The more time visitors spend on your website, the more Google will value your site for the search terms which were used to reach it. Keep your bounce rate low and watch your site rise in the search engine rankings. Bounce rate is a term in web analytics which factors the number of visitors to your webpages who literally bounce – meaning leave rather quickly, performing no action while on the pages on which they landed.
Google coined the term bounce rate and their Analytics servers measure each visit to your site as a session. You want each visit, each session, to create value for your visitor and value to you. What can you do about the predicament of having visitors reach your web pages and leave without engagement?
Let’s review some of the top factors in web design and website performance which can influence how many people bounce from your pages. Reducing this rate is your ultimate goal!
- Site Load Time – The first way to reduce bounce rate is to make sure your site loads faster! Web surfers want and deserve instant load times. They simply won’t wait for your site to load. You may have to delete plug-ins or features that are slowing down your load time. Or you may need to speak to your web host about moving your site to a faster server.
- Content is King – The second way to reduce bounce rate is to make sure there is visual interest on your web pages and that your content is well-organized. It should go without saying that your site should be easy to view and read. Photos, graphics and videos create strong visual interest. Videos are especially ideal to keep your visitors onsite for the length of the clip’s viewing time. And you want your visitors onsite even longer than the video viewing time, of course! The longer, the better.
- Targeted Keywords – Be sure the pages which are keyword targeted are relevant to the actual keywords. Using keywords as lures when you can’t deliver the information relevant to the keywords is misleading and will lead to a higher bounce rate.
- Search Capability – Make sure your traffic can search easily within your site. Give them clear search and navigation options. Users who can’t easily find search or navigation features will click off your site and look for another site to browse.
- Mobile Optimization – More and more people are web searching via their mobile devices. If your site isn’t mobile optimized, it may not be formatted and viewable to mobile users who will simply click off and continue their search for a site that is optimized for their cell, tablet or other device.
Bounce Rate reduction isn’t “rocket science” but it does take time and effort to pursue and perfect. Many business owners and entrepreneurs simply don’t have the time to fine tune their SEO. This is why having an SEO consultant makes so much sense. Get in touch today with your SEO needs!
