When a visit to your website results in a bounce, it means that someone came to your site and then either visited another site – or clicked back to the previous search results screen – after viewing just one page. Your site’s bounce rate is usually expressed as a percentage, and you can see it in any analytics package such as Google Analytics or the data screen provided by your hosting company. If your site’s bounce rate is 80 percent, it means that eight out of every 10 visitors leave your site after viewing just one page. Needless to say, a high bounce rate is always bad – but it’s particularly bad if you own an online business.
So, what is a high bounce rate? According to HubSpot, anything above 70 percent is concerning, and anything above 90 percent is cause for alarm.
A high bounce rate is a problem for two reasons. First, it means that people aren’t finding what they want on your site. If people don’t stay on your site, they aren’t buying – so it has a direct financial impact on your business.
The second reason why a high bounce rate is harmful is because it can reduce your site’s search engine rankings. If people view your site and immediately return to the search results, Google’s ranking algorithm may conclude that your site isn’t a good one to show for that search term. In that way, a high bounce rate can actually handicap your site’s ability to generate traffic.
So, what can you do to reduce your website’s bounce rate? The answer is that you need to provide what your visitors want. In this article, we’re going to provide some simple and actionable ideas to help you do exactly that.
Carry the Products Your Customers Want
If you’re in the retail sector, the most important thing that you can do to keep people on your site is carry the products that your potential customers want to buy. If you’re in the vaping industry, for instance, you can’t go wrong by carrying a brand like Coastal Clouds – and every industry has a few staple brands like that one.
If you’re not sure what the hot brands in your industry are, it’s worthwhile to spend some time on discussion boards and find out what people are talking about. Nothing is worse than visiting an e-commerce site and finding nothing but old brands and irrelevant products, and you want to make sure that people never feel that way about your product selection.
Eliminate “Sold Out” Messages from Your Site
When people visit your website, do they see “Sold Out” or “Email Me When Back in Stock” messages on your product pages? You should do your best to eliminate those messages because people don’t want to see them – and if someone sees a “Sold Out” message after clicking through to your site from a search results page, it’s almost guaranteed that he or she will immediately click the “Back” button.
If you’re sold out of a particular product that generates high search volume, you should get the product back in stock as quickly as possible. Even more importantly, though, you should delete pages for products that you don’t intend to stock again. If you’re sold out of a product and aren’t ever bringing it back, that product page isn’t helping you because it’s contributing to your high bounce rate.
Make Sure Your Site Looks Great on All Screen Sizes
Have you tested your website on a variety of different devices, or have you only looked at it on your computer? If you ignore mobile devices, you do so at your own peril because mobile devices have generated more than half of all web traffic since 2017. Many of your potential customers probably do almost all of their at-home web browsing on their phones and never touch computers unless they’re at work – so it’ll be impossible to fix your high bounce rate unless your site looks good on phones.
It’s worthwhile to create a Google Search Console account and verify your site with Google. You’ll find that the Search Console provides a variety of actionable suggestions that can help you improve your site’s mobile experience.
Project an Image of Trustworthiness and Professionalism
One of the most important aspects of your website is the way that it looks. When people visit an e-commerce site, they expect that site to look a certain way. They expect a professional overall appearance and a logical navigation structure. They also expect the site to clearly display the business’s policies and contact information. If your site doesn’t have those things, people will be hesitant about buying from you.
It’s a very good idea to search for some of the keywords that you’d like to rank for and to study the sites currently ranking well for those keywords. Those are your primary competitors. Do their websites look professional and trustworthy? As a consumer, where would you feel most comfortable spending your money? In comparison to those sites, are people likely to think of your website as a legitimate business? If your site doesn’t project the right image, it’s time for a redesign.
Focus on Search Intent When Creating Your Site’s Content
One of the most important things to understand about creating content for your website is that, if you want to rank well for a given keyword, it isn’t enough to simply publish content containing that keyword. You also need to think about the likely intent behind that keyword.
People use different types of keywords at different stages of their buying journeys. Some keywords are used for general research. Others are used when people have problems that they want to solve or questions that they want to answer. The most important keywords, of course, are the transactional ones – the keywords that people use when they want to buy.
When you create content structured around a particular keyword phrase, it’s very important to think about the reasons why people might search for that phrase. You want to create content that satisfies the intent behind the keyword and gives the user what he or she wants. If you do that, you’ll have a satisfied visitor. If you don’t, you’ll have a high bounce rate.
