How to Reduce Your Site’s Bounce Rate

The searcher lands on your website. Browses through your content and leaves. No clicks, no conversions. Either he didn’t find what he was looking for or your web page was too difficult for him to use.

A high bounce rate says your website attracts a large number of visitors who are not your potential customers or what you are selling is not relevant to them.

It is a signal that your website and your marketing strategy needs a serious redesigning.

What is Bounce Rate?

In simple words, bounce rate is the number of people who came to your site and left without visiting a second page. It can also be defined as the percentage of single page sessions on your website. Google evangelist Avinash Kaushik, describes bounce rate as “I came, I puked, I left.”

Reducing your bounce rate means more engaged visitors and greater chances of conversions. Your next question is probably “So, how do I reduce bounce rate?”

Here are some great ideas for you:

Improve Your Brand Storytelling

Brand storytelling is all about making your brand stand out and encouraging your audience to engage with the story you are telling. Make sure your visitors understand who you are as a brand and what you can offer them.

Users are looking for solutions to their problems – not sales pitches. Speak to customers in their own language, instead of putting them off with industry jargon and rants about how great your company is.

Keep Your Content Fresh

If your old posts are still appearing in the search engine results, update them with fresh information. If some of your posts have a high bounce rate, it means your content is not giving users what they want.

• Update the data, add a few examples or a case study and incorporate new insights.
• Break up the long posts into smaller paragraphs, with one idea per paragraph. Or split them up into separate posts in a series.
• More than 40% of searches on mobile phones are made for local information. So make sure your website does not lack in local content.

This infographic by QuickSprout shows how you can decrease your bounce rate.

Improve Your Content’s Readability

Pay attention to the readability of your content. Emphasize on the following points:

• Pay attention to font size and the contrast – remember a lot of browsing is done on mobile devices.
• Use clear headings and subheadings for easier scanning.
• Get rid of the tacky elements.
• Provide links to other related content on your site – but don’t go overboard.

Check your content’s readability with this readability index calculator.

Work on Your Website Design

Remember, if the users can’t find what they are searching, they will not stay on your site. So make sure your website has a clear design.

• The design should be attractive and easily navigable with an easy to find search option.
• The responsive design should adapt to any screen size and be optimized for all devices. Poor navigation causes poor user experience.
• Check the performance of your website on different browsers.
• Speed up the page load time – nothing affects the bounce rate more than a page that takes time to load. Use the Analytics tools to trace if your pages load slowly.
• Use Google’s suggestive snippet for creating 404 pages. Visit the “Enhance 404 pages” section in Google Webmaster Tools to generate a JavaScript snippet.
• Read this help article by Google to know what bounce rate is and how you can reduce it.

Create Clear and Compelling Call-to-Action Button

Your website might be amazing, but if the site lacks clear call of action everything is in vain.

• Make sure each of your landing pages has a clear call to action button: Be specific about what action you want users to take.
• Don’t overdo it: Several calls to action on a single page can confuse the visitor.
• Keep the number of fields in the form limited: If you think you need more information about your customer, do so in the next page, after you have gathered all the basic information.

Get Social

People often use social media to learn more about brands rather than landing on their website. Therefore, make sure you are engaging with your audience on social media. Add the personal touch to your website to show your viewers that real people are involved in it. You should also add Facebook and Twitter widgets displaying your followers and option for visitors to connect with you on social media. The better you connect with your audience in social media, more your resulting on site engagement.

Don’t Disturb the UX

Make sure you do not interrupt your user’s experience.

• Avoid pop ups, as they can annoy the users.
• Make sure ads from third parties open up in a different window instead of redirecting the user off your site. The best way to do this is simply add target=”_blank” into the link’s <a> tag.
• Avoid incorporating auto play audio and videos.

All in all, possibly the best thing you can do to lower your bounce rate is by creating relevant content that keeps your viewers engaged. How have you lowered your bounce rate below the industry average? Share your ideas and feedback with us in the comments section below.