Unfortunately, consumers are very quick to judge a book by it’s cover when it comes to product/service websites. It only takes a lightning 15 seconds for a user to decide if they want to stick around or not.
So, what do we have to do to capture the attention of our users? How do we know what interests them? Why are they leaving? How do we make them stay?
Lucky for you, this isn’t rocket science and it’s completely do-able. In this blog post, we will help you turn your website around and improve your bounce rate.
What is a bounce rate? And, how do I go about reducing my bounce rate?
The bounce rate of your website is the percentage of visitors who leave your site after only viewing one page. If you are experiencing a high bounce rate, it typically means you are not constructing your website correctly to appeal to your target audience. If you have a low bounce rate, things are going smoothly for you, but there is always room for improvement!
You can find your bounce rate in your Google Analytics Dashboard under the Behaviors -> Site Content drop-down. You will be given the option to select “All Pages,” where you can view how each individual page is performing. Here you can get a closer look at whether or not your users are getting what they want.
But, remember, standard averages for bounce rates vary on the type of business you are.
Check this out:
As you can see, bounce rate fluctuates by industry. Keep this in mind before you get discouraged by a high bounce rate that is perfectly fine for the industry you’re in.
Now that you are familiar with what a bounce rate is, let’s talk about what is negatively impacting yours and how to determine a good bounce rate.
Landing Page Design
First impressions are extremely important and you should focus a lot of your marketing efforts into your web design. When you’re designing a landing page, you often get carried away and want to cram in every last bit of information in the hopes the customer finds what they’re looking for. But in reality, too many options can lead to too many decisions and your customer is officially scared away.
Having a lot of information isn’t a bad thing, but it’s detrimental to a landing page. The goal is to catch the eye of the consumer, directing them to other pages to get more information. If you have all of your information on the first page, customers technically will find everything they need, forcing them to leave your website.
If all your customers leave after the landing page, your bounce rate will skyrocket. Then how are you going to know what users are interested in and who they are? There us no way to tell anyone apart if they are all in the same place.
If you create an effective and quality landing page, it automatically increases your marketing campaigns success.
Below are some extremely helpful tips on how to maximize your landing page and reduce your bounce rate.
- Create the website’s heading to state your business’s biggest benefit. Why will your product/service change my life? This is your biggest opportunity to catch the users eye.
- Design captivating call-to-action buttons. Place your call-to-action button where it is always visible to the user, aka using a floating button so there is never a hassle to find it. This is how you are going to get leads, therefore it should not be overlooked. Make sure the information in the button matches your heading/subheading so it doesn’t get too confusing.
- Don’t make your lead forms too lengthy. Only request essential information from the customer and keep it short and sweet. If there are too many personal questions, your potential customer may feel like their privacy is going to be invaded which will increase their exit intent.
- Use a clean and minimalist layout with plenty of white space. This will keep your visitors from getting distracted and allow them to focus on the message you are trying to portray.
- Always use high-quality and relevant photos to your brand and make sure the design doesn’t increase the page load time.
- Use a big font size. If your landing page’s text is too small, it makes it hard to read, especially if your user is on a mobile device. Not only that, but it doesn’t put an emphasis on your message.
Manage or Avoid Pop-ups
Too many popups within your site can not only be aggravating but it can also give off the vibe of a “scammy,” less credible website. Whether it’s ads, promotional info, a lead form, etc, too many things shooting at the screen at once can stray the potential customer away.
When I am visiting a site, if I have to exit out of a million things before I even see the landing page, chances are I am going to be annoyed and never visit that site again. All in all, it disrupts your reading, slows down your webpage and therefore puts a damper on the overall user experience.
Technically, yes, pop-ups are important to a business because they generate emails. But, they give a long lasting bad impression which is something you want to completely avoid.
Use these tips to manage your popups and use them smartly.
- Use timed pop-ups. Instead of bombarding your customers with all of the pop-ups as soon as they click on your web page, time them to popup when the user is done looking at the specific single page or reached the end of the blog post.
- Put a time limit on your pop-ups. This way, if the user is not interested, it will disappear within a few seconds.
- Use non-intrusive pop-ups so they don’t disrupt the page’s UX. This means don’t create popups to take up the entire page before the user can view the underlying landing page. Stick to using banner ads, slide-ins or inlines. Remember, pop-ups are recommended to only take up 15% of the screen…decreasing this percentage as much as possible will benefit the user experience.
Interest Your Users To Explore More
The first thing that concerns you when you have a high bounce rate is that users just aren’t interested. The main purpose of someone visiting your web page is the need of certain information of a product/service. If this need is fulfilled or not, that user will exit your page unless you give them a reason to discover more.
It is your responsibility as a marketer or web designer to ensure the customer is completely satisfied, therefore you must make it desirable for them to keep browsing.
Here are a few things you can do to keep those visitors on your website:
- If your user is finished reading a blog, you can create an option to continue to a different page if they enjoyed that one. “If you liked this article, here are some more you will love!” is a perfect message to relay. Here you can create internal links that will direct users to similar things to what they are interested in.
- Once a customer completes a conversion, they are usually sent to a ‘thank you’ page where they often immediately exit. You can use this page as an opportunity to provide more options since you already know the customer is committed. Don’t forget to personalize this page. It’s nice for the customer to see a thank-you-message with their name!
A user needs a logical next step to a web page to decrease the bounce rate. If you have a next step, but still have a high bounce rate, maybe the mobile user isn’t ready for that action you are promoting.
There is always an answer as to why your bounce rate is high. This is why it is important to find the underlying cause and plan your webpage, social media and your content accordingly.
