Bounce rate is only a good thing when it’s low. When bounce rate, referring to the percentage of browsers who come to your site and leave without taking the desired action, is high, it means it’s time to make some adjustments. Bounce rate also includes visitors who do nothing more than momentarily come to your site and don’t bother to check out any other pages. Regardless of what’s causing browsers to bolt, you want to take steps to identify the problem sooner rather than later.

What Causes High Bounce Rates?

Many factors can contribute to a high bounce rate. Single page websites, in particular, tend to have high bounce rates. This is because stats aren’t tracked unless visitors reload the page. Since content on a website that’s only one page loads differently, the analytics code only runs once. Contributing factors may also include:

• Incorrect implementation of tracking code
• Pages without any tracking code at all
• Issues with the design of the website itself
• User behavior*

*Visitors who bookmark a page with the intention of coming back later are still counted as a bounce even if they return and make a purchase.

Correcting Tracking Issues

If you have a single page site website, other tracking methods such as event tracking. For multi-page sites, the problem is often with the content for each page, assuming everything is properly coded so stats can be tracked. If it is a code issue, that’s easy enough to fix. Although that doesn’t mean there aren’t other factors that may be keeping your bounce rate high.

Addressing Webpage Design Issues

Bounce rate can be affected by the overall design of your website, or even the layout and design of specific pages. For instance, a homepage that’s difficult to navigate could discourage visitors from going any further. A slow page load time could also frustrate some browsers to the point where when a page finally loads they decide it’s not worth it and bail. Bounce rates can also be high when:

• A site isn’t mobile-friendly
• Pop-ups are way overused
• Videos automatically play

Clearly Presenting Content

Even with well-implemented SEO techniques, visitors aren’t going to be compelled to stick around if content on your website isn’t clearly presented in a way that’s easy to follow. This means avoiding large blocks of text, using subheads to separate content, and having a specific rhyme and reason for how content is presented on your site. Visitors may also leave a website for any of the following reasons:

• There’s no clear call-to-action
• Contact info is hard to find or it’s incomplete
• It’s not clear what’s being offered
• Advantages of your products or services aren’t clear

Experimenting with Content Adjustments

If it’s the actual content of your site that’s causing a high bounce rate, adjusting content is likely to help get those rates down. Since there is no magic formula with content, a little experimentation is usually the best way to go. Most browsers go to the homepage first, so this is a good place to start. Changes should be tested for 2-3 weeks to see if there is a noticeable reduction in bounce rates.

Accurately Tracking Online Traffic

Bounce rates aren’t going to go down if there’s not a constant awareness of your online traffic patterns. Even if you’ve previously enjoyed a decent amount of productive traffic, things can change over time; and there are often signs of a problem before you start to notice a serious dent in your revenue. There are several ways to track bounce rates, with GoStats being a free option that provides real-time analysis of where your traffic is coming from and what actions browsers are taking. Google Analytics, provides access to a wealth of info you can use to see how your content is performing online. You can also use the stats you get from your specific platforms.

Going Beyond the Big Picture

Looking at general bounce rate stats can give you a false impression of how you’re really doing if you’re running multiple campaigns or distributing content across multiple platforms. In addition to monitoring overall bounce rate, consider bounce rates for:

• Individual landing pages
• Specific campaigns
• Different periods of time

What I’ll Do for You

In order to decrease bounce rate, I’ll evaluate your content to identify weakness within your content, with SEO implementation and keyword selection, or with the technical aspects of your pages. This will be followed by recommendations for actions that can be taken to direct more productive traffic your way, with the goal of ultimately encouraging more conversions from browsers.