Tactics: Improving your Bounce Rate
Once a customer launches a website, the first question is usually; "How do I know it’s successful?"
There are many metrics that can be used to measure the popularity of a website, like hit rates and length of visits. But arguably the most meaningful is bounce rate, which is the percentage of single page visits. These are readers who hit the front page of the website and then click away without going any deeper.
This is an important performance metric that reveals both the quality of the traffic and the effectiveness of the content and. For most companies, a target bounce rate of 40% is fairly standard. A rate of 60%, especially if it sustained over several months or more, should instigate an investigation into the website and the company’s online strategies.
1. Improve your traffic. By researching which referrers bring the visitors who don’t bounce, you can begin to work with your online marketing strategies develop those relationships better. Click campaigns that bring traffic with a high bounce rate should be evaluated to see how improvements can be made; high bounce rate + low visitor stay can be a red flag that the referrer isn’t sending quality traffic.
2. Improve your content. The website should meet customer expectations. A big part of that can be ensuring that the keywords match the content. If a visitor found a site via a search for "unusual entomology" only to find professional surveillance equipment, they would most likely quickly click away. The content should also be compelling; original, relevant, and dynamic.
3. Improve your design. Specifically, the landing page of your website is key. This is the visitor’s all-important first impression. It should have a clean, uncluttered layout that showcases the content and the brand.
