One of the best ways to increase user engagement is:
To track the areas where users are clicking and finding interest.
But for the people who bounce off, there's a lot more to it.
Let us take a look at what it is. And how you can prevent bounces...
Contents
- What is Bounce Rate?
- Why do High Bounce Rates happen?
- How do Search Engines affect your bounce rates?
- Proven ways to lower your bounce rate on your website
- Decrease Page Load Time
- Website navigation
- Good website design
- Mobile-first
- Easy to skim content
- Use Diverse content types & media
- Stay on topic
- Properly target your visitors
- Remove paywalls
- Open links on new tab
What is Bounce Rate?
In Analytics terms. A bounce is when a user only triggers a single event and leaves after that.
In other words. When a user opens up a page of your website and then exits without clicking anywhere. Without going to any further pages during their whole journey in that specific visit.
This means that a user lands on your page and without performing any action - Leaves.
Let us understand what causes the users to leave early.
Why do High Bounce Rates happen?
The major reason for people leaving your website is that - They are getting a terrible user experience.
The user comes to your page to find relevant content or find a solution to their problem. And once they feel like they're not getting the value from your website. They will simply leave.
This can also be caused by a bad design implementation. For example, if a user is having a hard time reading the content on the page. They will not put extra effort into it.
Even though a High bounce rate sounds like a bad sign. Sometimes it can be because of positive feedback activity.
For example, if the solution they are looking for is very tiny. For example, someone is searching for the meaning of the word "Esophagus".
They visit a website and instantly find the answer. So they will leave. But they left happy. They found what they were looking for.
This type of event builds accountability. And makes the user believe in your content. And they will trust your content in future visits.
How do Search Engines affect your bounce rates
Let's say you have a website where you teach people about defense skills. That is how can people defend themselves in case a situation arises.
Assume a user is searching on google for equipment that will help with self-defense.
The user wants to buy some equipment. And not learn about them.
The searching engine (like Google) might send that user to your website. Because it thinks you have the relevant content.
But the user will not be satisfied because they already know which equipment to buy. They don't want to learn more about it. They want to buy it instantly.
In this case, a bounce will happen. And the sole reason would be poor targeting by search engines like Google.
So that means in scenarios like this. It's not always your fault that a bounce happened. There are external factors involved as well. Like this one.
Here are some proven ways to lower your bounce rate on your website:
1. Decrease Page Load Time
A user should not have to wait for 5 seconds for your page to load. That creates a bad user experience.
As a rule of thumb. Your page should load within 3 seconds. If it loads in more than 3 seconds. You should look for ways to decrease the load time.
That can be done by decreasing the payload size. Or the size of the page.
Or getting better hosting.
Or Optimizing assets on your page.
A slow-loading page means that your page's content doesn't even matter - If the user never gets to see it.
2. Website navigation
Your site should be very easy to navigate around.
Kids should be able to find what they are looking for. This comes from a better design and knowing the layout of your website. And putting things in place where it is obvious to find.
If your website has lots of similar content and the user might have a hard time finding what they are looking for. Then you should consider organizing your content in categories, or by tags.
Even add a search bar at the top of the page where the user can simply type for what they are looking for.
3. Good website design
A good-looking website is key for a user to understand that this isn't some random low-quality content.
If your website looks good. Then the user will get confident that the information they find here will be valuable and trustworthy.
4. Mobile-first
A majority of your users will visit your website via a mobile device.
This has been proven by the research done by the analytics results at Veonr
Your website should be easy to read and navigate on mobile devices. And that should be your first priority.
5. Easy to skim content
Easy to read content means that you should not use complicated words. And break down your content into smaller consumable pieces.
This way the user doesn't have to see a huge chunk of text and get confused as to where they should start reading.
6. Use Diverse content types & media
Some things can't be explained very well with text only. So consider using images wherever possible.
For example, if you want to share an analytical metric to build a perspective for the users.
Consider using an image that contains a bar graph with numbers written in it.
This will be much easier for the user to understand.
And similarly, you can make use of video content. When you're trying to show a demo of a product or explaining something that is a bit of a complex topic.
7. Stay on topic
One of the major reasons why users bounce off your page is because they get sidetracked by your content.
You should focus your content on only one or two topics. And try to cover those only for that specific page.
Do not attempt to cover more than 3 topics on a single page. For most cases this will lead to confusion and the user will tend to leave the page.
8. Properly target your visitors
Assuming that you run a blog for self-defense training. Don't promote your content on groups that have nothing to do with your niche audience.
Find out where your target audience hangs out and promote there only.
Because what will end up happening is that... If a non-relevant user visits your website purely because they saw the link and clicked on it.
Then they will leave the page immediately. Thus increasing the bounce rates.
9. Remove paywalls
Users hate it when your content is barred with a popup or a modal or a dialog. That asks for their email before they can get to the final content.
If you have a strict banner that will open up every time a user lands on your page. In that case - users will leave immediately.
They have a short attention span. And will not be patient enough to fill out a form to read a certain piece of content.
This holds true for the most part.
10. Open links on new tab
When your content has external links embedded in it. You want to make sure that the user is able to open those links in a new browser tab.
This will ensure that your website stays open in the background. While they browse the newly opened tab.
Because most likely what people do is that they click on a link and if they don't find the content relevant there... They will close the tab.
And you don't want to have your website closed because you redirected the user to another webpage.
Conclusion
There are a lot of things you can do to avoid high bounce rates. We covered the essentials that you must not forget to make sure the visitors are satisfied.
With a lower bounce rate, you will get higher rankings on the Google search engine. Get better conversions. More user satisfaction.
There are so many positives to this. And you want to make sure the essentials are properly in place.
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