Bounce Rate Reduction – 10 Great Tips

When measuring your site’s effectiveness, bounce rate is an important metric to consider. The time each user spends visiting each page can tell you a lot about the appeal of your site, and its content.

If you’re currently experiencing a high bounce rate – don’t despair! There are two scenarios which might lead to high bounce rates – in Scenario A, you are providing great, easily navigable content, which makes it easy for visitors to find what they are looking for (and then leave your site). In Scenario B, visitors have left your site because they were unable to find what they were looking for, were directed to your site in error, or experienced frustrations which caused them to leave.

Scenario A is actually a positive situation. But, how do you determine which scenario is causing your high bounce rates? The simplest way to decipher between the two is to check repeat traffic. When you are providing excellent content, visitors may come to the site and leave quickly, but they tend to be repeat visitors. If you aren’t seeing a lot of repeat traffic, your site may be existing in Scenario B – which means immediate action should be taken to improve your visitor retention.

Why is bounce rate reduction important?

No matter which scenario you find yourself in, reducing bounce rate on pages which receive high traffic volume from qualified sources will help you increase your customer engagement – and more engaged customers are more likely to convert. By focusing on user engagement, you’ll create an environment that supports conversion of traffic into sales – which is really the entire purpose of providing user content.

The helpful tips below can be utilized to help you reduce your bounce rates, improve your customer experience, and facilitate the positive user interaction which encourages customer conversions.

  1. Pay attention to design. Your content needs to look professional. Legibility and attractiveness are essential. Poor design is intolerable, and will immediately alienate many users. Design your site to meet the preferences of your target audience, and avoid annoying features such as pop-up ads and spammy third-party content – at all costs!
  2. Navigation should be intuitive. If your users can’t immediately locate important information or links, they aren’t likely to stick around. Provide clear and easily navigable paths to relevant content.
  3. Consider your site speed. The longer your site takes to load, the lower your site ranking. Slow speeds negatively impact your user experience, and can cause followers to lose interest – a huge negative when it comes to inspiring conversions.
  4. Review your mobile accessibility. Is your site optimized for mobile use? Can users who are browsing via tablet or phone easily access the content they are seeking, or contact you for more information? These days, a quality mobile experience is absolutely necessary for bounce rate reduction.
  5. Divide long posts into readable segments. Readers have increasingly short attention spans. Add segmentation and pagination to make your posts more digestible – or split long entries into a series of shorter, related posts.
  6. Close the loop. In other words – make sure the information you are offering matches the keywords users are searching for. This may seem like a no-brainer, but high bounce rates can often be attributed to a disconnect between ad copy and page content. If you want to reduce your bounce rates – make sure you’re actually including the content your visitors want!
    Make information obvious. Use effective taglines, and prominently state your site’s purpose. Highlight essential information with bold text or color blocking. You only have a few seconds to engage your visitors – make sure you are using those seconds efficiently.
  7. Pay attention to ad placement. Users have grown blind to standard advertisement, and Google has begun penalizing pages which place too many ads per page. Keep it simple, low-key, and relevant – excessive or intrusive ads garnish few results, and tend to annoy users.
  8. Offer internal search – prominently. You can increase site functionality and drastically improve your user experience simply by allowing users to search your site for more info. You’ll also improve your search analytics, which can help you hone your engagement strategy, and gain insight into user preferences. Display your search box on every page, so it’s easy for users to locate, and you’ll add value and convenience to your user experience.
  9. Don’t lose traffic to redirection. When linking to outside resources, make sure that you users are directed via a fresh tab or window. It may seem simple enough, but much traffic can be lost to helpful redirection. With proper external linking, you’ll see immediate bounce rate reduction.

While these helpful tips may seem simple, they’ll offer immediate benefits in terms of bounce rate reduction. And when you increase the time visitors spend perusing your site’s valuable content, you’ll see a resulting increase in user satisfaction – which leads to higher conversions, and increased sales.

Above all else, remember that in the eyes of today’s consumer, your website is a direct reflection of your organization. Pay attention to the message you’re sending – you only get one chance to make a first impression, so make sure it’s one of quality!

For more information on how careful attention to bounce rate reduction can help you retain traffic, maximize your user experience, and increase your bottom line, contact the experts at Strongpages today!