So finally, you launched your website, and your product is out there for all to see. And like a dream come true, visitors are trooping to your website to check out your product. But there’s a problem- all the visitors are leaving without any explanation and without viewing more than a page on your website. They come, browse around for a few minutes and then leave. “What could possibly be the problem?” you wonder aloud.
Too often, we are fazed with the traffic we are getting that we fail to observe and study two fundamental things: user engagement and user behavior. In this guide, I am going to give you a guide to reducing the bounce rate of your website. But before I go any further, I want to clarify the difference between these two terms: exit rate and bounce.
Exit rate
This refers to the percentage of visitors who leave after viewing a page. That means it is page specific. It gives you an indication of the last page visitors viewed before they left. If the exit rate on a critical page is very high, you should be worried
Bounce Rate
This refers to the number of visitors who left your site after viewing just a single page. It gives an idea of how sticky your contents are. The higher the bounce rate, the lower the percentage of engaged visitors. The following actions by visitors constitute a bounce:
- Hit the back button
- Type a different URL
- Close the window or tab
- Click on an external link
- Timeout
While each page has its own bounce rate, you may want to focus on the bounce rate of these three pages:
- The page where you are expecting conversion to happen.
- High traffic pages that is visible to most of your visitors.
- Landing pages.
So if you want to significantly reduce the rate at which visitors leave your website after viewing just a page, how do you go about that? Here are a few tips:
Relevant content
Visitors to your website will stay longer if they find well written content that offer solutions to the problems they are searching for. It is also important to update your website with fresh content regularly. Previous visitors would want to check back if they are guaranteed of regular relevant updates.
Readability
With declining attention span, if visitors can’t understand your contents within a few seconds of visiting your website, they would leave. To avoid this, your content should be clear and concise. Use very descriptive titles and formatting that would enhance readability. Take note of the following:
- Use bigger and bold fonts for the title.
- Divide the content into smaller readable parts using subheadings.
- Highlight key points with bullets and numbers.
- Support your ideas with visuals and examples.
- Use short sentences
Use clear Call-to-action
If you need your visitors to fill forms, download a book or app or subscribe to your service, indicate it very clearly and ensure it is very visible. If it requires clicking a button, ensure the button is active. However, do not use more than one call-to-action per page as this would be confusing.
Avoid Useless Pop-Ups
Ensure you avoid any and everything that could potentially distract your visitors. Sometimes, nothing could be more annoying than those irrelevant pop-ups. Avoid them as much as you can.
Conclusion
A reduced bounce rate benefits your business and website greatly. The lower the bounce rate, the higher the chances of conversion. The better the user experience of your website, the lower the bounce rate.
