10 Ways To Lower Your Bounce Rate

Just like CTR is a measure of how engaging your ad is, your bounce rate is a measure of how engaging your website is. 

It tells you how well people are engaging or not engaging on your website. 

That’s critical stuff to know. 

Because if someone is going to your website and bouncing, or leaving after one page view, that’s seriously going to hurt your conversion rate. Your leads and purchases will go down. Your ad spend will get wasted. You’ll turn away potential customers and leads. 

So how is bounce rate calculated and how can you find it?

It’s your total number of one page visits divided by the total number of visits to your site multiplied by 100. There are some exceptions, but in general, the higher your bounce rate, the less engaging your website is. 

Before you can lower your bounce rate, you first need to know what it is. 

To find your bounce rate, you need to install Google Analytics on your site.

The good news is that lowering your bounce rate is easier than you think. 

We offer some tips for service businesses and online shops on how to lower your bounce rate on your website. 

1. Make sure your website loads fast 

How fast your website loads can have an impact on your bounce rate. No one wants to wait five seconds for a page to load. If you have a high bounce rate, your website loading speed could be to blame. Some easy fixes are reducing image sizes on your site and some more major fixes are switching to a new, faster website host and changing to a new website theme that is lighter and simpler. 

2. Add video 

The average person spends 30 minutes a day watching YouTube videos. On Facebook, video accounts for half of all time spent on the site. Video is crazy popular and your business should leverage the power of video on your website. Some ideas could be a short introduction video on your home page or a product demonstration. Just make sure that you add captions to your video and make sure it looks professional. 

3. Tweak your meta titles and meta descriptions

Your meta titles and meta descriptions are not just for SEO. If someone Google searches dog food and they click on the first result that says dog food and they get taken to a website for cat food, they’re going to hit the back button and that’s going to result in a bounce, or a one-page visit, on your site. Most website builders let you change your meta titles and meta descriptions inside your website’s backend or dashboard. If not, just install an SEO plugin or app on your site. 

4. Include links and call to actions

Discourage people from hitting the back button by having lots of links to other pages on your website, such as product pages or service pages or a contact page. Make sure to have a clear call to action.

5. Optimize for mobile devices 

Mobile internet devices have not been around that long and yet half of all website traffic worldwide comes from mobile devices. Make sure your website loads fast on mobile devices and looks good. Test your website on different mobile devices and browsers. 

6. Put the most important information first

Make it easy for someone to find what they’re looking for. At the top of your page, should be your product benefits or service benefits, your value proposition and a clear call to action. You can add contact information at the bottom of the page. 

7. Add a blog 

You know your stuff so why not show that you know your stuff. Don’t underestimate blogs. We’ve written previously about how brands that blog generate 67% more leads. 

8. Include social proof 

Social proof can squash any doubts someone has about your business and your services. Add testimonials, reviews and social media buttons to your homepage to encourage people to stay on your page. 

9. Make sure the ad matches the landing page 

After someone clicks on your ad, you only have a few seconds to convince them to buy. The landing page offer should match the offer in your ad. The copy and creative should match. The call to action should be the same. If there is a mismatch in your ad and landing page, you’ll confuse people and they’ll bounce off your page. 

10. Make sure your website looks good 

Did you know that it takes less than a second for someone to form an opinion about your website? Your homepage should feature your logo and brand prominently, have easy navigation, a simple menu, headers, paragraphs and proper spacing, high quality images and lots of engaging copy. Don’t be afraid to ask for a second opinion!  You can even run a survey to your email subscribers or customers to get their feedback on your website. 

When is a high bounce rate a good thing? 

It’s normal for some pages to have high bounce rates. Blog posts tend to have high bounce rates. For example, a person clicks on a blog post from a Google search and reads the post and then leaves. That would result in a bounce on your website but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The person bounced off your website because your blog answered their search query not because they didn’t find your website engaging. 

Conclusion 

Your bounce rate measures how engaging your website is. The lower your bounce rate, the better. Make sure to know your bounce rate and keep track of it!