Your content is great, your advertising is on point and you’re getting traffic, but no conversions. Your visitors are leaving without interacting. You need a strategy to reduce your bounce rate, ensuring you make the most of your traffic and leads.
What is “bounce rate”?
Your bounce rate is determined by the percentage of users who visit only one page of your website before leaving. They ‘bounce off’ before taking an action, whether it’s a purchase, contact form, or even a simple click.
“A bounce is a single-page session on your site. In Analytics, a bounce is calculated specifically as a session that triggers only a single request to the Analytics server, such as when a user opens a single page on your site and then exits without triggering any other requests to the Analytics server during that session.” – Google Analytics
To reduce your bounce rate, take a look at the following aspects of your site:
1. Page Load Time
People know what they want and they want it now. Waiting for a slow page to load can be frustrating, especially when you want to see what the page is about or has to offer. (This is your “shut up and take my money” moment.)
A slow loading time is one of the most obvious culprits of high bounce rates. This is because your content simply does not matter if your visitor cannot see it, and with no visible (and immediate) content, visitors exit the page.
2. User-Friendly Design & Easy Navigation
Your site should be as easy as possible to use and navigate. Give your users a clear direction and flow of where to find the content they are searching for. Effortless navigation goes hand-in-hand with great design. A well-designed site is not only aesthetically pleasing but functional and intuitive, which also builds trust with your user. If your site is too difficult to navigate and there is no clear path to follow, users won’t trust it and they won’t spend much time on it. This leads to high bounce rates.
3. Site Search
This forms part of how user-friendly and easy your site is to users. A search function on your site is a useful tool, allowing users to search for something specific or to find something immediately. A site search gives them the opportunity to look for what they need, rather than leaving the page or site.
4. Mobile-Friendly
Keep in mind that most users are mobile users. As expected, mobile users are always on the go, that’s why they use mobile and not desktop. Mobile users also have less patience than desktop users. A website should have a responsive design to maximize a mobile user’s experience.
5. A Variety of Content
Text, video, images…there’s a whole beauty and the beast-sized library of content that you can use to keep your site interesting and engaging. Video has been the fastest growing form of content, whether it’s an animated explainer video, an interview with the company, testimonials, or a timelapse.
Check out some of our video content and animations here.
6. Readability
The readability of your website is an important measure of how easy it is for your visitors to read and understand the page text. Ensure your content is effectively formatted, making your content easy to digest. Factors that play a role in website readability include font, colours, spacing, and the actual content of your content.
Tip: One of the primary things that help with the overall readability of a site is the length of the content.Place content in short, digestible paragraphs so that your visitors can quickly read the content that they are searching for.
7. Internal Link Strategy
Create a strategy that increases the average time spent on your page by adding internal links. Link to other pages on your site, while enhancing the user’s navigating experience by allowing them to easily find other content, especially content they might have been searching for.
8. Ensure Links Open in New Tabs
When you create your internal linking strategy, be sure that your links open in a new tab. This can help increase the time a user spends on your site, as they’ll have more than one page from your site open at the same time.
9. Broken Links & Redirects
The only thing more frustrating than slow site speed is a broken link. Many broken links create a poor user experience as your users cannot find what they are looking for. If you do need to redirect a page, make sure your 404 page is helpful. Provide alternative options, giving the user an opportunity to browse further instead of leaving the page or site.
10. Keywords
We don’t usually do this, but we saved the best (most important) for last. Focus on keywords that are applicable and relevant to your site. If your site is ranking high for a keyword that you do not offer any content on, your users will immediately leave, causing high bounce rates.
By paying some attention to the factors above, you can improve your bounce rate and the overall experience of your site. An enjoyable site experience generates conversions, trust, and loyal customers.
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