A high bounce rate means people aren’t sticking around.
A drop in your bounce rate will lead to higher profits.
You can figure this because if someone is staying on your site longer then there’s a greater chance that they’re going to convert on one of your offers.
Conversion optimization is what we’re talking about, here, and bounce rate is one of those important items at the top of the list.
This article is going to give you a collection of tips to reduce your bounce rate. It also includes a few ways to improve visitor’s on-site time.
Basics of the Bounce Rate
There are many different reasons why someone is going to bounce from your website:
- Design – The look and feel of the site is clunky and doesn’t convey professionalism so the person doesn’t feel like they are on the correct page.
- Navigation – It’s hard to move around the website without having to constantly backtrack or second guess where you are after clicking a link.
- Content – Is lacking so there’s no real reason to dig any deeper because they’ve already lost interest on the first article that brought them there through search or social.
- Annoyances – Items like pushy pop-ups, advertisements, and auto playing videos/sounds that throw the individual off guard and immediately on the defensive (where they rather hit back than have to deal with the annoyance).
- Aggression – The marketing messages are too aggressive and in-your-face which puts people off from consuming the content because they feel it’s only there to get them to click on an offer.
- Overload – Too much information being displayed at a single time which makes the visitor confused so they rather take no action.
- Trust – No indications of trust so the person doesn’t feel like you’re an actual authority in the industry.
- ??? – Some people simply clicked the wrong link.
How To Decrese Your Bounce Rate
Ask me and there are three main elements to keeping people on the site:
- Consistency – What they see your listing in the search engines, social media updates, or advertisements should be what you deliver when they land on the page. It should have the same tone and offer you conveyed through the message so once they land on the page they feel “at home” and will continue through. Remove the bait-and-switch.
- Usability – A person should have no trouble navigating your website and digging deep into the content. They should be able to easily consume the information and go on to the next piece (if they want) without having to second guess where to click. They are also given call-to-actions that guide them to products/services that are of value (which makes sense based on the context).
- Service – When someone is lost they want a guide to help them through the remaining process. If you’re not there with live chat, email, or any other kind of customer service initiatives you’re going to lose out on that opportunity. Be there for when they’re stuck and you’ll walk them through the final steps. You’ll also learn where your conversion process went wrong, from actual feedback, so you can make the appropriate updates and tweaks.
To make this as simplistic as possible (aka non-technical) all you really need to do is rework your copy so that you stay consistent to your marketing message. The content you’re producing should also be easy to consume by breaking it down into manageable chunks. You will also need contact for when people feel lost. These three will be more than enough to aid in reducing the bounce rate in the basic sense.
Getting the Most from Site Tweaks
Apply the 80/20 rule to these bounce rate updates.
The point:
Take action on those tips and tricks that you are able to accomplish within your skillset rather than spending double the amount of time learning a new skill for a few fractions of a point.
Work toward the big wins and you’ll do more than enough to improve your bottom line compared to the competition.
Conclusion
Bounce rate is a tricky metric to handle. There are numerous reasons why people leave the site; some of them are completely out of your control.
But for the ones you do control (like design, call-to-actions, and copy) a bit of optimization can do wonders – and much of it takes just a few minutes of your time.
Put ‘reduce bounce rate’ as one of your top to-do list items for this week. Start sooner than later because each passing day is another to which you’re leaving money on the table.
