5 quick things you can change that will make a huge difference to your websites bounce rate.

Imagine a customer walking into your offices or store, just to walk straight back out with no explanation… This is the equivalent to a web visitor leaving your page without browsing or navigating through. The percentage of visitors leaving your website after only viewing one page, is what we like to refer to as a “bounce rate”.  

If your website has a high bounce rate, don’t panic. Here are 5 quick and relatively simple changes you can make that will make the world of difference. Just like Abercrombie & Fitch who add a delicious scent and hunky models to their store, here are some tips on how to entice AND retain your websites’ visitors.

1. Keep your content fresh and up to date. Keep your regular page visitors returning by keeping things current, relevant and interesting. As your social media campaigns change or your company’s look and feel evolve, make sure your website reflects the change too.  
2. Keep an eye out for technical errors. A technical error could be your one and only website problem. After development, continue to test your site and ALL of its pages to make sure when people are landing on a specific page, they are greeted by the page they’re looking for and not an error code. 
3. Speed issues. This one is a no-brainer. In a world of instant-gratification, ensure your visitors are not having to wait more than a couple of seconds for the page to load. According to research, even 4-5 seconds is too long! 
4. Remove intrusive advertising. One or two pop-ups on your website are acceptable, but make sure you are not bombarding your visitors with multiple calls-to-action, alternative offers or paid advertising. Unless you are a casino company, most users do not come to your page to play bingo!
5. Make an easy to read and accessible navigation bar. The navigation bar on your website should be the best performer. Make sure you are guiding your visitors to where they want to be so they have no reason to leave. 

Bounce rates are not always a negative thing, and do not always mean that there is a problem to be fixed. If your visitor is coming for contact information or business hours, it is not unusual for them to land and bounce. The bouncers that you need to be concerned about, are those visitors that land and don’t convert. The good news is that these issues CAN be corrected, and there are always small tips and tweaks to reduce your websites overall bounce rate.

Tried all of the above and still need assistance? Simply leave us your contact details and we’ll gladly get in touch.