The bounce rate is an indicator for the quality of a website. It measures how fast visitors click away from a website without visiting the sub-pages of the website. Thanks to different measures, you can improve this bounce rate. Read here what these are.
Bounce rate: what is it?
The bounce rate describes the percentage of visitors to a website who have only visited one page. After visiting the one page, the user immediately leaves the website without any further interaction and does not visit any sub-pages. The website visitor has either returned to the search results, has closed the browser or visited a new website. A bounce rate of 70 per cent, for instance, means that seven of ten visitors have initially visited a landing page and left it without visiting any sub-pages.
What is a good bounce rate?
In general, the bounce rate is one of the most important measurement methods for optimising the user experience as well as the content on a website. Also in terms of SEO is a low bounce rate advantageous, as it shows that the page or its content satisfies users’ intentions in most cases. The lower the bounce rate in connection with a high dwell time, the more relevant the website appears in the eyes of the search engine – and the more prominent the offer is placed in the search results.
What is considered a good bounce rate, however, varies strongly depending on the type of website. For simple landing pages is a bounce rate of 70 to 90 per cent completely normal. This is in contrast to retail websites, for instance, where just a 20 to 40 per cent bounce rate is the standard. For B2B websites, is a percentage of between 25 and 55 the rule according to an analysis from customedialabs.
Potential reasons for a high bounce rate
There are many reasons for a high bounce rate:
- The visitor is confused by the design or navigation of the initial page or even deterred by this and leaves the website without ever going deeper into the content.
- The visitor does not find the desired content on the website. They consider the content neither helpful nor interesting.
- The website consists of just a single landing page, such as is often the case with a blog – then the visitor obviously cannot visit another page.
- For websites delivering concrete information to special search requests is a high bounce rate normal. A page with the opening hours, for instance, satisfies the user’s need for information completely and quickly. The same goes for the landing page for a product that is on offer.
- Errors when integrating the tracking code can lead to a false bounce rate reading.
Six tips for improving your bounce rate
Follow these tips to lower your bounce rate:
1. Define the bounce rate
First, using your tracking tool, define what is even considered within the bounce rate. It makes sense to include those visitors who leave your website within a short time; in other words, within the first 10 to 30 seconds as is the standard. After all, if the dwell time on a page is several minutes, the user has most likely taken in your content.
2. Frequently provide relevant content
The more unique and high quality the content on your website and more frequently new content is added, the more visitors who remain on your website. Superficial content, in contrast, can lead to a higher bounce rate.
3. Integrate calls to action and links
Integrate targeted calls to action (CTAs) or related articles with the use of matching links within the content of each sub-page. In this way, you can animate the user to read further content.
4. Use visual elements like videos and images
Thanks to the integration of videos, images or graphics, long copy blocks are broken up. Optically, the website appears more attractive, its readability increases and, in best case, the user’s dwell time is longer as a result. Visual elements can clarify even more the content explained in the article.
5. Improve the loading time of your website
A long loading time can lead to a bounce before the user even sees your website. As a rule of thumb: the website should appear in full within three seconds. Tools like Google’s PageSpeed Insights help to improve the loading speed of websites.
6. Only use keywords that make sense
Do not use any keywords in your copy which only serve to attract as many visitors as possible – although the content teased by the keywords is not provided at all or only available in a superficial way. Users who land on your website via their respective search request otherwise feel disappointed and leave the website quickly.
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