How to Reduce Your Bounce Rate

Tracking analytics on your website is a crucial piece of any successful website. However, merely collecting the data is only half the battle. The trick is to understand that data and leverage it to your advantage. Being able to understand where you are falling short when it comes to website metrics is vital for survival in the advancing digital world. If you do not nurture and fix the areas in need of improvement, it can result in a loss of visitors and an overall loss of sales/conversions. Neglecting to act on the insights analytics data can provide is mistake few businesses can afford to make.

With so many valuable pieces of information trackable, where should you start? Today,  let’s take a look at one key metric to any successful website: Bounce rates.

Your bounce rate is the percent of visitors who leave your website’s landing page without viewing other pages. Often times, your website hasn’t even finished fully loading before the visitor is gone. Having a high bounce rate is obviously less than ideal. It indicates your visitors are not finding what they are looking for. Not having a website with a mobile-friendly responsive design, poor links, or hard to find calls to action are elements that may also be contributing to a user bouncing from your site. An ideal bounce rate to strive for is 35% or lower. Anything above 50% should be a red flag! So, how do you lower your bounce rate? Here are some helpful strategies to get started.

Create Readable Content on Your Webpage with Your Audience in Mind

Font matters! Use a web safe font. Using Serif Fonts, Sans-Serif Fonts, or Monospace Fonts will ensure that your website is readable to your viewers. This isn’t to say that you are just limited to those options, but rather to point out the importance of the style of font you choose. Readability is important.

Once you have picked out your font, keep in mind the size and color of your content. Too small of a font size may be strenuous to your visitors’ eyes, but too large of a font may not be visually appealing. Too many colors can overload your visitors, making your website look disorganized and overwhelming. Also, keep in mind the spacing of your content. Avoiding large paragraphs of unnecessary content will help. Break up your content and give the reader a chance to slowly take in what your website has to offer in a clean and concise format.

Never forget who your audience is. By understanding your target audience, you’ll be able to tailor your message to their needs and add value to their visit. Doing so will naturally help decrease your bounce rate. Knowing your audience helps you structure your website in a way that will appeal to them. If they can easily find what they’re looking for, they’ll be less likely to bounce and may dig further into your website’s content, and in the end, increase the likelihood that you’ll be able to convert them from a visitor into a customer. When creating your content, you should always have your specific, targeted visitor personas in mind. You want your content to be engaging, helpful, and informative to your audience. Without content that benefits your visitors, they have no reason to stay on your website.

Make Your CTAs Easy to Find

Only 47% of websites have call-to-action buttons (CTAs) that are easy to find and click. According to SmallBizTrends, 70% of small businesses don’t have any CTA’s on their homepage. This high percentage of businesses are missing out on conversion opportunities! Are you one of them?

A good call-to-action should be easy to find and directly state what you want the visitor to do. For example: “Learn More About X Service.” Having a compelling CTA is vital.  Everything from on-site placement, color, font, and text should be considered when creating your CTAs. You should employ emotion-provoking words and a strong command verb. When creating CTA’s, always remember to keep them benefit-oriented, and don’t be afraid to be creative! Click the link provided to view examples of call-to-action buttons on our Stellar Blue Technologies homepage.

Here’s another great example (below) of how Stellar Blue uses call-to-actions on our site:

Target Relevant Keywords

Researching and utilizing keywords that are relevant to your website is important for anything that is content driven on your webpage. This includes social posts, blogs, content on the web page, metadata, and titles of your webpages. It’s no surprise that keyword research, analysis, and implementation is no small or easy task. When done correctly, you’ll be able to identify and use keywords that intrigue viewers to read on, while simultaneously benefiting your SEO efforts. Understanding your target audience’s search intent, and then utilizing high-quality, targeted keywords to match what they are looking should help slash your bounce rates dramatically. As an added bonus, you should also see your visitor traffic numbers increase by focusing on proper SEO and keywording tactics.