Giving surfers a reason to keep coming back to your web site is probably the single most important thing to do when promoting a website. Sure it's all well and good that you have this amazing site built with Flash MX and blah, but who cares anyway? Yes it looks pretty, yes it's the fastest web site in the world, yes it uses ASP to talk to an SQL database, but really, what's it got that will have people re-visiting it repeatedly.

You may have spent many months toiling away at your site's development, but it's important to understand that ultimately, no one cares about your site. Thus, it's your responsibility to make sure that anyone who visits your site feels compelled to bookmark it and/or seek it out and revisit it sometime in the near future. As a test, think about your own web surfing habits. Surely there are sites that you revisit daily, weekly or even monthly. What makes you keep going back to them? It's simple. You keep going to the ones that offer something of value each time you visit. This is how you give people a reason to visit your site - offer them something of value.

Tips For Offering Value And Gaining Repeat Visitors

Content

Content is king. The average surfer hates stale content. If you are lucky enough to have someone return to your site to find the same information that was previously there, you can bet he/she won't be back for a third or fourth time. Try to make your site's content readable, interesting, informative and even funny. Offer the reader a feeling that he/she has received something of value from visiting the page. Bear in mind though that keeping your site's information current should not entail a complete redesign of the site on a monthly basis. This can be almost as annoying as stale content.

Rewards, Contests, Incentives, Freebies

Giving something away can definitely attract visitors. Giving something away every week will surely retain visitors. It could be something as simple as a free screensaver, by simply offering this freebie or offering a completely different item / service every week, you can take full advantage of interested viewers. If your site is about "reggae music", run a monthly contest where some lucky Surfer can win a Bob Marley CD. Do this and you've just given an interested Surfer a sure reason to revisit at least one more time within the next month. Reward-based surfing is here to stay, and we all know the common saying that "Jamaicans love freeness", so why not try it for yourself.

Communities - Chat Rooms & Forums

People like interacting with other people. People especially like interacting with other like-minded people to discuss mutually interesting topics, whether it's about the current state of dancehall music or about the quality of Internet service offered by Jamaican ISP's. Creating a community through a chat room or forum is one of the easiest ways to increase your site's "stickiness", and with it, improved likelihood of gaining repeat visitors. It's important to note however, if you're always the only one in the chat room, or if the most recent post on the message board was 3 or 4 months ago, it's unlikely that a Surfer will bother to take the time to post or get involved. Even if it means creating multiple personalities yourself or getting your friends to post or chat, make sure there's some sort of activity because in this case, activity begets activity.

Free Newsletter or E-Zine

Can you put together some interesting or useful information once every couple of weeks? Why not send this info out to people who visit your site and who might be interested? Start a free opt-in newsletter and you might be surprised at the speed at which your database of interested Surfers grows. Once someone goes to your web site, chances are they probably won't come back. However, if they're on the list for your e-mail newsletter, every now and then they will have a little reminder that gives them a reason to stop by your site.

Sandor Panton ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) is a Jamaican currently working as a Search Engine Optimizer for an Intenet Marketing Company in Ontario, Canada. He is also the owner of www.top5jamaica.com, a Jamaican search portal.