8 Ways to Tackle High Bounce Rate and Bring it Down
Bounce rate is one of the most crucial factors that can affect your website’s success. It tells you how many of your website’s visitors exit instantly or very shortly after landing on a specific page, indicating that something might be wrong with it and it needs improvement.
The more visitors exiting your landing page or going back to the previous page within a few seconds and without having any interaction with your site, the higher your bounce rate is.
A high bounce rate does not only affect your conversion rate, but it may also affect your rankings in Google and other search engines. When users click on your website’s listing in Google search results and then very shortly go/bounce back to search results, this tells Google that your page is probably irrelevant to the search query or not very helpful. If you don’t do anything about it, you can expect your Google rankings to get lower and lower over time.
Note: This is different from the Bounce Rate in Google Analytics, which does not affect Google’s search results since they don’t use any data from Google Analytics in their ranking algorithm.
There is no magic number for a perfect bounce rate, but generally, you should strive to keep it below 50%, i.e. if about half of your visitors find your page helpful and spend enough time to read, comment, share and/or interact with it in different ways then you’ve done a great job!
Many things can lead to a high bounce rate, and many things can be done to lower it. The following are eight effective ways that can help you retain visitors for a longer period of time and reduce your site’s bounce rate.
1. Improve Load Speed
How many times have you visited a web page and left within seconds because it was taking too long to load? Most Internet users today have access to fast broadband and they expect everything to load fast.
The longer your page’s content takes to load, the higher percentage of visitors will leave without even taking a look at the content. It is generally advised that any web page should not take more than two seconds to load, if not completely at least partially display something on the screen to maintain the user’s attention and interest.
It is worth noting that your web hosting service can also affect your website’s speed. So make sure you choose a reliable web host with fast and well-maintained servers, as well as around-the-clock technical support to help fix technical issues when they occur.
2. Short and Slim Paragraphs
Most users don’t have enough time or will to read through bulky and lengthy blocks of text to get to the main point(s). If your website looks like newspaper pages stacked with daunting walls of text, then don’t be surprised if most of your traffic bounces off!
Make sure to keep your paragraphs as short as possible and get right to the point. Also, you should use a fairly large and clear font with adequate vertical spacing between lines and paragraphs to make it easier to read.
3. Use Relevant Subheadings
Another thing you can do to improve readability and help your users find what they are looking for easily and quickly is to split up the content into multiple sections, each with a relevant subheading.
A lot of times, the user may only be looking for a specific piece of information within a broader article. Providing short, descriptive subheadings and a list of the contents would be very helpful as it enables the reader to quickly skim through the article and get to the point they are interested in. It also makes the article less challenging and more inviting to read.
4. Add Visuals
We live in the multimedia age, so make use of it! Many people would prefer to watch a video or read through a nice infographic rather than read plain dry text. Even simple static images can add some liveliness to your content and make it more appealing.
Whatever multimedia content you choose to use, make sure that it is useful and relevant to the topic at hand, and very importantly, that it doesn’t take a long time to load or else you risk losing a good number of impatient visitors.
5. Be Unique
No matter what topic you are going to write about, there are thousands of other websites that have already written about it. So if you are just going to rewrite the same ideas that many have read a thousand times already then there is no reason for them to stick around.
Your content should offer a unique perspective on the subject matter and add value to keep the visitor eager to read more and learn something new. It is not always easy to come up with something new and different, especially for the more technical topics, but try to make it as distinctive as possible.
Besides the content, it would also help if your site’s design is unique and custom-made. It will show how serious and worthy it is, as opposed to using a stale cheap or free template that a lot of low quality websites are using.
6. Easy With Ads
Selling advertising space on your website is one of the most effective ways to generate some revenue from it. But you should keep in mind that the amount and placement of ads within your pages can detrimentally affect the user experience.
Remember the golden adage: “Content Is King”! People come to your website looking for useful and relevant information, not to click on ads. If you overload your pages with ads in such a way that it becomes notably distracting or annoying, you will be losing many of your visitors.
7. Avoid Pesky Pop-Ups
Everyone hates pop-ups, especially those that appear as soon as you open the page and block the whole screen! Whether it is an ad, a subscription reminder, a special offer, and whatnot, pop-ups are really very annoying and intrusive.
Yes, pop-ups can be a very effective method to get more subscribers, but they also come with a high risk of pissing off your readers, particularly the quick-tempered of them. I am one of those people who, unless I am very interested in the content, would usually slam the “back” or “close” button if I get a pop-up as soon as I land on a web page!
8. Don’t Forget Mobile Users
In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years, most people are now using mobile devices to access the Internet, and the percentage of mobile web traffic is only going up.
It is very crucial that your site’s design is responsive and mobile-friendly, otherwise, a significant percentage of your visitors who are using a mobile device may run away.
That was a quick rundown of some important elements that can influence the user experience on your website, and consequently your traffic’s bounce rate. If you are experiencing a high bounce rate or a poor conversion rate, take note of the tips in this article and start improving whatever needs improvement across your website!
