This question has a simple answer. In a word “Good content”. OK, that’s two words. Taking the time to write or get good content on your site is the single best way to keep people coming back. A larger site with lots of visitors can create a forum where people can come to create community. If your site is smaller, this can be counter-productive though.

Having a stale site, with out any fresh content, certainly isn’t going to help people come back although it might not hurt your search engine rankings. But having a fresh site with new or regularly changing content will provide a hook that keeps people coming back for more.

Here are 5 ways you can provide people a reason to keep coming back:

1. Offer seasonal / monthly / weekly specials for your products or services.
2. Become an expert in your field. Publish an e-newsletter demonstrating your expertise.
3. Write your very own web blog – (blog). It isn’t nearly as difficult as it may sound and it is another way of becoming an expert in your field while also demonstrating your mastery of cyberspace.
4. Write articles for other web sites. There are article directories that would be happy to help you share your expertise.
5. If you’re not a writer, you can get good articles from a variety of sources and post them to your web site.