Why do you need an interactive website?
- Chris st clair
- Jul 7, 2024
- 7 min read
Updated: Jul 7, 2024
What are Interactive Websites?
Simply said, an interactive website facilitates two-way communication and user participation. And by interactivity, we don't just mean enabling "clicking" and "scrolling" for users. The main purpose of an interactive website is to provide users with content that is entertaining, collaborative, and engaging. In addition to showcasing visually appealing content, an interactive website will showcase content that encourages users to actively engage and spend time on it.
Every company that sells something on the Internet today is in a mad dash to attract more customers. However, most of them overlook the fact that focusing solely on increasing traffic is not enough. What really drives conversions, is user engagement and retention. The primary goal of any successful business website should be to keep visitors engaged.
Common Interactive Website Features
Forms and surveys
Forms and surveys are examples of interactive features that can be used to collect information about site visitors and their experience with your business. You can make the most of this information to improve the user experience on your website.
You can create a form to discover what your customers think about:
Your products
Their experience on your website
The transaction process
Your learning resources and tutorials
Your customer service
How likely they are to recommend your product
Equipped with this information, you can create a website that is more useful to your target audience.
Quizzes
A quiz is a fun and creative way to get visitors to engage with your website
If used well, it's also a smart way to get customers to fill in questionnaires or their details,
You can use a quiz in different ways, such as:
Run contests: Offer to send prizes to those who correctly answer all the questions.
Find out what products people prefer: Let guests choose between multiple products
Product recommendations: Use results from the quiz to offer personalized recommendations
The best part about quizzes is that they can bring in new subscribers to your newsletter, which is great for your email marketing strategy
Simply incorporate a sign-up sheet and ask people to sign up for your newsletter. If someone registers, you have the opportunity to offer them information that will hopefully increase their enthusiasm for your brand.
Media Galleries
A simple way to improve your website's interactivity is to add a media gallery that contains photos and videos
Including videos on your website is a very effective way to boost user engagement. Wistia discovered that users spend 1.4 times longer on pages with video content than on pages without. This resulted in an almost two-minute per page difference.
Reviews and testimonials
There is no better way to establish credibility for your business or product than to showcase the approval of your target audience through social proof on your website. Reviews and testimonials have persuasive power– and they work because website visitors can see the impact your product has had on actual individuals, and they can address frequently asked questions too.
When WikiJob included testimonials on one of their landing pages, conversions jumped by 34%. Additionally, research by Bright Local found that 77% of consumers "always" or "frequently" check internet reviews before visiting a local business.
Social media
Social media can be used in several ways to improve user engagement with a website, and including share buttons is the quickest and easiest option. When these are in place, readers who appreciate your content can easily spread the word.
You may increase the impact of this by fine-tuning the social sharing settings on each of your pages. This gives you full control over how your content looks when it is shared on social media.
You can tweak the:
Title: Create a title that will grab people's attention
Images: Pick the best one that represents your brand and make sure it's the right size.
Page Description: Make it interesting enough that readers will want to go over to your site.
This is important because social media sites may not always pick the best content to use as the link's anchor text. For instance, they can use the wrong picture or write a description that is too long.
Maps
Maps are a helpful feature if you have a physical location.
Customers can use the map to see your location in detail. They can also access driving directions and more information about your company by visiting your profile on Google Maps. This makes it simpler for customers to find your company and make purchases from you.
Live chat
There is no better way to engage your audience than with a live chat widget. Moreover, the widget's content can typically be modified per page.
In general, they include functions that allow users to:
Join a live chat session right away.
Interact with a chatbot.
read blog posts or article related to the current page
Look for answers in the articles
There are numerous applications for this. Customers can ask any questions they have about a product or service at any point in the buying process and get responses from customer service. They can also get information about various things like pricing and features.
The tool can be used by existing customers to learn more about shipping and returns. By making this data readily available, you may cut down on the number of support requests your team has to handle.
Why you should make your website interactive
Interactive websites have a lower "bounce rate."
It typically takes visitors half a second after landing on a website to decide whether they stay or leave. That leaves business owners with a very brief opportunity to make an impact and convince visitors to extend their time on the site. With the right kind of interactivity, you can keep visitors on your site for longer and lower your bounce rate.
