Web article pages, blog posts: leave no dead ends

So, you want to keep people on your website after they’ve ready the story they found/saw in a social media feed/were sent by a friend etc.?

Well, my tips on audience retention, add value to articles/posts, attach relevant links and try and engage your readers.

But leave no dead ends, while they have found you, give them more, ideally related content – don’t make it easy for a visitor to move on to another site. Here’s what I do on lead stories at the Peterborough Telegraph

• Link, directly to meeting agendas, related official documents – don’t just link to the homepage and make people find it.
• If there will be further debate or coverage, detail this, link to reporter social media accounts.
• Add backstory links, related archive articles that add context, history, fill in gaps.
• Finally, don’t forget to encourage engagement wherever relevant: ask a question, list ways to get in touch or third-party platforms where they can continue the debate/add their comments, e.g. Twitter, Facebook.
• * Clearly not all stories will have a backstory, or related links, offer much in the way of engagement, or relevant official sites but part of the skill is in spotting these opportunities.