Do you have a high bounce rate? You are not the only one experiencing a high bounce rate.

This problem affects many digital marketers. It usually happens because the website isn’t performing as it should.

High bounce rates are a sign that visitors aren’t finding the information they need on your site. This is a good sign that you can see it as an opportunity to improve.

These are steps and points to keep in mind if your bounce rate is higher than you would like.

What is a bounce rate? The Definition

A high bounce rate can be found in your website data. This refers to the percentage of people who land on your site and leave immediately.

This is a good or bad thing?

High bounce rates don’t necessarily mean that there is a problem.

It’s not unusual for someone to land on your site looking for a business address or hours. Visits to your business are still considered a conversion.

The problem is when people land, bounce, and don’t convert. These are the prospects you want to concentrate on. It is your job to discover why people bounce in such large numbers.

How is the Bounce Rate Calculated

The bounce rate of a website is the percentage who visit it and leave without clicking any other links. The bounce rate is the number of page views that have been viewed.

Most people use Google Analytics to find this number.

Google Analytics will show you the bounce rate for each page, which is the sum of all page views.

GA will also show you the average bounce rates for your entire website. This is calculated by taking all bounces on all pages within the specified period and dividing it by all entrances to all pages in that same period.

GA does more than just show you bounce rates for your site. GA provides metrics such as:

• How many people have visited your site?
• The average page count per visit
• Time on site

These metrics should be viewed in combination. If you observe that your average time on your site is high and that your bounce rate is high, it means that visitors have likely succeeded in reaching their goals using your site.

A page with information and a number would be one example. Your prospects arrived on your page, were informed, and may have called you. The page is still very popular, despite the high bounce rate.

The problem comes when your visitors are not engaging and there is a high bounce rate. This is when you should take steps to reduce your bounce rate.

What is a good bounce rate? What is the Average Bounce Rate?

The majority of website bounce rates fall between 26% to 70%.

Neil Patel also created an infographic showing the industry average bounce rate. Your bounce rate is where it should be.

Analytics are subjective and bounce rates can be very subjective. You want to keep your bounce rates as low as possible and increase your site’s conversion rate.

What is a high bounce rate?

High bounce rates are anywhere from 70 to 80 percent when combined with low conversion rates. High bounce rates combined with low conversions are always bad. That’s why you should be focusing on them.

When you have high bounce rates, which are normal for blog pages, confusion can arise. Google even admits that blog post bounce rates are higher than those of other pages.

What is your bounce rate before you start getting alarm bells?

These are some key points to keep in mind.

Do you prefer a higher or lower bounce rate? Decide which is better

If your site’s bounce rate in Google Analytics is high, don’t get discouraged. Instead, take a look at each page and evaluate the bounce rates. Is there anything you can improve?

Look at the metrics that are associated with a page that has a bounce rate higher than average.

• Do people spend a lot of time on the web?
• Is it possible to convert on a goal?
• Do they return to the site after their first visit?

You should immediately address any page with low time on site, a high bounce rate, and not converting.

You can lower the site’s overall bounce rate by focusing on pages with high bounce rates, but otherwise low engagement. You may also be able to increase your conversions.

Only time and thorough site testing can tell. We’ll get to that later.

Why is my bounce rate so high? There are 4 Reasons.

1. Bad Content

Websites are often accessed by people looking for information about a subject.

They won’t stay if your content isn’t relevant to their needs. They will likely find another site with better content.

Instead, make sure you fully understand your audience. Do your best to understand why your audience chooses your website over other websites.

After you’ve identified the “why”, create engaging content to appeal to your visitors and address their unique goals.

Your content should answer the questions of your visitors and address their concerns. This will help you to convert.

Visitors will leave your site if they find it boring, inaccurate, messy, or uninteresting. This will result in a drop in conversions.

Instead, show empathy with your content, speak to your audience, and provide them with the information that they need to be happy and loyal customers.

2. Poor user experience

Within a matter of seconds, visitors to your website will decide if they want to stay or go.

Your visitors will click more often if the colors don’t appeal to them, if the layout isn’t well-organized, or if the navigation isn’t intuitive and easy than navigating further.

It’s essential to be lean when it comes to UX or user experience. This means a clean and simple layout that’s easy to read and a navigation menu that is quick, easy, and has enough content to encourage visitors to convert.

Your bounce rate will increase if your website is too complicated, has too many images that aren’t relevant, or has other content elements that add clutter rather than value. This happens because people don’t know what to do next.

Instead, focus on a simple UX that makes your visitors happy, educated, and converts.

3. Technical Error

Your bounce rates may be unusually high. This could indicate that visitors are experiencing technical difficulties. Perhaps your JavaScript is not working properly or the plugin has stopped working, causing a form to not load.

These errors could remain on your website without you being aware.

