors Don‘t Come Back
There are a few key reasons why such a high percentage of visitors abandon your blog, likely never to return:
1. Poor User Experience
When someone clicks through to your blog post, you only have a few seconds to make a positive first impression before they hit the back button. If your blog is slow, cluttered, confusing to navigate, or not optimized for the visitor‘s device, many people won‘t bother sticking around – there are plenty of other blogs they can check out instead.
Some of the biggest user experience issues that drive visitors away include:
- Slow page load times (anything longer than 2-3 seconds)
- A cluttered, busy design with too many distracting elements
- Not being mobile responsive or mobile-friendly
- Inconsistent, confusing navigation
- Annoying pop-ups or ads that block the content
- Text that is hard to read due to font, size or formatting
If you want visitors to stay on your blog longer than a few seconds and feel compelled to browse additional posts, you need to create a seamless, intuitive user experience. Your blog should load lightning fast, have a clean and uncluttered design, be easy to navigate, and provide a great reading experience on any device.
2. No Way to Reach Them After They Leave
The other major reason you lose so many visitors is that once they leave your site, you have no way to contact them again. Unless they decide to return to your blog on their own, you can‘t reach out to let them know about your latest post or bring them back to your site.
The only surefire way to stay in touch with your visitors is to get them on an email list. With their email address, you can send them your new blog posts, exclusive content, product promotions, and anything else to keep them engaged and coming back for more.
The problem is, the average blog only converts about 2% of visitors into email subscribers. To grow your list, you need highly visible signup forms and compelling lead magnets that entice people to hand over their email. More on that later.
Beyond email, browser push notifications are another powerful re-engagement channel most bloggers neglect. These allow you to send clickable pop-up messages to a subscriber‘s desktop or mobile device, even when they don‘t have your site open. According to PushCrew, the average click rate for push notifications is 12% – much higher than email.
3. Your Content Doesn‘t Deliver on Its Promise
You‘ve probably had the frustrating experience of clicking an enticing headline that promises amazing insights or information, only to find the actual post falls well short of expectations. Maybe the content is thin, vague, or just rehashes obvious points you‘ve seen a hundred times before.
When this happens, not only do visitors quickly bounce from that page, they lose trust in your blog overall. They‘re much less likely to click your headlines in the future, since they don‘t expect your content to deliver.
Your blog post headlines shouldn‘t just be click-bait to get traffic – they need to honestly reflect what your post will cover and then fully deliver on that promise. You‘re far better off attracting fewer visitors who stick around and read the full post than getting lots of clicks but immediately losing the traffic.
4. Your Content is Hard to Read and Digest
Even if the substance of your post is good, the way it‘s formatted and presented can turn readers off and send them fleeing for the back button. With so much content to choose from online, people have limited patience for blog posts that are difficult or unpleasant to read.
Some common mistakes that make blog posts hard to read include:
- Walls of text with overly long paragraphs
- No subheadings to break up content and highlight key points
- Lack of visual elements like images, videos, blockquotes, etc.
- Inconsistent or hard to read formatting
- Distracting advertisements or pop-ups in the content
Making your posts more scannable and visually appealing can dramatically increase engagement and time on page. Use short paragraphs, lots of headlines, bold text for key phrases, bullet points, and relevant images to enhance the reading experience.
How to Fix Your Blog‘s User Experience
Now that we‘ve diagnosed the main reasons you‘re losing visitors, let‘s look at some solutions. Improving your blog‘s user experience is one of the most impactful steps you can take to increase engagement and get more repeat visitors.
1. Improve Page Load Times
The longer your blog takes to load, the more visitors you‘ll lose. According to Google, 53% of mobile visitors will abandon a page that takes over 3 seconds to load. Yet the average mobile landing page takes 15 seconds to fully load. Yikes.
Some ways to speed up your blog include:
- Switching to a faster web host (I recommend WPX Hosting)
- Using a content delivery network (CDN) like Cloudflare or StackPath
- Installing a caching plugin like WP Rocket
- Optimizing images by compressing them and specifying dimensions
- Minimizing plugins, redirects and external scripts
Use Google‘s PageSpeed Insights tool to check your blog‘s current load times on desktop and mobile. It will give you specific recommendations to make your site faster.
2. Declutter Your Design
When it comes to your blog design and layout, less is more. Every element on the page should serve a clear purpose that contributes to the user experience and your business goals. Ruthlessly remove anything that doesn‘t fit those criteria.
Some common clutter to clear off your blog:
- Unnecessary sidebar widgets like tag clouds, blogrolls, and social media feeds
- Generic stock photos that don‘t add context or value
- Overuse of display ads in your content and sidebar
- Social media share buttons (which very few people actually use)
- Off-brand colors and design elements that don‘t fit your style
Instead, keep your design clean, minimal, and focused on your branding and content. Use plenty of whitespace, limit sidebars and widgets, and keep your color scheme and typography consistent.
