Google Analytics defines a “bounce” as a single-page session. In simple terms, it means a person leaves your website from the entrance page, without clicking on any site element or visiting another page. The bounce rate is the percentage of single-page sessions.
A high bounce rate is bad news for websites.
Why?
It indicates either/both of these two things:
- You are attracting the wrong kind of audience.
- Your website isn’t providing a good user experience.
In any case, a high bounce rate means your website is driving away visitors even before they have a chance to engage with your content. You can literally forget about converting them into customers or repeat visitors. Moreover, a high bounce rate is a red flag for Google and can lead to poor search rankings.
So, what can you do to reduce your bounce rate?
1. Enhance Your Content’s Readability
With attention spans dwindling fast, people just scan and skim content. If they encounter dense chunks of text as soon as they land on your website, they won’t stick around for long. Great content with lousy formatting is a dealbreaker for most people.
The best online writers use these hacks to create easy-to-read content:
- Write as you speak (use a conversational tone).
- Organize your content using H1, H2… tags.
- Try to use bulleted lists as much as possible.
- Break text walls up with images, charts, videos, and infographics.
- Use bold, italics, and underlining to highlight important information.
- Inject questions to encourage “active” reading.
Even if you’re writing a technical piece, avoid jargon and wordy content. Use screenshots, quotes, and real-life examples to make your writing relatable as well as interesting.
Need an example?
Here’s a post on the SiteProNews website that’s easy on the eye and easy to digest.
2. Get Rid of Popups
There was a time when popups were considered a great customer engagement tool. Indeed, they are useful when it comes to collecting email addresses or pitching personalized offers/content.
But that’s where the benefits end.
Popups disrupt the UX and annoy most people. I know that when I visit a website and am greeted by popups, I may decide to leave.
What makes matters worse is that some marketers use aggressive language in popups. When you barely know a person, it’s completely unacceptable that you use bullying tactics to drive them towards a desired action.
Take, for instance, this weather.com entry popup:
I’ve no problem with the pop-up copy as such, but the CTA is downright rude. Is it that hard to add a “please?”
You get the point, right?
If you need to use a popup, place it strategically and time it perfectly so that you don’t annoy visitors. Showing a popup to loyal customers after their 100th visit makes sense, but don’t greet first-time visitors with an entry popup. That’s just bad targeting!
3. Improve Your Page Load Speed
Slow-loading pages can kill your UX which, in turn, increases your bounce rate.
So, just how important is page load speed to your retention rates?
40% of people won’t wait over 3 seconds before abandoning a website. For ecommerce sites, this wait time shouldn’t exceed 2 seconds. Sometimes, your website loads quickly on desktops but is sluggish on mobile.
Sound familiar?
Then, you need to rectify the situation soon since 46% of mobile users say slow-loading websites is their biggest turnoff.
To get your website up and running:
- Remove heavy Flash animations.
- Tweak the .htaccess file.
- Remove query strings from static web pages.
- Remove extraneous plugins.
- Switch to a better domain registrar.
4. Build Multiple Landing Pages for High-Volume Keywords
Having more landing pages means your traffic gets divided for the same keyword. This can lead to faster load and more conversion opportunities. You can segment visitors and target them better.
What else?
It also has an SEO benefit. If a searcher lands directly on your landing page instead of taking a detour via your homepage, it’s better. You eliminate friction from their journey, which translates into a richer UX and longer dwell time.
To create landing pages painlessly, opt for an effective landing page builder. This way, you have greater control over your website and its content.
If you have the resources and skill to create landing pages from scratch, start with keyword research. To find high-volume keywords, you can use a tool like Google Keyword Planner or one of its alternatives.
Type your main keyword + a qualifier and click on “Get ideas.” Try to figure out the search intent (informational, transactional, locational) of each keyword idea that shows up. Since your aim is to keep people on-page longer, aim for informational keywords.
For example, if your main keyword is “website design strategy,” you may see these keyword ideas:
- Web design prices: This keyword will attract bottom-of-the-funnel traffic that is near the conversion point. Visitors will either convert or not, and leave the page soon after.
- Freelance web designers: This keyword will drive top-of-the-funnel traffic that is not ready to convert yet. You can create a series of pages around this keyword, one for each web designer. Your visitors will keep flitting from page to page, increasing your dwell time.
Once you identify a few high volume-keywords, incorporate them into your content strategically. Craft quality content and don’t skimp on research. That should do the trick for you.
Conclusion
In this article, I’ve explained four effective ways to decrease your bounce rate. Apart from this, leverage website design tips to reduce bounce, such as intuitive architecture and navigation. But remember, no amount of cosmetic changes can help you unless your content is unique and authoritative.
Do you have any questions about this post? Please write them in the comments. I’ll be back with the answers soon.
