Proven Ways From Semalt To Reduce Your Bounce Rate
High bounce rates could mean a lot of bad things to your website and its user's experience. Hence, it is important to identify reasons why your website is experiencing high bounce rates so you can improve your site, user engagement, ranking, and increase your ROI.
There are opinions when it comes to bounce rate. Some say it's good; others say it's bad. Our professional opinion is that it can be both depending on the situation. To understand this, we need to define what it is and understand why it can be a good or a bad thing. Finally, we will show you how to reduce your bounce rate when it doesn't help you rank better or get better ROIs.
What Is Bounce Rate?
According to Google, a bounce rate is a single-page session on your site. Bounce rates are calculated as a ratio of a session that is triggered when a user opens a single page on your site but leaves without triggering any other requests to your server during that session.
Hence the term bounce. They leave not just your webpage but the entire website only after visiting one page. While this is the summary of bounce rates, there are several underlying causes of bounce rates.
What are the Causes Of High Bounce Rates?
One negative and highly consequential cause of the high bounce rate is poor user experience. In this case, a site visitor gets to a page on your website, and it's either the page didn't deliver the content they were expecting, or they meet a non-responsive webpage.
On the other hand, a high bounce rate could mean an excellent user experience. For example, if a user is searching for product reviews on a gaming laptop. When they click through and land on a site, they see all the information they need and leave the site.
In this case, a high bounce rate is an example of a great user experience because the visitor was immediately satisfied by the information you provided. Ideally, some of the high bounce rate traffic your webpages experience bookmark your site for future references. This can also lead to branded searches on Google when they remember your website.
Common Causes Of High Bounce Rate
Pay Attention To Page Load Time
When a user has to wait too long for your webpage to become responsive, there is a high possibility that they leave. "Too long," in this case, means more than three seconds.
Regardless of how good or well thought out your content is, it wouldn't matter if your audience can not see it immediately. Your Page Load Time is even more important when dealing with mobile traffic. We like to think of mobile users as on-the-go users, which means they are always in a hurry, so they will get frustrated and leave if your website loads slowly.
Have A Search Function
Some websites make the gruesome mistake of neglecting the site search functionality, and others make it difficult to see or use. Both instances can cause web traffic to leave your site.
If a user is searching for something specific that they don't find immediately they arrive at your page, a site search function can become an extremely useful tool. They can use this to find exactly what they need as opposed to leaving the site or page entirely.
Provide Easy Navigation
Navigation refers to the internal link structure of your website. Using one link to move from one page on your website to the next should be easy and effortless for visitors. Rather than having your traffic bounce after viewing a page, proper link structure can help them find more interesting pages on your site.
When a user lands on a page on your site, you can provide clear directions to the content they are looking for. Using simple navigation techniques such as quick snippets or simply breaking down your pages for navigation can help you keep a user on your site.
Have Great Web Design
At one point or the other, we've left a website or page simply because it didn't look good enough. Having a good website design is intuitive, and it contributes to the trust your users have with your website. A good web design also indicates quality which convinces users that you were the right choice.
Visitors will loos interest in a site that looks unpleasant or unattractive. These are qualities you find in unprofessional websites which make it difficult to trust.
As a website looking to convert leads, you should provide an appealing user experience by starting with a great design. Your website should be pleasant, intuitive, and have aesthetics.
Use Proper Keywords
Your use of keywords should begin in your content topic. Using accurate keywords in the topic is the first sign that your readers are in the right place. It would be best if you also used keywords in sentences, paragraphs, and headings to communicate to your readers and Google what that page is about.
Keywords also keep us from straying away from the topic.
Choose Your Target Audience
Choosing your keywords and target audience usually goes hand in hand. When choosing your keywords and content format, you should identify the core target audience of your site. Without this, it isn't easy to create content that converts.
Your target audience shouldn't be too broad, as it increases the chances of getting uninterested users. In contrast, a specific and properly targeted content/ website will get users who want to find what your site offers.
Finding users who are looking for the information, content, or services your website provides increases your chance of converting, or they get to explore your site.
Be Mobile Friendly
With over 50% of all web traffic coming from mobile devices, your website should be optimized to meet the needs of these users. This means that your website should be able to adjust to screen sizes, load quickly, and have a responsive design.
With user experience at the core of your optimization strategy, your website should be able to provide mobile users with a solid user experience.
Easy To Read Webpages
The contents on your website should be clear and effective to read. From a user experience standpoint, this can make or mar your user's experiences. Using too little or poorly contrasted fonts makes it difficult for your users to read the content on your web pages.
Users also don't respond well to large chunks of disorganized text. Breaking down text with the use of bullet points sub-headings makes it easier to navigate the content and pick out useful information.
Using shorter paragraphs also helps with the readability of text on web pages. Shorter paragraphs make it easier for your users to read content quickly without it looking too much, even on smaller screens.
Use Multiple Types Of Content
Using multiple forms of content helps your page remain interesting. A blend of text, audio, images, and videos gives many alternatives to your visitors so they can choose the form of content they are most comfortable with.
Video content can communicate certain kinds of information better than text—for example, cooking recipes.
You can also use high-quality images to break up lumps of text and improve the chances of your audience retaining information.
Limit Distracting Ads
A horizontal rectangular ad unit at the top of your webpage, followed by small ads by the side of your content, is considered sufficient. While larger ads that make it difficult to see the content is regarded as a nuisance by most viewers. This, in turn, leads to a poor user experience.
When choosing your ads, be conscious of which ads show so you can block annoying ads and stop your viewers from leaving. Listen to what your site visitors say or comment so you understand which ads are inappropriate or damaging to your user experience.
Have An Effective Call To Action
CTA are very effective tools in convincing your audience to take that step. Since a CTA tells your audience what action you want them to take, you should make it clearly visible. A user should be able to locate your CTA within a few seconds of being on a page.
CTAs should be compelling, so a user does the action you want them to. Pay attention to the color, font, and verbiage of your CTA. these elements can improve the effectiveness of your CTA.
Final Notes
Reducing your bounce rate with all these points in mind has the potential to improve your SEO and user experience. You can also use tools like Microsoft Clarity for heat mapping and visitor recording to keep track of visitors' activities on your site.
With the right information, you can make your website the final destination for all your target audience.