Bounce rate is one of the most important metrics you need to track on your website. Bounce Rate is a number that shows what percentage of your visitors leave your site within the first 10 seconds or after browsing just one page. A high bounce rate means that you did your job to get the audience on your website, but the site did not compel them enough to keep them browsing.
There can be multiple reasons your audience bounces off your site:
- they clicked on the link accidentally
- your website is not appealing enough
- your site does not load fast enough
- your website is not simple to use.
What is a good bounce rate?
You need to understand the difference between a high bounce rate and a low bounce rate. To find out what is a good bounce rate depends on the website you have. For example, if your website success depends on your audience scrolling through different pages on your site, then a high bounce rate is bad. Yet, if you have a single-page website – such as a blog, then a high bounce rate is totally normal.
According to CXL (2021), the average bounce rate for eCommerce and retail websites was 20 – 45% yet in dictionaries, blogs and portals the percentage was 65 – 90%.
Once you know the average bounce rate of your business, and it is still higher than usual, you need to work on lowering your bounce rate. Here’s how you do it:
1. Is your website designed responsively?
Mobile accounts for almost half of all web traffic worldwide, which means your site needs to be easy to use on desktop as well as mobile. For mobile devices, the average bounce rate is 51%. So, the lack of responsiveness of your site can be detrimental to your site because once a customer has an unpleasant experience on your site, they might take their business to a competitor who has a better website.
2. Is Your Website Working Properly?
If you see a high bounce rate on your site, don’t dwell on it, but get to working and analysing the data behind it. Ensure that your landing page works correctly. Do you have any broken buttons or features? Does your site loads fast? Most visitors expect your site to load quickly. Interestingly, studies show that merely a one-second delay can cost you around 7% on conversion rates.
3. Do you have a CTA on your site?
If there is no call-to-action on your website, then your customer leaves your site once they’ve done reading your page because nothing made them take any further actions.
Make it easy for your customers to find out what you want them to do next. If they’re reading your blog – make them subscribe to your newsletter. Are they reading your case studies? – ensure you have added a contact us button so your potential clients can effortlessly contact you.
4. Is your website user-friendly?
Your website visitors might not like the look of your website – they might find it difficult to navigate the site. Ensure you look through your user journey on your site and make it straightforward for the audience.
5. Do you have too much text on your site?
No one wants to go to the website and be welcomed with an enormous wall of text that is hard to read. Online, people do not have a long attention span and they want to see that the text they’re about to read is skimmable and interesting. If you have too much text on your site, think about chopping your text down and making the information into blog posts. To get your audience interested, add visual aides on your site. And never forget – write to your reader.
Conclusion
Many things can cause your website to have a high bounce rate. You need to determine whether the bounce rate on your site is high or normal. Don’t forget to measure your bounce rate and analyse the data. If something does not seem right, don’t give up – ensure your website is pleasing to the eye, a simple customer journey optimised for mobile browsing, and you have the right call-to-action for your target audience.
If you are a company that wants to redesign their website or create a new one, then we at Web Design Southampton are happy to help.
Contact Us today and let’s get your business seen!
