Back in the late 1990s, stickiness was the big term; how to get web visitors to return to your site hopefully, again and again. Today, the strategy has evolved into Outbound Stickiness going out and pulling that visitor back in.
Going back in time, there were many sticky techniques including the hosting of tools, calculators, forums/bulletin boards, and of course my favorite favorites.
Favorites pre-dated good search engine results. Back then, you as a site owner would proffer your favorite links. Typically, they related to your industry and gave web visitors the opportunity to explore other related sites. Well, as the search engines of the day improved their results, the favorites section lost its favor.
It became very hard to become an authority site. Many a client of mine back then created a lounge or portal type of section on their site hoping to be the center of their respective universe. But web surfers soon preferred to get their informational direction from a Yahoo search.
Site stickiness never lost its allure. And now, new techniques have come into play in order to gain that coveted repeat visit. This time its an outbound effort. Content...