Tips on Reducing Your Website’s Bounce Rate

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So you’ve finally got your website up and running and it's filled with content for your product or service. But when you check your analytics, you’re baffled as to why visitors go just as quickly as they come and don’t stay long enough to learn about what you have to offer. What went wrong?

Bounce rate is defined as the number of people leaving your website after visiting a single page. When you have a website, you want your visitors to stay engaged long enough to reach the point of conversion, or making them respond according to your goals, not the other way around.

As you work on decreasing your bounce rate, here are tips to help you:

Manage Your Expectations

Ideally, all website owners want a 0 percent bounce rate, but the chances of that are very slim, or close to none. According to Google Analytics, different types of websites have varying average bounce rates. These are:

·      Content websites  - 40-60%

·      Lead Generation 30-50%

·      Blogs – 70-98%

·      Retail Sites – 20-40%

·      Service Sites – 10-30%

·      Landing Pages – 70-80%

So don’t beat yourself up for having a bounce rate that falls under the average rate in your category. Instead, use these figures to help you set a realistic goal in terms of how much bounce rate you need to reduce.

Don’t Give Away Too Much

A high bounce rate is usually equated with poor content and presentation. However, there are cases when you’re simply giving too much away on a particular landing page. Because visitors already found what they’re looking for, they don't feel compelled to explore your site and just tend to leave.

So instead of putting all of your information in one page, scatter them across your site and encourage your visitors to go and visit the other sections of your site. Sometimes, all you need is a great hook to have them peruse all your content.

Show Visitors Where to Go Next

Visitors should be able to navigate around your website seamlessly and intuitively.  Make sure that all the links in your website work, and you have a panel for quick navigation.

If your website is a blog, list suggested articles at the bottom of an article, or add contextual links within your content. If you have a shopping website on the other hand, make sure that visitors have easy access to their cart and checkout page.

If you want to promote interaction within the site, you can add call-to-action buttons. However, you need to be careful with these because they can be counter-productive. If you seem too pushy, you might drive visitors away.

Fast Loading Time

Apart from making sure that every page and link is up and running, make sure that every page loads quickly. One thing that can make visitors leave your site is slow loading time. Seriously, nobody has the time for that.

You can Never Go Wrong with Good Web Design

Poor usability and layout are two of the most common reasons for high bounce rates. If you’re going to create a website, make it a good one. Avoid any eyesores in your design. Present your content in such a way that allows your visitors to sift through it seamlessly. Here are few design tips that can help avoid high bounce rates:

·      Use white spaces

·      Break chunks of texts into bulleted lists if appropriate

·      Make your headlines larger and use subheadings

·      Use a good color scheme and readable font

·      Don’t forget to provide a search box

·      Divide your content in clearly defined sections

·      Use a responsive layout so that visitors can enjoy your website regardless of what device they’re using

Do you own or manage a website? How do you keep your bounce rate from increasing? Let us know in the comments. 

Posted 31 March, 2015

jdbsebastian

Content Writer

I produce written content for the Web--from internal webpages and blog posts to marketing materials such as off-page articles, e-books and outreach e-mails. Currently, my projects are on personal finance, health, business, fashion, and beauty products. I'll be glad to send you samples of my work. Please feel free to message me.

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