According to Google, the definition of bounce rate is:
“The percentage of single-page sessions means the sessions in which a person enters your website and exit immediately without interacting with the pages.” In other words, it’s the percentage of website visitors who leave your website without visiting any page other than the page they land to.
If a person bounces from your website, it doesn’t mean they didn’t look at or read your content. As mentioned earlier, a visitor came to your site, look that page or content, and didn’t visit or go to others. Moreover, it’s called bounce rate because the visitor bounced back to search results. A higher bounce rate means that your website is less effective because it can’t engage the visitors.
On the other hand, a visitor came to your site through search results and visited more than one page before leaving your site; it will be considered exit rate instead of bounce rate.
Why Bounce Rate Is Important
It is important for three main reasons.
- When a visitor bounces from your site, it means no conversion. So, when you engage your visitors and stop them from bouncing, there will be an increase in the conversion rate.
- Bounce rate does not directly effect the Google Ranking but as it reflects the user behavior on the website, Google doesn’t completely disregards it.
- A high bounce rate is an indicator that there are specific issues with content, page layout, or user experience.
How to Check Bounce Rate?
It’s very simple and easy to check the bounce rate of the website you built. Simply go to your website’s Google Analytics and review the information within Behaviour, Acquisition, and Audience sections.
In Google Analytics, when you click on the audience and then overview, you’ll get the bounce rate of the overall site. You can get the information or percentage of visitors who landed at your site and bounced off. Moreover, you can get the percentage of people using the desktop, laptop, and mobiles bounced off. There is also an option that you can see the bounce rate of complete website and also per page. This helps you to understand where the problem is exactly.
Why Do Visitors Bounce?
You need to understand the reasons for high bounce rates before reducing it. Visitors usually bounce when:
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Page Didn’t Fulfil Their Expectations
For example, you want to purchase some products, and when you search on Google and opens the page, it redirects you to the home page instead of a product page. What will you do? You’ll get back and search for a relevant page.
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Poor Design
It’s another critical factor and can kill your bounce rate. People mostly judge your site based on the design, and they pay secondary importance to the content.
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Bad User Experience (UX)
You need to have excellent design and easy navigation on your website. In this way, the bounce rate will be low.
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Provide Everything That a User Might Want
While designing your site and writing your website content, keep your reader in mind. Keep yourself in the reader’s position and see whether it will help them get an answer to their query or not.
What Is a Good Bounce Rate?
In determining a good Bounce Rate, different factors are involved. It depends on your business type, country, types of devices your visitors use, and your industry.
Different studies have shown different values for an average Bounce Rate. The average Bounce Rate range is between 41% and 51%. As mentioned earlier, the Bounce Rate will be different for different industries.
For example, e-commerce sites have the lowest average Bounce Rate of 20-40%. On the other hand, blogs have the highest Bounce Rate of up to 90%.
When you want to know the best Bounce Rate, compare your site’s BR with the other sites in your industry or category. Moreover, your site’s traffic also impacts your site’s Bounce Rate.
How to Improve Bounce Rate?
You can improve the Bounce Rate by following these practices:
- Embed YouTube Videos on Your Page
A study has shown that adding videos to your posts can double the average time on the page. Moreover, embedding videos can lead to a lower Bounce Rate and increase time on the page. You can follow this practice and feel the difference. It doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to add your videos; you can embed videos from YouTube. Ensure that the video is relevant to your page.
- Use Clear Navigation
Quick and clear navigation takes visitors to where they want to go. Provide multiple options to your visitors. Create a helpful menu and sidebar so that a visitor can easily navigate to what he/she is looking for. It will depend on your industry and business type. It will automatically lower the bounce rate, and the user will spend more time on your site.
- Use Bucket Brigades
It is another useful and helpful way to improve your Bounce Rate. First of all, select pages that aren’t compelling. These pages are known as dead zones. Such pages make visitors bored. Bucket Brigade phrases keep their attention. Some examples are:
Bucket brigades like in fact, check this out, now the question is, let me tell you a quick story, and with that can keep your reader interested in your page.
- Loading Speed
Sites with higher loading speeds will have higher Bounce Rates. People searching for things online are super impatient. You can use different tools like “Page Speed Insights” and “GT Matrix” to check your site’s speed.
These sites give you insights into how quickly your page loads on Chrome. You’ll get some recommendations and follow them to increase your site speed. You can improve the site’s speed and loading time by:
- Compressing images
- Using a fast hosting
- Removing unused scripts and plugins
All these practices can help improve your loading speed and your site’s Bounce Rate.
- Write a Compelling Intro
PPT format stands for Promise, Proof, and Transition. It pretty simple, offer something that you promise in your intro. Provide proof in your content, and the transition will force them to scroll your page. When you an attractive intro, it will keep your readers engaged, and for e-commerce sites, it will force them to take action.
- Write Easy to Read Content
Hard to read content means there will be a higher Bounce Rate. Don’t use long paragraphs. Give your content space to breathe. Use skimmable paragraphs. Use relevant sub-headers. Use bullets and attractive images to keep your visitor engaged in your site. If you need a good content writer, you can find one from Fiverr/
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- Satisfy the Search Intent
As mentioned at the start, understand the user intent and provide relevant content. All your key content pages must satisfy the Search Intent. In simple words, visitors must get everything they’re looking for. If users aren’t getting what they want, they will revert to search results. If you’re unable to satisfy the search intent, it’s not good for either your site or for SEO.
- Heatmap Data Can Help Improve Landing Pages
Heatmap tools are the best way to check how people interact with your site. You can find out why people are bouncing from your site. There are millions of Heatmap tools out there; you can use any tool because almost all of them work in the same way. This tool will give you an idea of what needs to be improved.
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- Use More Internal Links
Almost everybody knows the importance of internal links in SEO. Now you might be thinking about how internal links can help improve Bounce Rate. It’s pretty simple; these links send people to your other pages and reduce the bounce rate. Set external links to open in a new tab.
- Use Impressive Design and Table of Contents
The best way to impress your visitor is to have a fantastic design. Moreover, use a table of content with Jumplinks so that a visitor can navigate to what he is looking for.
- Make Your Site Mobile-Friendly
It’s the final step and can help improve your bounce rate significantly. Test your site and pages and ensure that they’re mobile-friendly.
Conclusion
No one wants their visits to leave their website. You need to have a beautiful site design. Your content must be engaging and follow all the tips mentioned above to keep your site’s Bounce Rate low. Keep things simple and easy for readers.