15 Proven Ways To Reduce Your Bounce Rate

What is bounce rate?

Google describes bounce rate as the proportion of single-session visits (visits in which the individual exited your website from the front page without interacting with the site). It’s critical to pay attention to the bounce rate as this measurement can show how well people engage with your website, what they think of your material and whether or not your page is operating correctly. It is essential to understand that bounce rate is different from the amount of time a user spends on a website, which we discussed in our past article regarding five methods for bettering Google ranking in SERPs. The bounce rate is the portion of tourists that go away from your website after simply viewing a single page. Installing Google Analytics on your website is a simple way to keep tabs on your bounce rate. One example illustrates that the bounce rate is 54.44%.

Suppose you were visited by 1,000 individuals, and 540 of them left after viewing the page once. A bounce can indicate that a person exited the site they were viewing to another one, switched off the tab in their internet browser, or acquired the necessary information from the particular page and didn’t continue to any other pages. This is the formula for how the bounce rate is calculated:

Bounce rate = bounces/total visitors (540/1000 = 0.54 x 100 = 54%)

It’s not necessarily a negative occurrence when a website visitor bounces, as it may just mean that they got what they wanted from one page. It is possible that the setup of your conversion funnel could have positive or negative outcomes. Keep in mind that the degree of bouncing back may differ depending on the particular sector. Content pages may have an abandonment figure of between 40-60% as opposed to retail websites, which can have an abandonment rate in the 20-40% range. Your web page may suddenly receive a large amount of traffic if it becomes popular; this could lead to an elevated bounce rate, though this may still be beneficial because it possibly means more people viewing your online content or item.

When Google Causes A High Bounce Rate

Google’s algorithm has an excellent aptitude for evaluating and determining the context of a page of content and the topic of a search query.

Although it is uncommon, there might be some extraordinary occasions where Google may present a webpage that does not have the correct response.

When a searcher picks out a set of words that are not specific, or the phrase they used is uncommon, this can result in fewer search results.

In that scenario, Google directed the individual to the wrong page.

The visitor did not find the content they needed.

The high bounce rate in that situation does not necessarily mean that there is something wrong with the website’s content; it is not a negative indicator of the website.

The cause of the difficulty might be attributable to Google’s system or, more probable, to the precise words that a customer put into the search box.

It is not always a sign of issues with the webpage when there is a large rate of rebound.

However, it is still important to watch bounce rates in order to make sure there is nothing that could be motivating website traffic to leave.

How and why to reduce bounce rate

In this article, we will explore different methods for decreasing the bounce rate of your website. These optimizations should have a positive effect on your bounce rate, conversions, CTR, and the overall experience for users on your website. It has been demonstrated that a decrease in bounce rate has a direct impact on your standings in search engine result pages. This is supposition, but SEOs have had the conviction for some time that it influences rankings. You can trust that sites that are given a high SERP ranking pay attention to their bounce rate and use techniques to reduce it.

1. Speed up your website

It is clear that we should initially focus on the velocity of your site. It is essential to take this into account when calculating your bounce rate. If a user visits your site and the loading time is too long, they may grow impatient and press the back button to find another page instead. The tracking script from Google Analytics probably set off, which would indicate that it has registered a visit and a bounce.

It is estimated that almost half of consumers anticipate a web page to load within two seconds or sooner.
– Kissmetrics

A content delivery network can be utilized to quickly augment the speed of your website. A content delivery network stores replicas of your data on computers located in multiple geographical areas and sends them to your customers quickly. It is irrelevant how quickly your web server operates, geographical proximity will still cause delays in response times. Subsequent to the implementation of a content delivery network, KeyCDN observed an 83% decrease in latency across the world. KeyCDN has a free trial .

2. Fix HTTPS mixed-content warnings

A message will show up when there is a webpage that is programmed to run over a secure connection (HTTPS) but it is still serving asset files regularly (HTTP). A continuous challenge plaguing the web today is very evident, especially with individuals deciding to move to HTTPS to reap the rewards of improving SEO ranking and getting the advantage of HTTP/2. A few months ago, this event was relayed to the well-known Search Engine Roundtable website. It has been discovered that advertisements were still being shown on the WordPress Disqus tool though HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol).

Webmasters should always test their websites on all available browsers and make sure they don’t receive any HTTPS mixed-content alerts. Google Chrome has put an end to the mixed-content warning and instead displays a gray padlock icon instead of the previous green one. Having only one browser can be beneficial, however it can be deceptive if you don’t also employ the usage of other web browsers. Google Chrome devtools’ latest security panel is amazing for identifying scripts that originate from non-secure sources swiftly.

