Bounce Rate is a technical term seen commonly when dealing with SEO. However, many people aren’t aware of what this term means. This number is displayed as a percentage. It indicates which percentage of visitors only view one page on your website. While traffic is always good, the goal is to retain visitors and draw them to other parts of your website. A high bounce rate indicates that most of the visitors to your site either find what they’re looking for and leave, or they’re not finding what they’re looking for and leaving.
The staff at Portside Marketing is well versed in all things related to search engine optimization, including bounce rate. Lowering bounce rates improve your search results. We can help you learn what you need to do to retain visitors and draw them to other pages throughout your website.
Google Analytics and Bounce Rate
Google Analytics is the best place to start when you need to reduce your bounce rate. Upon signing into your account you will see the average bounce rate. However, for effective results you’ll want to look a little deeper. View your pages under site content. This will provide you with a list of pages on your website with the most views within the past month, along with the bounce rate for each page.
You are able to sort this list by bounce rates to easily see which pages have the highest percentage. This allows you to recognize which pages need improvement first. Pages that show a high number of views and high bounce rates should be your first priority. These are the pages that bring in a lot of traffic to your website. You want to encourage these viewers to move throughout other pages as well. Compare these pages to pages with a high number of views and low bounce rate to see what is working for your site.
Google Analytics also allows you to view bounce rate by traffic source. You can do this by viewing “All Traffic” under the Traffic Sources menu item. This is where you’ll see which sources are bringing the most traffic to your blog. This is great for determining which traffic sources deserve more attention. The sources that provide more traffic with a lower bounce rate are the ones bringing in visitors who interact more with your website.
You also have the ability to see which keywords are bringing visitors to your site, as well as their respective bounce rates. This gives you a good idea of which keywords are most effective for retaining visitors.
Improving Bounce Rate
Now that you know which pages, traffic sources, and key words have the highest bounce rates, you can work on improvements. One of the easiest and most effective ways to reduce your bounce rate is link usage. Try links to other related pages within your content. If you have pages that cover related content, use that to your advantage. Create links between the two pages. This way, when someone sees information on one of these pages, they are more likely to visit the other page.
You can also include links about specific products and services. Links to product manuals, reviews, and other related items can help people engage with your site. This can also offer them more exposure to your products or services, which in turn increases the likelihood of a sale.
Creating a sidebar with interesting content can also help users navigate to other areas of your website. Links to an “About Us” section or a “Contact Us” link are great ways to reduce bounce rate. You can also include links to your most popular pages as well as products or services.
Sometimes a high bounce rate can indicate poor content. If a page has a high number of views with a high bounce rate and low average time on site then it needs attention. Think of ways to improve these pages to keep people interested longer. Often times, more content, better content, or even a video can help people stay interested in the page.
Getting Help to Improve Bounce Rate
If you’re having a hard time reducing your bounce rate on your own, consider reaching out to Portside Marketing. Our professional staff can help you with every aspect of your website. It’s important to think about the purpose of your site. If your goal is to familiarize people with your company and get them interested in your products and services then you’ll want to lower your bounce rate.
A well-functioning, interesting website is a must for any successful business. We want to help you make the most of your website. Portside Marketing is a Google Certified partner. We can help you reduce bounce rate as part of our overall marketing strategy for improved results.