Your stats may tell you that X amount of visitors landed on your website this month, but if those users visited a page on your site, engaged with nothing and clicked absolutely no links before leaving … did you really achieve anything but a higher bounce rate?
The answer is absolutely not. It is important to make your site is so engaging and irresistible that everyone who visits clicks at least a few links, perhaps signs up for some company updates, and ideally buys something too!
So, how do you reduce your bounce rate?
Optimize page load time
Now, if there’s at least one thing we should agree on, it’s that there’s absolutely nothing worse than a slow loading website. A slow-loading website will only result in visitors leaving, and potentially heading to a competitor site instead … but would you really blame them?
The current optimal load speed for a web page is now less than 2 seconds; if it takes much longer than this, users will quickly get bored of waiting and look elsewhere. Not to mention, with thanks to Google’s latest ‘page experience’ update to its algorithm, your loading speed now also holds even more weight when it comes to your site’s search ranking.
Make sure your site is mobile-friendly
Over 50% of all web traffic comes from mobile devices now, so if your site isn’t mobile-friendly, you could be turning away over half of your audience! Loading speed is a big part of this but having a mobile-optimised layout is key.
Making sure your mobile layout is ‘thumb friendly’ is a big deal too – all the links and menus you expect users to click on should be big enough and well-spaced so that they can be touched easily, and are within easy reach of the thumbs from a scrolling position. Need a hand? You can read more about mobile-friendly design in our previous blog.
Optimize each page for relevant keywords
All your pages should be optimised for the keywords and phrases that your desired audience is searching for. While you use SEO to get visitors to your site in the first place, you shouldn’t be trying to trick anyone – if you’re promising relevant content that’s of interest to your target audience, you’d better deliver. Otherwise, you’ll be looking at a high bounce rate and a poor reputation too. Ouch.
Improve the readability of your content
If you want to reduce your bounce rate, take a look at your content and ask yourself how easy it is to read. Much of this will be design-based (font choice, contrast and background) but the content itself also needs to be easy to read.
Make your content easily digestible – use short, snappy sentences, avoid jargon (especially if your audience won’t understand it), and break up the copy into smaller paragraphs. Write for your target audience, not your industry peers (providing they’re not one and the same).
Create a CTA that’s impossible to ignore
To reduce your bounce rate, you need to give people a reason to stay. A call to action (CTA) should make it easy for your users to take the natural next step after viewing a product or reading a blog post.
There’s no one-size-fits-all for a CTA but try to tempt users onwards, rather than just using run-of-the-mill and boring signposts that barely stand out from the rest of the design. At the same time, don’t overcomplicate things – keep it clear and simple. Ask yourself what will make users want to move on (and where they will want to go) and then show them the way.
Keep your blog updated with relevant and high-quality content
Having a regularly updated blog will keep you ranking high and continue to drive traffic to your website, but if you want your visitors to stick around, make sure that your blog content is high-quality and relevant to your audience. Your blog is your chance to demonstrate your credibility and expertise and grow confidence in your brand. Make sure you’re also including links organically within the posts to other articles that users might be interested in.
Hopefully, now you’ve got an idea of how to reduce the bounce rate on your site. You’ll always get some window shoppers, but you want to make sure that being on your site is a great experience, and that the temptation to stay, read more of your content or buy your products is too good to resist.
If you want to improve your site experience, add mobile functionality or even go for a complete redesign, please drop us a message and we’ll get back to you.