First impressions are everything in website marketing. If visitors do not get what they need on your website they will hightail out of there faster than they came. When a visitor leaves your site without visiting other pages, it is called a “bounce”. The bounce rate is a measurement based on the percentage of visitors that arrive on your site and leave without clicking to other pages.
A high bounce rate equates to a web page that may not be relevant to your visitors. By testing this metric and making adjustments you can reduce your bounce rate and increase conversions as a result.
Before you begin…
It’s important to look at your bounce rate in terms of what your landing page offers. If you are an affiliate marketer advertising a CPA offer and your desire is for the visitor to enter a quick zip code to click to the merchant’s page, the bounce rate will be high even though you will have converted the visitor. In this case, analyzing bounce rates is not effective.
Measuring bounce rates is most effective when your website requires users to linger for a while before making a decision. Ecommerce, blogs, service offerings or high content sites—all would benefit from bounce rate information even though at times the measurements can be eschewed. For example, what if a customer called your 800 number right away and left your website? Essentially that would be a good thing even though it would show as a “bounce”. Also, banner advertisements can lead people to click away immediately.
How to Measure
Google Analytics will show you an average bounce rate. You will need to drill down to get more detailed information. If you do not have a Google Analytics account for your website, here is some helpful information to get you started: How to Install and Use Google Analytics
Note: If your bounce rate is 80%, this means that 80% of your website visitors left after viewing the page on which they entered. This page could be your home page or any other page on your website.
Within Analytics, check your bounce rates from three separate data points: Content, Traffic and Keywords
Content
You will find the tab under Content > Site Content > Pages
This screen will display the last 30 days of activity and which pages of your website garnered the most views.
From this information you can determine which pages have the highest bounce rates in relation to the traffic. For example, if one of your pages receives a high amount of traffic, yet the bounce rate is high, you can work on this page to reduce the bounce rate. Pay close attention to the pages with the lowest bounce rates since they can give you clues as to what you are doing right.
Traffic Sources
You will find the tab under Traffic Sources > Sources > Referrals
This screen will show you the referring traffic and the bounce rates based on where people clicked through to arrive on your website. Notice the high and low bounce rates corresponding to different sites. This information can tell you the referring sites on which to focus to improve your overall marketing strategy.
Keywords
You will find the tab under Traffic Sources > Sources > Search > Organic
Here you will find a list of the keywords driving your traffic. The bounce rates will be listed next to the keyword a user entered in organic search to find your website.
From this information you can deduce which keywords are leading people to stay on your site longer than others. If a lot of traffic is coming from one keywords but your bounce rate is high, you can make some adjustments to your page. If a moderate amount of traffic is coming from a keyword that is resulting in a low bounce rate, you can work on increasing your traffic from that keyword as well.
Within Google Analytics is a wealth of information related to bounce rates. Take some time to research the other data points like location, social engagement and mobile statistics.
Looking at a high bounce rate? Below are some mistakes webmasters make which can lead to high bounce rates:
- Slow load time
- Too many, invasive, and poorly placed ads – Keep ads away from the site navigation where they could be clicked by accident. Place ads in the line of sight but far enough away from the main content so as not to distract the visitor.
- Confusing message – Call to actions should be placed prominently and your content should get to the point immediately. Don’t meander. Use headlines, bullet points and display your website’s purpose front and center with content and eye-catching graphics.
- Blind marketing – If you are not acquainted with the desires and needs of your visitors your website will not interest them. Your message should be relevant to your target audience. Discover what type of content interests your visitors before they arrive on your site. You can do this with some of the analytics data above. And if you haven’t created a marketing persona, now is the time to do it.
- Poor internal linking – Give visitors the chance to discover all other pages in your site that would interest them. Within your content and sidebars, link to other important pages to give visitors a chance to stay on your site and read more content.
Jenna Scaglione is a content writer, internet marketer, and a lover of family, friends and life. Jenna enjoys learning, growing and discovering the newest and latest trends on the internet. Known as "Lady Content", she lives in sunny Socal where she helps her clients around the world increase brand awareness on the internet through content writing and social media.
