Written by: W&P Marketing
Date: 05/12/2024
Create a picture simply stating the wording: bounce rate, with a massive football bouncing in the background
In this article, we will explain what “bounce rate” means, why businesses should actively look to reduce it, whyyou should work to improve the U.X, and how this can positively impact site rankings.
Google defines bounce rate as:
Before we go any further, it’s essential to explain precisely what bounce rate means, so Google defines it as the following:
“…is a single-page session on your site.
Can you better explain what bounce rate means?
We most certainly can.
Yes, the bounce rate appears in Google Analytics. For example, you can view it for a single page of a blog post.
It is simply a single request to the analytics server, and the shopper only visits a single page and then does not request any other pages. This means that shoppers only visit one page.
This means shoppers bounce off that particular web page.
This means that a shopper only visits that one page, which is not what a business wants. You want the dwell time to be high, and you want them to stick around as long as possible, ultimately to increase chances of selling a product or service.
Now, there are exceptions to this rule. For example, you might have done a brilliant job answering writing the blog post, and because you answered the shopper’s question, they don’t need to go any further and visit any more pages.
But what about product pages? You don’t want a high bounce rate there?
So, if the bounce rate on product pages is very high, you have to ask, “Why?”
Is the price wrong?
Is the design of the page long?
Is the website simply taking too long to load?
Can you explain some factors that might cause a high bounce rate?
Poorly designed website offering a poor user experience (U.X)
A website might be poorly designed, putting the shopper off and not easy allowing them to find the items they want.
If you make it hard for your customers to find the product they want, they will simply believe and go elsewhere.
404 or non-responsive webpage
If the page displays a custom 404 message, this can put a customer off because the page will not load.
This will, therefore, increase the bounce rate
A non-responsive page, the page where the elements load incorrectly, or simply the website, which is too slow and sluggish; this is will increase in the bounce rate.
Make your website superfast, make it supersonic
People today are impatient; if you ever notice when you’re stuck in traffic, you might have a car revving behind you in the rearview mirror.
They can’t go anywhere when stuck in traffic; they are impatient and frustrated that they are stuck in a queue.
Now, when designing websites, you have to consider this: People are impatient. They will go elsewhere if they have to wait an extended period for your website to load.
A slow website offers a poor user experience; and by slow we mean anything exceeding three seconds.
Purchase ultra fast hosting;
You need your web designers, your appointed web design agency, to work hard on reducing the bounce rate one way of doing this is to purchase fast hosting.
The navigation should be a piece of cake to navigate
Have you ever been on a website looking for a product and had trouble finding what you wanted?
Therefore, you have experienced poor web design, and often, the poor user experience (U.X) causes the website to be pushed down Google organic ranks.
One way to offer a good user experience is to help the shopper find the products and services they want with the minimum number of clicks.
You do this by thinking about how you design the main menu. It’s about helping the customer, not just having a fancy design.
A mistake many businesses make is to go for a minimalistic, that’s to have an uncluttered main menu.
The problem is that the bounce rate increases if the customer can’t get to the right product quickly, potentially leaving the site.
Therefore, top web design agencies, like ours state, you will need the main menu be practical and simple to use. It is not just about making it look elegant and minimalistic, although some companies do.
Make the text enjoyable but also engaging and easy to read
You should make the text, simple to read, and use a font that the reader will find easy to read.
Try to write shorter and also snappier paragraphs
You might find what considerably increases the bounce rate if the shopper is presented a blog post or product description where it is this massive slab of text.
Arguably, our attention spans are becoming shorter.
Most of us work long hours, 9 to 5, and we want to buy a product outside of work on weekends. We don’t want to have to read large blocks of text.
So, most web design agencies often recommend to reduce the business’s bounce rate by writing short and snappy sentences.
In some content marketing, having a high word count is essential. For example, this blog post can be over 1000 words, but the sentences should still be to the point.
Don’t go off on tangents or off-topic.
If you’re offering advice and a product, try to keep it solely focused on describing that product and its benefits. Do not go off on a tangent explaining other things.
Fix broken links
SEO agencies and web design agencies worldwide often use Screaming Frog, which is simply a really good SEO tool.
You can use Screaming Frog to find broken links, such as broken internal links and therefore fix them, it saves you manually checking every link.
Keep your content marketing updated
If somebody is going to your blog for helpful advice, such as what the best smart TVs are, yet it’s evident that the blog post was published back in 2017, then it is outdated advice.
So copywriters must be busy bees and update content marketing from time to time.
Use google Analytics
Use Google Analytics to monitor your business’s bounce rate and dwell time. Make gradual improvements, perhaps using split testing to see if you can reduce that bounce rate.
We would highly recommend using Google Analytics for the following purposes:
To monitor dwell time
Monitoring bounce rate
See how many pages per session
Let’s wrap it up in a conclusion.
In conclusion, many think that more is better, and more of something equals better results. However a high bounce rate does not equal better results.
This means that people are landing on your website and going elsewhere after visiting just one page; so if this is a product page, you must ask why. Is that the prices are set too high?
It could be how fast your website is, is it slow and sluggish and frustrating the customer, so that shoppers are going elsewhere
It could be because the website does not allow people to find the products or services they want quickly, so the going elsewhere
Come to the best and forget the rest
If you need a website designed within Cardiff talk to us.