If you have ever used Google Analytics, you have probably seen a column labeled “Bounce Rate”.
The numbers listed under this header represent the percent of website visitors who left your website quickly. Having a high bounce rate could mean a number of things, but ultimately indicates that the wrong kind of traffic is coming to your website.
In order to target the right kind of traffic and keep your bounce rate as low as possible, here are a few ideas that will lead you in the right direction.
1. Use Long-Tailed Keywords
Using broad keywords in your website content will definitely attract a large amount of traffic, but if the keywords aren’t specific to your business, you’ll end up losing your visitors rather quickly.
For example, if you are trying to rank for the keyword “shoes,” but your website sells women’s shoes, you’ll lose many visitors who are searching for shoes that aren’t offered on your website.
Using specific keywords will draw in a smaller number of people, but your audience will be more targeted and more likely to stay on your website in search of what they are looking for.
2. Website Navigation Should be Easy
Especially for visitors who have never been to your website before, they may not know exactly where to go to find what they are looking for.
Having a website that is easy to maneuver and clearly tells the visitors where to go will make them more likely to stay on your website.
If the website requires takes them through a maze of buttons and are still having a difficult time finding the product they are looking for, they will probably leave your site to go to one that is more user-friendly.
3. Speed
Have you ever gone to a site where it feels like you are waiting forever for the web page to finally load?
It can be extremely stressful and most people aren’t going to stick around to see that page if it doesn’t load for them right away.
Having a speed of more than a couple of seconds can drastically effect your bounce rate and your search engine rankings (even 10 seconds is far too long for potential customers to wait for the page to load). There are tons of tools available to test the speed of your website, including Pingdom.
4. Make Your Message Clear
While it may be obvious to you what products or services you sell, not having a clear message on your homepage can leave visitors scratching their heads trying to decide if your products are what they are looking for.
Include a few sentences on your homepage that describes your mission statement and why your potential customers should buy your products.
If they aren’t sure what your company does by simply glancing at your website content, they will most likely leave before they get a chance to find out.
5. Keep Clutter to a Minimum
I don’t know how many websites I have gone to where they are trying to fit as much information, videos, audio, and pictures onto their homepage. This is too distracting and could overwhelm your site visitors.
Keep the site design clean, simple, and easy to understand from the first moment they look at it.
I am not promising that these tips will bring in tons of new customers, but they will help you reach the right audience and reduce your bounce rate.
For more ideas on promoting your website, check out this article on how to market your website and boost traffic.
