Have you noticed that your site has a lot of traffic and yet not so many activities going on the site? You might have also noticed that you have a high bounce rate and this does affect website ranking because this type of information tells search engines that people don’t enjoy visiting your site.
If you are not sure that you have a high bounce rate but need certainty, all you will need to do is to run Google Analytics on your site to have a good understanding of your website’s traffic.
If you are confused about what the term bounce rate means, here is a simple analogy: You know how a ball touches the ground and pops right back up without interacting much with that spot on the ground? Well, that’s a good way to understand what a bounce is. The ball is the site visitor, and the spot on the ground is your website. In essence, a bounce is when a visitor views your web page and doesn’t stay back but bounces right off.
The bounce rate can then be explained as the percentage of visitors that visit your website and leave without navigating to the other pages, with respect to the total site visits. In mathematical terms, bounce rate = one-page visits / total site visits.
To cut your bounce rate, you must first understand the variables that are most likely responsible for presenting you with a high bounce rate and I have taken the time to touch the most popular ones and how to fix them.
Buying Page Views: While you might not be doing this at the moment. The most known culprit that can guarantee a spike in bounce rates is the purchase of page views. You know there are some sites that ask you to pay $5 and they will send thousands of visitors your way? Well, they will actually send thousands or even tens of thousands of visitors your way, but I don’t have to tell you that these visitors are not targeted and there is no guarantee that these visitors are interested in viewing your site in the first place. There’s also a high chance that these visitors were forced/tricked to your site, just so that they can actually get the real information that they need.
How to fix: Stop buying page likes and invest in news aggregation sites and content discovery engines. This is because this method will drive targeted and quality traffic to your site.
Boring Home Page: Having a non-descriptive or boring home page is another reason people will not click through your site. If you have ever visited the homepage of a site and felt a bit clueless as to the message being conveyed, then you will definitely understand what I am referring to here.
How to fix: The trick to getting past this will be to do one of the following:
- Highlight what you are offering
- Try to use simple words and relatable images
- Show some level of credibility
- Show links to pages you think they will be interested in viewing
Annoying Ads: I was talking with a new blogger recently and he was asking me about how to get ad clicks, and I was shocked because I believed he should be focusing on getting website traffic and not AD clicks. On visiting his blog, I saw ads upon ads and quickly closed the tab. It is because of people like him that Ad blockers are the real deal.
If you have to place ads, place them in a way that will not distract your visitors or make them regret visiting your site. Better still, follow the Google guidelines for AD placements.
Unrelated Content: This is another method that some content marketers use to drive traffic to sites and while it can work, it will also undoubtedly lead to high bounce rates. Imagine, clicking on a headline that reads “Warren Buffet plays Basketball” and getting there to see a post showing the top ten basketballers of all times. This makes people lose trust in your brand name and the chance of visitors returning will always be slim.
Impossible Content: There are also scenarios when the content of a site is so clumsy that finding the required information is impossible. Just try to imagine what it will be like if this post had not bold text or short paragraphs. It will not only be difficult to go through but annoying enough to make you click the exit icon.
Also remember that not everyone has the time to read through your content and hence, you should do what you can to ensure that skimmers can get the key information they need easily.
Non-Responsiveness: I was almost going to miss this one but I am happy I remembered. Responsiveness ensures that your site renders appropriately per device and if the form of your web page is not good enough per device, you will most likely be chasing away people that use such a device.
Always put it in the back of your mind that the same way mobile users will leave a site that is designed as desktop only is the same way that desktop users will leave a site that is designed as mobile only. It’s simple, don’t leave anyone out.
Please make good use of the information given and try as much as possible to ensure that you also give engaging content that will not only connect with your audience but make them keep coming back for more.
