Bounce rate refers to the number of people who are visiting your website but not staying on it or the number of people who limit themselves to single-page views. Its name comes from the act of visitor landing and bouncing from your website immediately. It is the percentage of people who land on your website and leave without browsing any further.
The bounce rate is often considered as a metric to measure the effectiveness of your digital marketing efforts. It can also mean that the users are not finding what they are looking for, on your site. It can lead to low conversion rates for your business.
Tools like Google Analytics help you analyze your bounce rate for each webpage of your website. It also gives the average bounce rate of your website. A high bounce rate can be anywhere near the 70s. The bounce rate between 50 to 70 is also considered higher than normal. Your goal should be to keep your bounce rate as low as possible while boosting your website’s conversion rates.
Reasons for a High Bounce Rate Can Be Any of The Following:
1. Irrelevant Content
Most visitors land upon a website based on what content they are seeking. If your website has that information, they are sure to stay for a while. In contrast, if your website has too much information cluttered and a lot of irrelevant data, users might turn to a competitor website. It is important to have engaging content that connects with your visitors. This can be done by analyzing your target audience, their demographics and their psyche.
2. Poor User Experience
Visitors tend to decide if they want to stay on a particular website within a few seconds of visiting it. Hence, it is important to have a great first impression with your visitors. It is very important to keep your website lean in terms of user experience or UX. Simple design and well-defined layout which is pleasing to the eyes is essential. If your website contains a lot of irrelevant data and webpages, people will be confused and might choose a simpler website that conveys what they are looking for. Keeping your visitors happy is important if you want to increase your conversion.
3. Technical Glitches
If your bounce rates are really high, it might be wise to check your website for any technical glitch. It could be a plugin or JavaScript error which can cause the webpages to load very slowly.
4. Slow Speed
The load time of your website should be a couple of seconds. In the fast pace of the internet, if your website takes too long to load, your visitors will definitely switch to other sites. Each second saved on the website’s load time will definitely bring down your bounce rate. You can review your page speed by using several tools online.
5. Irrelevant Title Tags and Meta Descriptions
The content of your page should be reflected by your title tags and description. If the tags and descriptions are irrelevant to your website content, users will definitely feel misled and leave your website.
Let Us Now Look at 10 Ways To Reduce the Bounce Rate
1. Types of content
You must include different formats of content for your website and not just text. There are different types of users. Some prefer video content whereas some prefer textual content. So, make sure you engage more users using video content in addition to high quality images and textual content. It is a commonly known fact that visual aids help engage more customers than plain text. In addition to adding different type of content, its important to add good content regularly to your website to keep it fresh and updated.
2. Minimize distracting Ads
Advertisements that pop up every now and then can cause irritation to your visitors. Similarly, ads all over your webpage will make users irritated and uncomfortable. They will not be able to find the content they require and lose patience easily. It is important to restrict your ads display to one portion of your website like the sides of your webpages.
3. Identify relevant audience
You need to identify your target audience and cater to them specifically. Establish a connection with them by creating content that engages them. Finding relevant audiences will in turn also make the audience consider your website relevant.
4. Relevant Keywords
It is important to use relevant keywords and tags that are a mirror of the content on your website. If you use a keyword which increases your search ranking but your website does not have any content on it, the user will definitely leave your site and cause an increase in the bounce rate. This also fills the user with a feeling of mistrust.
5. Good Design and Navigation
All users want a smooth and hassle-free experience when they look for something on a particular website. Make sure your website design is simple yet striking. The navigation between your webpages should be easy and quick. This reduces bounce rate significantly.
6. Page Load Time
A long load time causes the users to move to another site. A website that takes more than three seconds to load can be considered slow. Page load time is a crucial factor and should be minimized in order to enrich user experience.
7. Readability of your content
Do not clutter your website with a lot of irrelevant content in order to improve search ranking. This in fact decreases the readability and increases impatience of users, causing a higher bounce rate. It is important to organize your content in proper format and blocks. Use images and video content to give a diverse look to your website as a whole.
8. Use tools like Google Analytics
There are many tools like Google Analytics available online that can help you analyze your user data. Metrics like page views, time spent on the site, page visits, time spent on each web page, the bounce rate of each page, most frequently visited page, and least frequently visited page can help you organize and streamline your website accordingly. A streamlined and lean version of your website is sure to reduce the bounce rate and increase conversions.
9. Pay attention to your page links
Your internal linking should be thorough. If a visitor clicks a link on your homepage it should open that link in a new tab. This will increase the time that the user spends on your site. Broken links or error messages are a strict no-no. They can frustrate our users and cause them to leave. Review your website for any broken links by using tools like Google Search Console and fix them to improve user experience.
10. Credibility
Every user scans any site before taking information from it. It is important for them to feel that your site is credible and trustworthy. This also increases their chances of revisiting your website. You can include positive customer reviews on your site. Add links to your social media pages. You can display testimonials from your valued customers in order to instill trust in your visitors.
Conclusion
Analyzing your website for potential improvements and improving overall user experience on your website, will surely decrease the bounce rate and help increase user conversion.
