When encouraging community building between users and getting people to feel loyal to your site, you need to be able to welcome new visitors and make them feel at home. If they feel comfortable with your site they are more likely to come back.

Visitors want to feel like they know what they are doing and that your website is almost a friendly community. The internet is full of deceptions and mystery so feeling secure is important to new people.

Tell visitors about your site

The purpose of your site should be clear from the start. If not visitors could be come confused about what your site offers and all your content will be wasted. If you offer a game or a service that requires a lengthy registration then include screen shots of what will happen once the user is registered.

No matter what your site is it should always have an about us section to tell the user about yourself and who you are. In this you should include photos of you or where you work (if this is feasible) to show the user that your not some 14 year old hacker in the Middle East.

How to do it: Put a small box or piece of text on the homepage saying something like "what is this site." Including a short description and a link to a page with more details on your site such as features and purpose.

Offer newbie advice

A section introducing new people to your site and how to get the most out if it is always welcomed. Pages like tours, showing all the features your site has to offer will let the user know what your site has to offer and how to use them.

Offering a guide to how to get the most out of your site not only makes users feel like they know more about your site but it also exposes more of your content as users will be able to find more of the content they are looking for.

How to do it: Create a pop up window linking to a new user advice page or offer a tour of your site. Add a cookie to the user's machine so you can stop the pop up, popping up when a user returns to the site.

Tell them they are at home

Tell the user that if they have a problem they can get help - "Have a problem? Post it on the forum and our support team will help you out." It sounds really simple (and it is) but it will make your user feel like they aren't on their own. This important as most people are surfing the Internet by themselves.

How to do it: Create a forum or contact forum and put links on the registration or sign in page as well as any newbie advice pages saying, "Got a question? Contact our support team."

Conclusion

Welcoming visitors is all about taking a bit of time to add the extra information about your site and what it offers. A bit more information or an extra page or so for new users, will see them more likely to return and join your community.