What is the bounce rate?

Remember when you were a kid? We all enjoyed playing with bouncy balls to fill our time and release some pent-up energy. A Bounce rate is just like it sounds. It is defined as the number or percentage of people who view your site and then “bounce” without scrolling through, interacting, or clicking through another page. We have all done it. Clicked on a site, then immediately backspaced out to the next site. Why? There are a few different reasons people “bounce” off of your site quickly. Let’s dive into some of those reasons and how we can improve your site’s bounce rate.

Why?

While it may be hard to diagnose what the user was thinking, we can look at analytics and get a good idea of WHY the user is leaving.

1. Aesthetics – Is your homepage inviting? I have found that a website’s bounce rate immediately improved by improving home page aesthetics! Why? As human beings, we are aesthetic by nature and find joy in things we can relate to. Improve your site’s home page to have an aesthetically pleasing feel, and watch your bounce rate decrease (improve).

2. Functionality – Does your site have what users need immediately? When users see tabs they can find helpful right away, they are more likely to click through. Having tabs for About us, “Services, Contact, and more can help improve your bounce rate and click-through. Perhaps your restaurant can add your menu to a tab to help your click-through rate. Find the primary reason users come to your site and make that readily available almost immediately.

3. Loading time – One of the main reasons people click off a website is the loading time. We are all busy and want to find what we need NOW! (Thanks to technology). When a user clicks on your site, and it takes more than 5 seconds to load, there is a significant increase in bounce rate. Items such as poor-quality video or images on the home screen can deter people almost immediately. Using low-quality website builders can also decrease your views as the server may lead to a slow load time. To learn more about increasing your load time, head over to Hubspot:

   https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/how-to-reduce-your-websites-page-speed

Bounce Rate Importance

While the obvious answer is you want more people on your website for sales, traffic, etc., bounce rate is an effective way to improve your SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Many marketing companies and business owners get caught up in the SEO trap, focusing on keywords, but failing to focus on improving the website bounce rate. This is just one piece in the SEO puzzle but an effective one to rank higher on Google.

At Legacy Digital Marketing, we focus on all the essential SEO and business development details to ensure your site gets the most traffic possible. We analyze various items and figure out what is causing a high bounce rate while coming up with solutions that last! Let’s talk! We’d love to help you decrease your bounce rate!