Do you have a personal or business website? Then ‘bounce rate’ is likely a term you never want to hear. We want to believe our website is the best, just as every mother thinks her child is the most beautiful. But, when we look at the figures in Google Analytics, we discover that we may be wrong.
Are you thinking of various strategies for lowering the bounce rate?
Look no further. Here we'll highlight some effective strategies you can implement to lower a website's bounce rate.
What is the Bounce Rate?
The percentage of visitors who leave your website without taking any measurable actions such as commenting, sharing, purchasing, and so on is known as the bounce rate. It's also known as the percentage of visitors who quit your site without navigating to any other pages.
The ideal bounce rate would be somewhere between 26% and 40%. A bounce rate that falls between 41% to 55% is considered to be average. If the bounce rate is higher than 55 %, we can conclude that there is a significant problem associated with the website that we need to identify and fix.
Factors Affecting the Bounce Rate and Ways to Fix It
Website Design
There is a strong link between website design and bounce rate. If the design of your website is appealing, visitors will spend more time on the website. Users will quickly leave websites that are unattractive or difficult to navigate.
Ensure that all navigational links are placed in a prominent location so they are easily discoverable by visitors. Always remember to use contrast colors and modify the brightness of your website to make it more user-friendly.
Page Load Time
The time it takes for a website's content to load when we click on it is referred to as “page speed”. If we have to wait a long time for the page to load, users will quickly exit the website. A one-second increase in page speed can boost traffic and conversions.
We all know that when you upload eye-catching images on your website, your chances of conversion skyrocket. However, if large-sized photos are used, the site's load time will be prolonged, causing visitors to leave the site. As a result, always try to compress your image without losing its quality.
Make It Mobile Friendly
The majority of people use their mobile phones to access the internet. If we spend a lot of time and effort developing the best website possible but forget to optimize it for mobile devices, all of our efforts will go in vain.
There are several free tests available online including Google's ‘Mobile-Friendly Test’ to check if our website is mobile-friendly or not. Moreover, if your website is mobile-friendly, it will rank higher.
Use the Right Meta Title & Description
We often click on a website based on the information provided in the meta title and description. Unfortunately, some meta descriptions and titles mislead us about the content. Only once we enter the website do we realize that this is not the information we require, and therefore we leave. It's necessary to write an attractive and optimized meta title and description, but it should never stray from expressing the website's content.
Reduce the Number of Pop-Ups and Advertisements
At least once, we've all visited a website that is flooded with thousands of pop-up ads, making it impossible to focus on the content of the website. As Marketers, we cannot disregard all the advertisements because they are a major source of revenue.
However, it's also important to see it from a customer's POV. If a user comes across a website flooded with advertisements, they'll leave the site within no time. Always try to keep your ad count as low as possible.
Demographic
The demographic is an important component that influences bounce rate. We have to optimize our website according to the target audience. For example, if our target audience is senior citizens, we should try to use simple language and avoid using bright colors on the website.
If your target is a younger audience, make sure your website features aspects like trendy pictures, hi-fi language, and so on. You can also keep an eye on your competitors' websites to get an idea of industry trends and demands.
Marketing Strategies
If your bounce rate is rising, keep an eye on your traffic channels and figure out the one having a high bounce rate. For example, if you have a high bounce rate from social media traffic, you might be conveying the wrong information in your postings. If a viewer visits your site and they feel there is a disconnect in information from the post to the website, they will leave the site soon.
Keywords
A keyword is not something to be taken lightly. The keywords and bounce rate are very much connected. If the keyword and content mentioned on the website are not matching, the bounce rate will rise. Some people use the wrong keywords with a high search volume to rank their websites. This will do more harm than good, as visitors will quickly abandon the site when they can’t find the information they were searching for.
Heatmaps
Heatmaps are a visualization tool that can help you determine the activities of visitors on your website. With this tool, we can identify the spots where most of the engagements occur and vice versa. We can add a call to action to those places with high engagement, increasing the chances of conversion. Generally, there are five types of heatmaps:
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Heatmap
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Clickmap
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Scrollmap
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Eye Tracking Heatmaps
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Mouse Tracking Heatmap
If we don't use heatmaps, we end up making changes based on our best assumptions. However, when we do use them, we get accurate data based on user behavior and can make impactful decisions.
Bottom line
All the factors mentioned above are crucial in determining bounce rate. If your bounce rate appears to be high, consider implementing these tactics and you will notice a difference. Don't let your website's visitors drift away. To discover more about TechWyse's proven strategies for lowering bounce rates, contact us today.
on
Thanks for sharing very useful information and i request to you please keep sharing ahead.
on
Nice blog. The information provided in this blog about web designing services that very useful. Thanks for sharing with us.
on
Well, I can’t tell you how much I have been waiting for someone to talk about this matter. I have a website and I blog a little bit too plus I do a little bit of “revenue sharing sites” Now, in one of the revenue sharing sites that I am at, Infobarrel to be precise, does not allow visitors from search engines to leave comments without having to signing up first. I tried to raise the issue but they don’t believe that it can affect the bounce rate or overall performance of the site. Do you think this is going to affect the bounce rate? Great article and thank you for sharing.
on
I have like over 80% bounce rate which is really high. The problem is, most visitors come from the search engines. I believe they’ve got what they are looking for in the post and then close the tab (isn’t that what most search engine visitors do?)
on
Good article which highlights many simple, yet important, points. The point on simple navigation is especially important as people want to be able to find their information as quickly and easily as possible and a hard to use site will definitely cause most of them to leave.
on
I agree with all of these points. I love the point about having a great “About Us” page. There was a noticeable improvement in my site when I created an “About Us” page. I received a lot of great feedback about it! It was a breakthrough for my site. I try to always keep my site’s colors and navigation as simple as possible also.
on
My bounce rate for my blog is still over 40%. I am finding it very hard to get it to lower. My blog has a very clean simple design, (Yet attractive) with a clear menu at the top. No annoying pop ups / pop under’s and a decent loading speed.
most of my site traffic comes directly from Google, so why would the bounce rate still be very high if they did not search for what they where looking for?
on
My bounce rate is pretty high, like 70%. I updated my website’s design today because of this article and I am hoping that helps my bounce rate.
on
I had a website that has a lot of returning visitors (so the website can’t be that bad, can it?) and had a bounce rate of 85%. I decided that something had to change, I reviewed the content and made some changes, I reduced the amount of ads on the page, this helped. I had an about us page.
I changed over to a Genesis theme (think lightweight, easier to read, faster loading times and just looks good!) and my bounce rate dropped to 50% and I was thrilled but this only influenced the bounce rate for a couple of weeks. It now hovers around the 70-82% mark, so I guess there is a slight improvement.
I have read different stats on what an average bounce rate is. It seems it ranges anywhere from 40-60% and this is considered decent and anything in single figure digits means there is a bug in the system..
I agree with CarpeNemo that information is platinum with rolled in gold flakes!! My info on my site is good but I don’t know what to do to stop them bouncing… They do click a lot of ads so that might be a contributing factor….
on
I agree with all of your points – but I think you forgot something, just after the part where you said time is gold.
If time is gold, then information is too. And relevant information is platinum rolled in gold flakes in a nice cream sauce. You need to not only appeal to the visitor, but give them the information they NEED quickly and without hassle, as transparently as possible. If you can do this, you’ll notice your site doesn’t operate like a bouncy castle anymore.
on
I can’t agree with you more on many points. Color and font usage is definitely one of my pet peeves.
I can’t even tell you how many times I check out a website and I am still unclear on what they offer much less easy to understand navigation.