When people click a link to your website, you want them to stay. You want them to read your content, see your offers, and ultimately take the next step in responding to your calls to action. But, many people bounce off the site.
Bounce means they visited but left quickly. You can see your bounce rate in Google Analytics. So how can you lower your bounce rates?
Increase Speed
When you can increase the loading speed of your website, you will automatically have less bouncing visitors. People are impatient and don’t like to wait for something to load.
Don’t burn people’s retinas
Certain colors, like blue and gold, don’t translate well to online reading. Also, you need to space paragraphs differently than you would for printing. It is okay to break the text into more paragraphs for online reading.
Improve your SEO
Search engine optimization is important for your website. If you’re getting a lot of bounces, you may be using the wrong type of content to engage your ideal audience. Or, worse yet, your content is boring. Improve the content and SEO, and you will have fewer bounces.
Study your target audience Better
Another factor in bounce rates is a lack of understanding of your target audience. If your ads, blog posts, and content marketing (and any other type of marketing) aren’t targeting your audience well, then you need to improve your targeting.
Create natural navigation
The best navigation is not very noticeable but it naturally takes your visitors where they want to go. Don’t be clever with link and button names. Instead, be direct about where you will send the link to your visitor and use less navigation on the main page. Having fewer options will prevent confusion.
Know the reason for your website
If you don’t know the purpose of your website, no one else will either. Make sure you have laid out the website before you build it so that you and your visitors know that the website is clear on its message.
Bounced traffic has a variety of causes that you should investigate. You can use Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools to help you discover ways to lower your bounce rate. But, one of the most important things is to make sure your website speaks to your target audience in order to attract the right people in the first place.