3. Make Your Blog Mobile-Friendly
Over half of global web traffic now comes from mobile devices, and Google uses mobile-friendliness as a key ranking factor. If your blog doesn‘t load quickly and display properly on smartphones, you‘ll lose a ton of potential visitors and customers.
At a minimum, your blog needs a responsive design that automatically adjusts to fit any screen size. Most WordPress themes now come with this functionality out of the box. But you also need to consider the mobile user experience and make sure your blog is easy to navigate and read on a small touchscreen.
Some best practices for mobile-friendly blogs:
- Use a simple navigation menu that‘s easy to tap with a thumb
- Keep forms short and use large input fields
- Place your call-to-action buttons front and center
- Avoid intrusive pop-ups that are hard to close
- Optimize your images for fast loading on mobile connections
4. Format Your Posts for Readability
The way your blog posts look on the page plays a big role in how much of them people actually read. If your posts are just big walls of text, visitors will likely scan the first few sentences and then bounce.
Some ways to make your posts more visually appealing and easier to read:
- Break up long paragraphs into shorter ones (2-3 sentences max)
- Use plenty of subheadings to act as signposts and highlight key information
- Include relevant images, videos, charts, and other visual elements
- Add block quotes and bullet point lists to break up the post
- Bold key phrases that you want to draw attention to
Essentially, you want to make it as easy as possible for people to quickly scan your post and find the information they‘re looking for. Attractive formatting and visual hierarchy will entice visitors to stick around and read more of your content.
How to Keep Visitors Coming Back to Your Blog
Improving your user experience will certainly help engage first-time visitors, but you also need proactive strategies to keep them coming back. Here are some of the most effective tactics for getting repeat visitors to your blog.
1. Build an Email List
Email is hands-down the most important tool for generating repeat traffic to your blog. When someone subscribes to your email list, you can reach out to them again and again to bring them back to your latest posts and offers.
To rapidly grow your email list, you need two things:
- Prominent signup forms in high-traffic locations (sidebar, header, below post, pop-up, etc.)
- A compelling lead magnet that motivates people to subscribe (free ebook, email course, discount code, etc.)
For best results, use an email capture tool like ConvertKit, Thrive Leads, or OptinMonster to create high-converting forms and automate your email marketing. Then make sure to send your list valuable content on a consistent basis to keep them engaged.
2. Set Up Push Notifications
Push notifications are clickable messages that you can send to a user‘s device, even when they don‘t have your website open. They‘re a powerful way to bring people back to your site, but most bloggers aren‘t using them yet.
The stats on push notifications are impressive:
- The average click rate is 12% (compared to 3% for email)
- Over 50% of users opt-in to allow push notifications
- E-commerce sites using push notifications see a 9.6% increase in average order value
Tools like OneSignal and PushCrew make it easy to set up push notifications for your blog, with features like personalized messaging and audience segmentation to optimize your results.
3. Promote Your Social Media Profiles to Subscribers
While email and push notifications are the best channels for generating repeat visitors, you should also encourage your subscribers to follow you on social media.
The more places they connect with you, the more opportunities you have to bring them back to your blog. Plus, following you on social media helps increase their exposure to your brand and content in their feeds.
Some simple ways to get more social followers:
- Add links to your profiles in your email signature and newsletter
- Include social media buttons on your blog sidebar and contact page
- Link to your profiles in your author bio and about page
- Run a contest where following you on social is an entry method
Just remember that ultimately you want to drive social media followers back to your website or email list, since those are the channels you actually own.
4. Create a Community Around Your Blog
People are far more likely to regularly engage with your blog if they feel a sense of community and belonging there. When your readers can interact with you and other like-minded people, they‘ll have a much stronger connection to your brand.
Some options for creating a community around your blog:
- Start a Facebook group for your readers to network and discuss your content
- Run a forum or membership site where subscribers can ask questions and share ideas
- Host live webinars, Q&As or office hours to engage with readers in real-time
- Organize local meetups or events related to your blog topic
The key is to pick a community-building strategy that fits your audience and content. Don‘t just start a Facebook group because it seems like the thing to do. Think about what format will best serve your unique readers and business goals.
Get More Repeat Visitors to Your Blog
With over 75% of visitors abandoning your blog, you can‘t afford to ignore the problem and just hope people come back on their own. Be proactive about improving your user experience and re-engaging readers after they leave.
The first step is to diagnose what‘s currently causing visitors to bounce. Is your site too slow or not mobile-friendly? Is your content delivering on its promises? Is your formatting making posts hard to read?
Tackle those issues first to make a better impression on first-time visitors. Then focus on building your email list, using push notifications, cross-promoting on social media, and creating a sense of community. When you make these strategies a priority, you‘ll start getting far more repeat visitors and loyal readers.
It takes work to keep your audience coming back again and again, but the payoff is worth it. Repeat visitors are more likely to share your content, engage with your brand, and eventually buy from you. Put these tactics into action and watch your blog‘s returning visitor rate start to climb.
