There's been a lot of talk about "sticky" websites and how to create them. Though the terminology sounds awful, stickiness is a good thing. But what does it really mean for a website to be sticky, why is it important and how do we achieve it?

In short, a website is "sticky" if people spend a lot of time on it. That means they either visit the site frequently or stay on the site for a long time. The term "stickiness" brings to mind an image of flypaper -- once on your site, people can't get away. But we don't want people to be trapped. Instead, stickiness should be a compulsion -- like the need to read just one more chapter in a gripping novel. (Well, maybe two more chapters.) You want your site to be the kind of good book a reader keeps picking up and cannot put down.

The concept is nothing new: Salespeople in brick-and-mortar stores know that if a shopper walks out the door, the sale is most likely lost; they need to engage people long enough to sell them. This article takes a look at how to apply this principle to your website.