If you use Google Analytics you have no doubt seen Bounce rate as one of the measured statistics for your website. Bounce rate is the percentage of single-page visits (or web sessions). It is the number of visits in which a person leaves your website from the landing page without browsing any further. – Land, bounce off.
Having a high bounce rate could be due to your website not being what a user was looking for, your site was not user friendly, poorly designed or did not provide the content or call for action that would encourage a visitor to take the next step – either to visit other pages in your site or make contact via the contact form or by calling the number shown.
The average bounce rate for most sites is in the 40% – 60% range.
Reasons for a high bounce rate
A high bounce rate is caused by many factors, including:
Single page site
If your site only has one page, every visit will register as a bounce as there are no other pages to navigate to. As a result, single-page sites have high bounce rates.
Incorrect implementation
If you have a high bounce rate and don’t have a single page site, check that you’ve added the tracking code to all your pages. See Google Tracking Setup for more information.
Site design
If that doesn’t fix the problem of a high bounce rate, consider:
· Redesigning your landing page
· SEO your site so it correlates better with the search terms that users enter
· Changing the ads or keywords to better reflect page content
User behaviour
Bouncing may also be due to users bookmarking a particular page and returning to that page only. You could try adding extra content or a call to action to test changes in user behaviour. This would be reflected in your bounce rate.
Improve your bounce rate
Because the design of your site and your Analytics implementation can affect your bounce rate, improving your bounce rate requires specific, custom changes to your site and setup. The bounce rate, and improving the bounce rate, is as individual as your business.
Analyse specific data. Consider your bounce rate for specific traffic sources.
Check and adjust factors that might contribute to your bounce rate, like site layout and navigation. Use only your past performances as a guide, and try to improve your current bounce rate relative to your previous data. Provide enough time between changes to collect enough data to evaluate the impact the changes may be having on your users and their behaviours.
Display your ‘Call to Action’ your landing page
If you advertise an offer, visitors expect to see it when they arrive at your landing page. If they have to click through your site to locate the offer, you may find you have a high bounce rate. So make sure that your call to action is relevant to your landing page.
Easy to digest information
It’s a fine line between providing enough information to meet a visitor’s inquiry and too much which will put them off reading it all. Provide enough to get them interested in your product or service which may encourage them to contact you for further information.
Looks good and loads fast
Research suggests visitors will decide in 8 seconds or less whether to stay or leave your website.
1. Poor webpage design
2. Poor Navigation
3. Not using a responsive layout. Design for different screen resolutions.
4. Too cluttered
5. Too much text
6. Poor formatting – bolding, italics, underlining, capitals
7. Tight spacing between text
8. Few headings and sub-headings
9. Landing pages which load slowly
10. Audio/video contents which auto-plays when the page loads. Very annoying for visitors!
Give visitors a reason to stay
By providing further links, offers/calls to action, related posts etc. You can give a visitor a reason to stay on your site. Even if they take action on the contact page, provide a link to another page at the ‘thank you’ page.
Measure your site results with Analytics to improve your pages.’
Talk to our Website Experts to discover your bounce rate.
