7 ways to get more from the traffic you paid for

According to a recent Associated Press study, the average human attention span has declinedfrom about 12 seconds in 2000 to 8 seconds in 2012. That officially makes us only slightly less attentive than the average goldfish – which can evidently stay focused for 9 seconds on average.

For online marketers, those shrinking attention spans are just part of the problem. Marketing methodologies have changed, and inbound marketing has become more popular, driving up the costs of generating traffic via PPC.
In the face of these trends, marketers have to make the most of every second and every visitor in a world of content overload.

Here are some tips for making the most of the traffic you’ve paid for:

• Load fast. Slow page loading is a huge frustration for visitors and a sure way to lose them to your competition. Keep your pages light and track load times with analytics.
• Stay flat. Plan your Web content such that a visitor can get to 80% of the important content by reading just two pages. If they have to dig too deep or work too hard, you will lose their interest and their business.
• Keep it short. Keep your pages short, and use graphics to convey ideas quickly. Even on with 111 words or less visitors read only 49% of the content on average.
• Curate wisely. Focus visitors on the 1-3 most important content items in your library to get them engaged. Then, keep an orderly Resources section so visitors can quickly see more available content in one place
• Polish your generics. Be sure to offer attractive content on generic pages such as About or News, because visitors who take an interest in your solution are likely to want to learn more about your company.
• Get personal. Explore dynamic tools that tailor page content to each visitor in real time (new vs. repeat visitor, etc.). Dynamic technology helps quickly promote the most relevant content to each user.
• Keep it simple. Manually targeting visitors based on pre-set segmentation rules was once the only path to making content ‘dynamic’. Don’t be tempted. Manual targeting is hugely time-consuming and requires ongoing administration that will quickly consume any financial headway you make by improving engagement. Automated tools are far more cost-effective in the end.

Competing for web traffic and user attention can be tough and expensive, and you only have a page or two to convince the visitor to take action. The most efficient strategy is to optimize the site, blog and social assets you already have to the traffic you’ve already paid for. Don’t pay for more bounces; eliminate them.

See the original article at http://www.brightinfo.com/blog/seven-ways-to-get-more-from-the-traffic-youve-paid-for/ .