Here are 10 Reasons why a ‘Top 10 List’ will help drive traffic to your site and improve your reader base. Your intentions may vary, but some of this may help you reach out to new visitors. Content on your blog posts are articles for your website will play an obvious roll in the type of traffic that makes it to your site, but lists that put information into an easy to read format that will have some extra benefits.
Image by ailatan @ flickr
10. A list grabs the readers attention.
If the topic interests them it will trigger a few discussion points. They may agree or disagree, but either way they will be intrigued about what your top points are on a topic they obviously have interest in. They wouldn’t be there if it’d didn’t peak their curiosity.
9. Each bullet point is a cliff note of the text detailing it.
Obviously. if that point does not interest them, they will skip on to the next. Skipping to the next is still keeping the visitor on your site longer. There are differing opinions on read times and how they affect your readers, this hits that idea from both sides. Whether you think short reads or long reads entice your audience, your list will provide that. That leaves a higher probability that they will click to other areas of your site. This is where analyzing your traffic comes into play, read the article here if you have not already.
8. The list drives comments.
If someone has an ‘ah-ha’ moment or strongly disagrees with one of your list items, that will drive them to comment on it. This was the basis for this article, as I was prompted to comment on a blog on social media that i otherwise would have just ignored. There was a bullet item that I did not agree with and I wanted to make it known. They may just like or dislike the point enough to mention it in their own writings or blog. Trackbacks are very helpful in driving traffic to your site.
7. The list will attract both ends of the fan spectrum on the topic.
Similar to #8 and #9 above, if you have a high number of retweets or digg’s, traffic should improve for your Top 10 listing as they will be curious to see what the 10 items actually are. Weather they like it or not, there are reasons they will be driven to the list. For example if they strongly disagree with what you are saying, there is a decent chance the reader will follow through to your list just to ensure that they are positioned the way they think they should be on a topic.
6. An increase in intelligent traffic.
There will be more on this to come in another post. The basic idea here is you may be driving people to your page looking for answers (depending on the topic), thus intelligent traffic. This in it self will be a high source of repeat visits if your site is optimized, because chances are if someone finds an answer or argument they are looking for they will trust you as a source. The likelihood that particular reader returns has no drastically improved.
5. Great way to target a market with a specific purpose.
If you use advertising on your site as a source of revenue, this is a great way to target a market with a specific purpose. Same goes for a store with relevant products. May not be revenue generating at all but possibly just making people aware. Something like a list on why you shouldn’t smoke may end up being used as a reference point in classrooms and studies around the world. The key is finding something that does not already exist and exploiting it.
4. Rankings are an easy way to report and people just get it.
It may be a complicated issue or topic, but a list with rankings is somewhat universal. Rankings are easy for your reader to understand, and they can skip right to number one if they are looking for the knock out punch. Read more about rankings @ Wikipedia.
3. Ranked titles will have keywords for search engine results (if planned right).
Watch your web stats and see where your traffic is coming from. Check into the keywords that are generating organic visits. In a case where your list is similar to other content on your site, make use of the metrics that are already known. If using the site is a blog, use a SEO plugin in to assist with this, or at least be sure to tag with your best keywords. After the list goes live, you can adjust some of this meta data to reflect what has worked best and take advantage of the points that people have found your site for.
2. Industry specific lists will be used as a point of research.
Again tied to the list items themselves, you now have 10 ways to peak a reader’s interest that can be used as ad headlines and twitter referrals. The item that your reader thinks is the most relevant may not be what you think. Using the bullet points to refer traffic is a powerful tool. From the point of view that has a background in IT, I cannot even count the number of times I’ve read top 10 lists in researching products or solutions for commonly addressed problems.
1. Think about whatever it was that brought you here.
What were you thinking, what were you intrigued by? Take that thought and flip it into action for your website. This discussion is probably reaching you because you are looking for ways to increase traffic to your site. The motive may be different but the end goal is sure to be similar. Organic traffic can be difficult to generate, and a decent list with complete content will certainly help out with that. Again I cannot stress enough how important it is to analyze your traffic if you want this plan to work out. If you have anything to add to the 10 reasons above, please comment below.
Was this helpful? Please use the Share This button below to digg this article or share it with others.
10 reasons why a top 10 list drive traffic to your site and improve upon your reader base. Your intentions may vary, but some of this may help you reach your goals.
1. a list grabs the readers attention – if the topic interests them it will trigger a few points. agree/disagre, learn, etc.
2. each bullet point is a cliff note of the text detailing it. Obviously. if that point does not interest them, they will skip on to the next. skipping to the next is still keeping them on your site. Resulting in longer page visit times.
3. drives comments – if someone has an ‘ah-ha’ moment or strong disagrees with one of your list items, that will drive them to comment on it. this was the basis for this article, as I was prompted to comment on a blog on social media that i otherwise would have just ignored. There was a bullet item that i did not agree with and i wanted to make it known.
4. a piggy back to the previous, but your list will attract both ends of the fan spectrum on a topic. the people for it will be driven to your list because they are followers of that topic, where the nay sayers may see the headline and want to react or double check their thought process – possibly to see if there is anything they missed.
5. Intelligent traffic – more on this to come in another post. Basiclly the idea here is you are driving people to your page looking for answers, thus intelligent traffic. This in it self will be a high source of repeat visits if your site is optimized.
6. If you use advertising on your site as a source of revenue, this is a great way to target a market with a specific purpose. Same goes for a store with relevant products. May not be revenue generating at all but possibly just making people aware.
7. Rankings (see wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranking) are easy to report and give? to people. It may be a complicated issue or topic, but a list with rankings is somewhat universal.
8. With proper preparation, your bolded numbered items will be high hits search engines results. Watch your web stats and see where your traffic is coming from. In a case where your list is relevant to the rest of your content, make use of what is already known.
9. Industry specific lists will be used as a point of research. Again tied to the list items themselves, you now have 10 ways to peak a reader’s interest that can be used as ad headlines and twitter referrals. The item that your reader thinks is the most relevant may not be what you think. Using the bullet points to refer traffic is an interesting tool.
10. It works..think about whatever it was that brought you here, what were you thinking, what were you intrigued by. If it wasn’t one of the 10 above, please add to the discussion below.
Similar Posts
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
-
http://foresitetech.com/ Tracy Fox
-
http://foresitetech.com Tracy Fox
