How To Lower Your Bounce Rate

Think of your bounce rate like a rubber ball bouncing in and out of the pages on your site. As soon as it lands, it’s off again to another location. While this may be fun and games for kids, it’s terrible news for your website. It can result in fewer conversions, less traffic and less people visiting and using your site.

So, what can you do about it? 

Well, a high bounce rate is a result of poorly designed and optimised pages, which means something needs to change. We suggest setting up an analytics tool, such as Google Analytics, on your website so you can track the traffic running through your website and monitor any activity. By signing into your account you’ll be able to see various statistics, including bounce rate. The lower the percentage, the better your website is at keeping users engaged.

It’s important to also acknowledge the bounce rates of specific pages. You may find that your homepage has a low bounce rate but your pages that are designed to gain conversions have a high bounce rate of 60% plus. Given that these pages are particular important like product pages, checkout or contact form submissions, then you’ll need to assess the webpage and the quality of its content. There is a reason people are losing interest on that particular page, so what is it?

Are Your CTA’s Clear? 

Even if your webpage isn’t aimed at gaining conversions, CTA’s help the user move around your site. Make sure your users know what action to take next by making their journey clear and the reason behind each page obvious. You don’t want your visitors to end up in a dead-end, you want to be able to guide them through each page of your site, taking the necessary next steps to get them to take action.

For pages designed to convert, make sure you create a page specifically for exit traffic, such as a ‘thank you’ or ‘order confirmed’ page so that you can track and monitor your conversion rate.

It’s All About The UX 

User experience is everything. When designing a website, the way a user will use, interact and navigate your site should be a priority. This includes making sure the website is accessible and easy-to-use across all devices, but it also relates to navigation and the look and feel of a website. UX is about everything the user is experiencing so make sure you test this thoroughly before launching your website. 

Your high bounce rate could be because your user is trying to navigate your site on their mobile and it’s not responsive or images aren’t loading properly. Whatever it is, it’s damaging the usability of your site.

Speed 

If users visiting your site are hitting your homepage and jumping off in a few seconds, you might want to check your site speed. No one wants to sit around staring at loading scripts while your website tries to download its content. It’s a waste of time and there will be another website offering the same service/product as you and their website will load instantly. 

Speed up your site by optimising your images, switching to a faster hosting provider and adding better caching.  

Make It Readable 

No one wants to click on a website and see huge chunks of text. Your website isn’t an e-book so it shouldn’t be presented as one. Readability goes hand-in-hand with user experience so it’s important to make sure your site has instant visual appeal and a big part of this is how you present your text. Size and typography are important, along with padding, line spacing and using images to break up large paragraphs.

In all honesty, your high bounce rate might not just be down to one of these things. It could be a combination of them all or even something entirely different. This is where A/B testing web pages could be a great way to discover what works and what sends your visitors bouncing away. 

For more information on bounce rate, optimising your website and SEO , contact us here for support.