Facebook tactics to keep you on the site
Facebook has been updating things recently. Left-hand sidebar was updated with new list management features in response to Google Circles. Right-hand floating sidebar got status updates at the top. The pop bar is now following you as you scroll through the page. Another one of Facebook tactics is reducing the number of email notifications you get.
My first response to the last update was: Great! Facebook is trying to optimize things to reduce clutter in my mailbox. Then, after missing a few messages and important updates I realized that this Facebook tactic mostly benefits Facebook and its advertisers, not the users. Now I have to go to Facebook to check on things more often. This, as a result, increases my time spent on the site. Who benefits again? Advertisers.
Of course, what’s good for me may not be good for you, so you should keep to your Facebook practices. However, I intend to change things back to where they were. As Facebook suggests, I’ll review my notification settings to make sure I get the email notifications.
So what can we learn from this Facebook tactics as marketers? Here’s a few things that come to mind:
Advertising advantage
If your site sells ad space or uses AdSence. your primary goal should be to increase time on site metric. The more time people spend on your site, the more pages they’re likely to click through, the more ads they’ll see (and click on), and the more money you make.
Brand development advantage
It is important to keep users on site for better engagement with your brand. The more time a user spends on your website, the more you can learn about him / her, and the more opportunities you get to connect with your audience.
SEO advantage
Google uses your website metrics as a factor to rank your pages. Things like bounce rate, click through rate, and time on site matter when it comes to SEO rankings of your pages. So, it’s important to increase time on site for SEO purposes too.
Now that we’ve had this discussion of importance of “time on site” metric, I’ll be putting together a post on specific tactics you can use to get that metric higher. Is there anything else we can learn from Facebook tactics? Let’s discuss in the comments!
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