When people visit your website chances are very likely that most of them will leave within the first ten seconds never to return again. The worst part about this is they leave without buying anything. They don't even take the time to leave you a name, number or email address, so you have no idea how to reach them again, let alone how to get them to come back and give you another chance. How Rude!

It's sad but true and it can be very frustrating, especially since you've taken the time, worked hard and spent big bucks on advertising to get them there in the first place. The truth of the matter is that most visitors hit your site, take a quick glance and if nothing grabs their attention they leave without ever giving it a second thought.

Did you know that most websites don't even achieve a one-percent conversion rate!

That is to say that if one hundred people visit your site chances are only one of them will make a purchase, if you are very lucky. Chances are even better that they will leave without purchasing anything and never come back again. They will forget your site even exists within a few short minutes; sometimes seconds and all of your hard work and advertising dollars were for nothing.

It's very sad but it's one of the cold hard facts of doing business online. If you don't give your visitors a reason to stick around or better yet a reason to remember you and come back again then you're pretty much dead in the water.

Please don't get discouraged. It's not the end of the world, really! There are techniques that you can use to ensure that you once you've invested the time, effort and money it takes to attract visitors that you can keep them around for a while and even keep them coming back over and over again.

The first thing you can do is offer them great content focused on the topic of your website. For instance if you are selling a product or service for cat owners then provide information on cats, not dogs or cows. Great content gives them a reason to bookmark your site and come back again.

The next thing you can do is find a way to keep in touch with them. You can offer them a free ebook or a subscription to your newsletter in exchange for their email address so that you can send them gentile reminders that you exist. If you can capture their attention over an extended period of time them you will have a much better chance of converting them into paying a customer.

Did you know that the average person must be exposed to an offer around seven times before they will make a purchase?

Big companies know this. That's why when you are sitting in front of the TV munching on popcorn you will see the same commercials repeated over and over in the same time slot.

One more thing you can do is make your website more interactive. Make it interesting and fun for them to stick around. Let's take a look at MySpace as an example. Go to the main page and snoop around. Not only do they provide a place for people to meet and get to know each other, they have polls, classifieds, forums, videos and more. All designed to get you to stick around and do something.

Now I'm not saying that you should try to compete with MySpace, but what you can do is take the time to design your web pages so that your visitors will want to click around for a while and get to know you. Give them something to do and a reason to come back. The longer you can keep their attention the more times you can get them to come back the better for you and your business!