Bounce Rate

What Is Bounce Rate?
Bounce rate is defined as the percentage of visitors who enter a site and “bounce” rather than continue to view additional pages on the same site. Bounce rate is a very important metric for website owners. It basically tells you what percentages of your visitors are “bouncing” away after landing on your site (e.g., they just visit one page and leave before clicking on to a second page inside your site).

Google Analytics Benchmark Averages for Bounce Rate:

40-60% Content websites

30-50% Lead generation sites

70-98% Blogs

20-40% Retail sites

10-30% Service sites

70-90% Landing pages

A Bounce Rate can occur for several reasons:

(i) The visitor hit the “Back” button on his browser.

(ii) The visitor closed his browser.

(iii) The visitor clicked on one of your ads.

(iv) The visitor clicked on one of your external links.

(v) The visitor used the search box on his browser.

(vi) The visitor typed a new URL on his browser.

All the actions above would cause the visitor to leave your site. Provided he did any of these actions right after arriving at your site (and before clicking on to a second page), it would be counted as a bounce. In fact the formula for finding the bounce rate on your website is:

Bounce rate = Visits that left after one page / Total number of visits

A low bounce rate is an indication that your website is performing optimally, as visitors are spending a significant amount of time on it. On the other hand, a high bounce rate shows that visitors are clicking away instead of seeing all that your website has to offer. To reduce your website's bounce rate and increase its stickiness, motivate visitors to spend more time on your website with the following tips.

1. Create Compelling Content:

One of the factors that motivate people to stay on a website longer is content. Well-written content that speaks directly to the interests of your target audience will grab and hold their attention. For example, if your website is about dog breeding, your content should provide helpful tips and advice about the subject and present solutions to your target audience's most difficult challenges. Relevant, engaging content will pique the interest of your prospects and motivate them to explore your website further.

2. Maintain Keyword Integrity:

Make sure the keywords you are using in your metadata have low bounce rates and that you are reinforcing the term in the copy and content you are showing to site visitors. Your own brand or site name should have the lowest bounce rate for a keyword.

In your search marketing efforts, if the bounce rate is high for keywords you are buying, you need to either improve the landing page to reinforce the topic or bid on keywords that are more relevant to your content.

3. Encourage Visitors to Comment:

Encourage your readers to leave comments after consuming your content by asking them intriguing questions or covering hotly debated topics. Your readers will be motivated to share their views. Furthermore, reply to all comments in a friendly manner to encourage new visitors to participate in the conversation.

4.  Interlink Your Articles:

When writing an article, link to other articles you've written in the past to make it easier for readers to find additional content on your website. Not only will this minimize your website's bounce rate, it will also have a positive impact on your website's SEO.

5. Make Links Open in New Windows:

The idea behind reducing bounce rate is to ensure that visitors check out more than one page of your website, so when you link to external websites, make sure that those links open in new tabs or windows. That way, your visitors will keep the landing page (the page they reached upon visiting your site) open and also spend some time on the newly opened pages.

6. Leverage Your Sidebars:

Don't leave your sidebars empty or fill them with distracting widgets. Make good use of your sidebars by linking to valuable resources that your visitors won't be able to resist. In your sidebars, feature links to new, popular, or essential content. This will encourage people to explore your website. In addition, organize your content archives neatly to enhance the user experience and make it easier for visitors to browse all of your content.

7. Make Your Search Box Highly Visible:

If visitors can’t find what they are looking for on your website, they may get frustrated and click away, unless you give them the option to perform searches. Be sure to include a prominent search box on every page of your site to enable visitors to find the exact information they seek.

8. Display Excerpts of Content on Your Home Page:

One factor that will influence visitors' decisions regarding whether or not to explore your website further upon landing on the home page is the layout of the content. Display excerpts of your articles on the home page to entice visitors to click through and read more. Your visitors may get overwhelmed and leave if you display your content in its entirety.

9. Display Additional Articles Readers Might Like:

At the bottom of each piece of content you publish on your website, display links to other relevant articles that visitors can consume once they're finished reading. If you’re using a CMS like WordPress, there are plugins created exclusively for this purpose.

10. Create an Informative “About” Page:

After your home page, your “about” page is likely the most visited page of your website. This is because people want to find out more about you and your business. So, put your “about” page link next to your home page link in your website's main navigation bar, and provide relevant details about yourself and your products or services on your “about” page.

11. Improve Page Load Times:

Your website visitors have limited attention spans. If your website takes too long to load, they might get fed up and leave. Improve your site's page load times by getting rid of unnecessary social media widgets, images, pop-ups, and ads. Perform tests to determine what your website's page load times are and how you could improve them.

12. Check Browser Performance:

The developer who built your site might have worked exclusively in Firefox and failed to check its performance in Internet Explorer, Safari, and Google Chrome. Unfortunately, parts of your site that load fine in one type of browser struggle in others, says Whit-more. Your analytics tool can break down bounce by browser type to see if this is the culprit.

Note: Bounce rate is an important factor to consider when evaluating the performance and usability of your website. A high bounce rate indicates that something is not right. To significantly reduce your website's bounce rate and compel visitors to stick around longer, follow the above tips and improve your website's overall user experience.