If you notice a high bounce rate on a page, just go through it as a normal visitor. Take a fresh look at the page.

• Are the visuals easy to see?

• Are the contents compelling enough to convert?

• Do you feel like any mistakes should be corrected immediately?

Any errors that are found will need to be corrected immediately. Only then can the bounce rate of the page fall.

4. Speed issues

Your website should load almost instantly. Any delay of more than a few seconds on the Internet is unacceptable.

GTMetrics will provide you with a speed report. The platform can give you suggestions on how to fix slow-loading sites.

Google’s Search Console provides speed insight and advice to help you make your website lightning fast.

A one-second improvement can increase traffic and convert more visitors to your website. A faster site loading speed may be all you need to lower your site’s bounce rate.

How to Lower a High Bouncing Rate

It is important to be organized when evaluating your site’s bounce rates.

These are seven steps you can take to reduce bounce rates if they are low.

1. To start, choose the page with the worst bounce rate

If your site’s bounce rate is high at least one page is likely affected. Locate that page and take note of it. Next, navigate to that page as a normal visitor and take lots of notes.

Take a look at the metrics on the page. What time are they spending on it? Is it possible to achieve their goals even with a high bounce rate?

Next, examine the page’s layout, navigation, content, and design. Next, determine if the page is as good as it can be and whether your visitor goals have been met.

2. To see how people navigate, install a recording tool

Website Recording allows you to see how visitors navigate through your website. It allows you to see exactly where visitors are clicking and hovering, as well as which paths they take, all while they work towards a conversion or bounce.

Website recordings are a great way to see areas where you can make improvements. This is a great option for pages with high bounce rates.

After you have installed a recording tool on your website, go back to the page that has the highest bounce rate to see what visitors are doing right before they leave.

3. To learn more about the user’s behavior, run a heatmap

Heatmaps can be used to visualize what your visitors do when they visit your site.

You can use heat indicators to see the areas where there is the most interaction. You might notice that most visitors click their cursors in the top right corner. This could be an ideal spot to place a call–to–action button.

You can identify where visitors are most engaged by using this data on the page with a high bounce rate. This can provide you with valuable data that you can use to improve the pages in question and potentially decrease bounce rates.

4. Analyze the data and choose the elements to run an A/B test

Once you have identified areas where people are confused or elements people are drawn to, you will want to make some adjustments to the pages that have the highest bounce rates. This will allow you to determine if rearranging, adding, or eliminating content might help.

You can experiment with headlines and images to increase your highest bounce rate pages.

You will use an A/B test to clone a page and change one element such as the headline. You can decide which headline is most popular by showing the same page to two different audiences with alternating headlines.

A/B testing is a great way to lower the bounce rate on your entire website.

5. Start A/B testing

Many web recording tools and heat maps allow you to do A/B testing. These tools can be used to quickly test your website’s elements. Multivariate testing is possible. This allows you to simultaneously test several elements to determine which performs best.

This type of testing will help you determine the best combination of elements to lower bounce rates and increase conversions. A/B Testing is a great way to lower bounce rates. 

6. Use the Optimization

You will need to decide which optimization winner was chosen for each test and then evaluate visitor engagement. This is an excellent way to compare visitor behavior before and after.

Each test and assessment should be given enough time to provide the correct data. If you don’t, you might end up making rash decisions and increasing bounce rates.

Slow and gradual optimization is the key. This doesn’t cause visitors to be confused and can result in proper bounce rate optimization which can increase the site’s value over time.

7. Keep repeating the cycle

Your job is not done just because your bounce rates start to drop. There are likely to be improvements. Your site might need to change over time to meet the changing needs of your audience.

It is important to make time for bounce rate analysis, website recording, heatmaps, and A/B testing.

You can keep your bounce rates low and convert more people if you pay enough attention.

Use Kobe Digital Tools to Increase Your Bounce Rate

Kobe Digital was one of the first to use heat maps technology. The platform allows website recording and A/B testing, among other important features.

Kobe Digital is a great solution for web marketers who want to reduce bounce rates on their sites page-by-page or site-wide. This technology can also increase conversion rates. After your bounce rates have dropped, it’s time to sell to people who are still browsing. You’ll be able to create a successful website with a low bounce rate and a high conversion rate.

You can test the platform risk-free and improve your website’s performance quickly.

Conclusion

You probably now know the average bounce rate of your website. Is it high? Do you think it is too high?

You now have the plan to follow if your bounce rate remains high after you’ve assessed your site. You can improve your digital marketing agency in Miami results by assessing the content of your website, checking for technical issues, and using technology such as website recordings, Heatmaps, and A/B Testing via platforms like Kobe Digital.

It all boils down to giving the best user experience. Your audience will be more likely to click, land and convert if you provide exactly what they need.