Not everyone who visits your website will become a client or customer. Sometimes, new users arrive, check out the first page they land on and leave again. While this isn’t always a problem, a bounce rate that’s too high can indicate underlying issues that need addressing. So, what is a good bounce rate, and how do you minimise it?
While Google has confirmed that bounce rate isn’t a ranking factor and won’t affect your position in search engines, a high bounce rate is often a sign of deeper issues that need fixing, and a lower page bounce indicates that your content provides value.
Understanding Your Website Bounce Rate
If bounce rate for websites is a new concept for you, here is a basic rundown:
What Is A Bounce Rate?
The bounce rate of your website is the percentage of people who land on a single page of your site and then leave. They don’t take any further actions like making purchases, filling out forms or clicking different links.
A high bounce rate isn’t always a bad thing. Sometimes, your website has one job—providing a viewer with some essential information—and a high bounce rate is a sign that it’s doing well. You can expect one-page registration sites, directories, resource listings and specific information-focused pages like weather reports to have higher-than-normal bounce rates.
Bounce Rate Vs Exit Rate
It’s easy to confuse bounce rates with exit rates, but they’re not the same metric. An ‘exit rate’ is the number of sessions that end on a particular page. If the potential customer clicks through to a second page or article, that’s not a bounce. So, while all bounces from your websites are exits, the same can’t be said in reverse.
Calculation of Website Bounce Rate
Your website’s bounce rate is calculated by dividing the number of unengaged sessions by the number of sessions in general. A site with a 70% engagement rate has a bounce rate of 30%.
What Is A Good Bounce Rate?
A bounce rate of 40% or lower is considered to be a good rate, while 60% or higher may be a sign that you need to take a new approach to your website content. However, bounce rates can vary depending on factors like your industry, the time of the year and the type of page. Even your location can play a part, as Australia and the UK have higher bounce rates than countries like the U.S., India and Canada. So, when you’re wondering what a good bounce rate is, it’s important to compare like-for-like and look into the benchmarks of your own industry.
Factors That Could Increase Website Rate
While a high bounce rate is not a ranking factor in itself, it can be a sign of several other problems that can negatively impact your business’s SEO. Some factors that can drive an increase in your bounce rate include:
A slow-to-load webpage
A lot of website users bounce when they get tired of waiting for a page to load. Your bounce rate can significantly increase by 50% or more if your website takes longer than three seconds to load.
Bad website design
Poor quality user experience and user interaction will almost always lead to an increase in bounce rates. A site that’s unpleasant to use or difficult to navigate will undo the good effects of even top-quality content.
Poor quality content
Web users can figure out pretty quickly if the content on your site is spammy, sloppy or duplicated from elsewhere, and they won’t stick around for long.
A website that doesn’t meet expectations
All users are looking for something in particular when they land on your website: the right information, an experience, a product. It won’t matter how good your content is if it doesn’t deliver what you promised.
Inaccurate title tags or meta descriptions
Meta descriptions and title tags are huge factors in setting those expectations for web users. If the title or your tags set them up for something completely different to the information on your page, it’s no surprise that your bounce rate will be high.
Poor mobile optimisation
With more than half of all online searches (and 72% of food and beverage searches) now carried out on mobile devices, optimising for mobile is non-negotiable. Give your average smartphone or tablet user a poor mobile experience, and they will bounce back out of your website as fast as they come.
How to Reduce Your Website Bounce Rate
Here are some effective ways to reduce page bounce on your own brand website:
Satisfy the user’s search intent
Good content prioritises giving users what they want or expect to find, e.g. a blog post or video that addresses their question. In addition to creating informational content, you should make sure the meta descriptions and title tags reflect what your user is looking for.
Improve your page’s loading speed
A page that’s slow to load will lead to a lot of users bouncing. If you’re unsure what’s slowing your webpage down, try a speed audit with a tool like Google’s PageSpeed Insights.
Target high-value keywords
The best keywords for your page to target are the ones with high traffic and low competition. At the very least, your keywords should reflect the needs and intentions of your users.
Use videos and images
Video generates 1200% more shares than images and text combined, and people retain information better from watching videos. Including photos and videos in your articles will increase and improve the way web users engage with them.
Optimise for mobile
88% of people who search for a business on a mobile device either call or visit the business within 24 hours. Optimising for mobile is putting your best foot forward from the beginning.
Use A/B Testing
Knowing you have a weak webpage isn’t enough. A/B testing will help you pinpoint which specific areas of your page need improvement.
Keep your Bounce Rate to a Minimum with Anchor
If your website’s bounce rate has been high and you can’t figure out what the problem is, Anchor will help you get to the bottom of it and get the results you want.
Anchor takes an intentional and integrated approach to your SEO strategy that incorporates social media, link building, etc., with a level of keyword research you’ll be hard-pressed to find elsewhere. While we keep on top of the trends and maximise the latest developments in technology, we also use the time-honoured principles that have always worked, and we never make it harder than it has to be.
If your current website isn’t reflecting your business at its best, Anchor’s website design and development team can craft you a new one that’s designed to capture and captivate your target audience. We’ll work with you on a website that accurately reflects your brand identity while offering your visitors an intuitive and satisfying experience.
If you’re ready to improve your website’s bounce rate with Anchor, drop us a line.