Animated films, 360-degree photos, augmented reality, virtual reality, and drop-down menus are just a few examples of how you can immediately grab the attention of your clients. There's a chance they'll be intrigued enough to spend more than a quick glance at the website
Interactive websites can boost authority
A highly-interactive website can significantly boost a site's authority. The internet is a very dynamic and quick place. Sites must uphold their authority to thrive in today's online environment.
When a website has interactive features like quizzes and games, users are more likely to engage with the brand, which in turn may increase website traffic, boost search engine rankings, and pique the curiosity of potential customers in other ways.
An interactive website increases trust and loyalty through consumer psychology
In marketing, consumer psychology refers to the study of what influences consumers' perceptions and decisions.
Trust between the brand and its customers is one indicator of a successful consumer psychology campaign. By going above and beyond the capabilities of traditional advertising, interactive websites aim to forge a deeper, more personal relationship with the customer.
Interactive websites have the potential to forge this trust because users no longer get a static experience when they visit the site. These websites allow users to write their own stories and have conversations with the characters. They offer a more customized experience for their visitors and give users a chance to express their individuality and experience the gratification that comes from accomplishing a goal.
If done well, it can leave a lasting impression on the customer and encourage repeat visits to the website. These repeat visits will win over customers and earn their confidence over time.
Interactive websites are more modern
Sites that allow users to interact with the content are currently more relevant. The reason for this is the constant stream of new content they provide. Interactive websites allow for more frequent updates to information than static ones.
Produce High-Quality Inbound Links
Backlinks are links on one website that lead to a page on another website. Search engines like Google and Bing use backlinks as a form of "voting" to determine a page's relevance. A large number of backlinks typically means a high position in organic search results for a certain keyword.
In the grand scheme of things, this is extremely important to the success of your company and its website. Improving your website's search engine rating is all about getting organic, high-quality backlinks. If your website is user-friendly and has a steady stream of visitors, you'll attract the attention of other websites that may want to link back to yours to broaden their own audience. This means more visitors and potential customers will visit your website.
These inbound connections are very essential for search engine optimization (SEO) and increase the likelihood that a search engine like Google will notice the page. Search engines like Google are more likely to rank a website highly once it has received several high-quality backlinks from credible sources. The more reputable sources connect to your website, the higher the search results in it will appear.
They facilitate a customized experience for the user
Making your website more user-friendly and engaging is a great way to improve your marketing efforts and give your customers a more tailored online experience.
For instance, companies can attract customers who like to design their own products by including "make your own" or "customize" buttons on their sites.
A good example is the Tesla website. You can tell that Tesla cares about its customers because of the attention to detail and ease of use on the company's website. They offer a “custom order” that lets customers create their own unique look by picking out the colors, materials, and any other extras they choose.
You can add features like sign-up and live chat to help you collect information about potential customers in real-time.
You can use this data for targeted email marketing and to better understand your audience so you can tailor your messages to them. The more you learn about your customers' needs, the more precisely you can tailor your marketing efforts to meet their expectations.
Improves Conversion Rates
According to the results of a survey, the average page conversion rate is between 2.3% and 5%. Increasing your conversion rate is important for obvious reasons: you want to expand and you want to make money. An interactive website can facilitate this goal, as visitors who explore the site and discover something of interest are more likely to make a purchase.
Increasing the likelihood of a lead becoming a customer is possible through the use of interactive elements like video, images, and gameplay. For instance, you can embed customer testimonial videos or brand-related facts in a slider. In addition, you can include interactive features like quizzes and a prize wheel to increase engagement and encourage repeat visits.
If you check out the RAVPower website, you'll see how the brand engages with its visitors right away by inviting them to play a game. This has the potential to motivate users to make purchases and receive discounts, which may help to increase conversion rates.
Conclusion
Customers who visit an interactive website will have a more enjoyable, unique, and engaging experience than they would with a static one. You can take immediate measures to increase the site's interaction. Depending on your resources and audience, you may implement a loading animation, a video, a product carousel, and so on.