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BOUNCE RATE
While you may not be familiar with the term, bounce rates are an important website metric to understand, as it gives you a clue into which viewers are engaging with your website content.
According to Connor Lahey, "Bounce rate is calculated when someone visits a single page on your website and does nothing on the page before leaving. More specifically, a website’s bounce rate measures how many visitors leave a page without performing a specific action, such as buying something, filling out a form, or clicking on a link.”
Understanding bounce rate and its impact on your digital marketing strategy, can help determine where SEO issues are creeping into the overall usability of your digital home!
WHY IS YOUR BOUNCE RATE SO HIGH?
1. Slow-to-Load Page
Websites do not have unlimited storage; therefore, the higher quality content you put on your page, the longer it may take to load. On your website header, if there is a non-optimized video that takes too long to load, or the blue loading bar at the search bar spends too much time loading, it is likely that you will lose the customer then and there.
So, in an attempt to remedy these problems and see if your site has low loading capabilities, "review your page speed (overall and for individual pages) using tools like:
Google PageSpeed Insights.
The Google Search Console PageSpeed reports.
Lighthouse reports.
Pingdom.
GTmetrix.
For a free website audit to check these issues and more, contact us.
2. Misleading Title Tag and/or Meta Description
While including trending keywords can increase the potential for overall visitor numbers to increase, if these words are not relevant to the topic of your blog, site, or product, visitors will have no issue quickly clicking off of your site, resulting in the opposite effect that you had desired. If Google sees that users are quickly bouncing from your site, they will be less inclined to bring you higher up on organic search results.
Ameilia Willson, writing for SEJ, has these suggestions,"Either review the content of your page and adjust the title tag and meta description accordingly or rewrite the content to address the search queries you want to attract visitors for. You can also check what kind of meta description Google has generated for your page for common searches – Google can change your meta description, and if they make it worse, you can take steps to remedy that.”
3. Blank Page or Technical Error
Sometimes your page may be bland or returning a 404. In this case, the first step would be to attempt to replicate the user experience on all possible browsers and device types to see if the issue is isolated. In the event that it is not, you should correct the issue as fast as possible, so that Google does not drop your page results from their search.
4. Low-Quality or Under Optimized Content
Choosing the right type of content for the right audience can seem daunting, but in reality there are some simple things to keep in mind when thinking about what type of content makes people stay longer on your site.
Note that the attention span of your mobile viewer is very short, about 2 seconds to be exact; therefore, your "above the fold" writing needs to be compelling.
5. The Page Isn’t Mobile-Friendly
Nowadays, consumers spend a ridiculous amount of time on their phones. From everyday communication to social media, it is likely that they will land on your website via mobile device, but are you ready to welcome them? Most web designs have some version of responsive design, but it is possible that some elements can become distorted when viewed in this manner. Willson explains, "Sometimes, when a page gets squeezed into a mobile format, it causes some of the key information to move below-the-fold. Now, instead of seeing a headline that matches what they saw in search, mobile users only see your site’s navigation menu.”
A simple fix for this can be switching to a user-friendly website builder, like WIX, where you can create a separate mobile and desktop site. Need to switch your website platform? Contact us.
WHAT IS A DECENT BOUNCE RATE?
In the end, you should want to have the "stickiest" website possible, but depending on the traffic and general consumer behavior for your target audience. Most say that your bounce rate should remain between 41%-55%.
GOOD BOUNCE RATES CAN DRIVE MARKETING SUCCESS!
In the digital age, it is essential that the customer keeps their attention on your pages and profiles for as much time as possible, but bouncing customers never even get the chance to see your content. This is why optimizing your site for ideal customer retention is vital to your business success and can drive further marketing insights for your brand!
For a comprehensive view and recap of where your brand's website stands, complete this checklist with your own business website in order to ensure that customers have the greatest chance of "sticking" to your website.
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