If your webpage lacks proper navigation, there is little to motivate visitors to explore it further than the initial page, most likely leading them to leave immediately. Ensure that individuals can easy find their way around your website to locate what they desire. Tools such as heatmaps can be beneficial in order to assess the performance of navigation functions and identify possible paths to grow click-through rates. Many individuals are unaware that Google Analytics offers both adequate click-through rate information and heatmap color particulars. You can access the “Behavior” and “In-Page Analytics” sections by clicking into them. There is also an excellent free Google Chrome extension known as ‘Page Analytics’, which can be seen in action below.

You might want to consider Crazyegg or SumoMe if you need more information. Examining CTR (click-through-rate) and heatmaps can help you refine your website to cut down on potential distractions, which could aid in reducing your bounce rate. It would be wise to be aware of what is fashionable and has the most significant click-through rate as that link may be ideal for the footer section. Utilize the successful aspects, develop them further, and make sure it can be easily located.

5. Mobile site (responsive)

Make sure your website works flawlessly on mobile devices! Occasionally we err as demonstrated by this recent episode in which a customer tweeted to inform us of an issue with his cell phone. Our social sharing plugin was causing too much content to be presented on our blog, making it uncomfortable to read. We addressed this issue quickly by making some alterations to our media query so that it would change at a differing size. It is clear that such a minor error renders the text almost unreadable. You should not overlook matters of this kind, as they may significantly increase your bounce rate.

Mobile phones are beginning to draw more traffic than desktops for the majority of industries. Using Google Analytics, assess what sources bring in the most visitors and leads, then focus your efforts in those areas to maximize your results. Run a test through Screenfly, a free platform, and look at your website in a variety of resolutions to simulate multiple displays.

6. Make Webpages Easy To Read

The layout of the material on a webpage should be easily understandable and arranged in an orderly manner.

It is essential to create a good user experience, as a website visitor does not like to see extended blocks of unorganized writing.

If this occurs, people will typically overlook important material.

Breaking the content into smaller sections, composed of bullets, images, and videos will make it easier for a person to decipher and share with other people.

7. Write Shorter Paragraphs

The amount of material available to be read on a website is a major factor influencing its legibility.

Make your content simple and easy to read by writing it in short paragraphs. This is especially important for when visitors are viewing the content on smaller mobile devices since readers don’t have the patience to read lengthy sections of text.

8. Use Various Types Of Content

In order to engage viewers more effectively, a different range of content should be used on a website to increase clarity.

Videos can be used to more effectively express certain types of information, such as how-to instructions, than if explained through text.

Using good-looking visuals can split up the written content, assist in making complex subject matter clearer, and lessen the number of people leaving a page.

9. Use Relevant Keywords

Original Text: Social media has had a profound impact on our lives, from how we interact with people to how we conduct business. Revised Text: Social networking has had a massive influence on our existence, from how we communicate with others to how we carry out business operations.

The precise application of words, phrases, sections, and titles will aid in conveying to Google what the webpage is concerning.

Stay on topic, do not stray.

The relevance of the webpage to its topic is essential since visitors sent by Google will have greater expectation that they find what they are looking for and thus the rate of them leaving the page will be lowered.

10. Target Relevant Audience

It’s important to make sure that the material used on the webpages should be connected to the target keywords, and the ideal audience should be taken into consideration.

Determine who your main users are and then develop content tailored to them.

It is inadvisable to have an excessively wide audience reach with your website, as it increases the likelihood of obtaining visitors who do not require the services you provide.

Focusing in on a particular set of consumers makes certain that you are locating people who are looking for what your site has to offer.

These people will be more actively involved and likely to spend a lot of time looking around your site.

11. Stay Away From Popups

People tend to not like interstitials that are intrusive and stop them from accessing the material they wanted.

It is possible to present advertisements in between webpages without negatively influencing either the user experience or the webpage rankings.

One should avoid getting in the way of a site visitor and the content they are trying to access.

Permitting them to view and engage with the content without obstruction provides a superior encounter.

See if you can steer clear of interstitial pop-up ads.

12. Limit Distracting Ads

In addition to not using interstitials and popups, it is also wise to steer away from ads that may be considered to be disruptive.

An advertisement placed horizontally at the top of the page generally works best, then followed by ads dispersed in the content and to the sides.

Ads that take up too much space and make it hard to read the text can create an unfavorable experience for the reader.

Be conscious of the ads presented on your web page to be able to identify and obstruct irritating adverts.

13. Add A Convincing Call-To-Action

A website should have a clearly identifiable call-to-action.

It is essential that the user can easily locate the information they need within the initial moments of accessing the page.

The CTA (call to action) needs to be persuasive so that it lures the user to click on it.

The hues, typefaces, wording, and so forth can all have a monumental effect on whether or not someone clicks.

14. Limit Broken Links

A substantial amount of broken links will make for a bad experience for customers, as they will not be able to locate the material they are looking for, leaving them feeling disgruntled and irritated.

You can find all the malfunctioning links on your webpage by using Google Search Console or an auditing program like Screaming Frog.