Open Learning Network

The past couple of months I have been researching user behaviour on websites and more specifically what makes people visit and revisit a site. I have been looking at sites about music, cooking, pets, legal issues, arts, software development, education, games, kids, infants, parenthood, books, journalism, heritage, history, medicine, gardening, finance…you name it, I have probably looked at it. During this initial research, I was looking to spot patterns in user behaviour through analytics provided by Alexa Analytics including site linking, driving traffic to the site data, site reach, bounce percentage, the time user time spent on the site etc. There is a minority of sites that have no ranking or retain their analytics from public view, so I haven’t been able to assess these sites.

So why do people visit a site? The answer is simple. It is the content that drives people to websites. Content is what every user is searching for in some sort of format. One of the greatest achievements of the internet was enabling us to acquire information in new ways and in speeds never before imaginable. UC Berkeley’s Peter Lyman and Hal R. Varian provide an excellent overview and evidence base in ‘How much information’. The internet has enabled us to scan through content, look at other people’s comments on this content, read comments or comment on user-generated images, videos, documents, maps, create, share and co-create content with peers, friends.

Nonetheless, the parameters that determine great content have become more particular. In order to not only attract users to a website for this first visit but to build up a loyal following of users and turn interest in a site into actions within it, there are several key elements, these are: