How’s your bounce rate?
Is an increased bounced rate a good or a bad thing?
When it comes to your website’s analytics, it’s important to understand a few basic elements. They can give you a clearer picture of your user’s online behaviours.
Your bounce rate is one of those basic elements.
Bounce rate can help you identify those areas on your web page that need improvement.
First, let’s try and understand what bounce rate is. Then, I will share with you 3 effective ways to improve yours.
Let’s get started…
What is a bounce rate?
Your website’s bounce rate is the the percentage of visitors who navigate away from your site after viewing only one page.
In other words, the bounce rate identifies users that land on a page then immediately leave.
Attention! Bounce rate is different than exit rate. An exit rate measures the percentage of users who leave your website from a certain page. However, that page is not the only one they’ve visited on your website.
An increased bounced rate – good or bad?
Bad.
Why?
The higher your bounce rate, the more users leave your website as soon as they’ve landed on it. Definitely a bad thing!
The good news is – the simple fact of identifying the problem can be your first step towards fixing it.
Before you stress too much over your high bounce rate, let me remind you I have 3 effective ways to fix it.
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3 effective ways to improve your bounce rate
A bounce rate will identify the percentage of users that leave your website right after they’ve landed on it. It won’t tell you much about how users interact with your website.
In order to have a clearer picture of your users’ on-page behaviour, you’ll probably need to have a look at some other analytics metrics, as well…
I am going to share with you 3 ways to help you decrease your bounce rate, right now.
1. Make sure your website is mobile friendly
Nowadays, most of your online traffic comes from a mobile device.
Make sure your website is mobile responsive and offers an enjoyable mobile experience. How?
- The text should be easy to read. The user shouldn’t have to zoom in or click on bunch of small buttons in order to read the content on your website
- Create an interactive mobile user experience. For example, instead of writing about a topic, you could try making a short, creative video about it
- Make sure your website doesn’t take too long to load on mobile devices. Every second counts!
Tip: When optimising your mobile user experience, think – user-friendly, interactive and easy-to-read.
2. Prevent user experience disruptions
Usually, these disruptions may come in the form of pop-ups.
Avoid using too many pop-ups as soon as a user lands on your website. They are not only disruptive and annoying, they can get you penalised by Google.
Don’t get me wrong, pop-ups can be useful if they are created to improve your user’s online experience.
Tip: Go to your website and evaluate how much your pop-ups contribute to creating a mobile user-friendly experience. Identify potential issues and don’t be afraid to change things.
3. Make sure your page ranks for relevant keywords
One of the most frequent reasons people bounce off a page is – they were expecting something else entirely.
How can you avoid this confusion?
Optimise your pages for keywords that are relevant to your content. This way, users will get exactly what they were searching for on your website. The result? A lowered bounce rate.
Tip: When looking for relevant keywords for your content, research is key. If your keywords are relevant to your content, it will help users find you easier and will also help your page rank higher. Win-win.
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Next time you go through your website data, try to understand what that bounce rate means for your own website. You have a few effective ways to get you started in the right direction.
Now’s the perfect time to lower your bounce rate!
