When using various website analytics tools, you may come across a metric known as the ‘bounce rate’. Just what is this? And what makes a healthy bounce rate? This post explains it all.
See If your Website’s Bounce Rate Healthy
What is a bounce rate?
Not everyone who visits your website sticks around. In fact, some people may leave directly after landing on your website without clicking on any other pages.
A web page’s bounce rate is used to measure the percentage of visitors who immediately leave after landing on your page. This can give you an idea as to how engaged your visitors are – and whether you need to improve your website to make it more engaging.
What is a healthy bounce rate?
According to Semrush, a bounce rate of 40% or lower is generally considered ‘good’. If your bounce rate is higher than 55%, this is usually considered ‘bad’ as it means that most visitors are immediately leaving after landing on your site.
The average bounce rate may vary slightly depending on the type of website/page. E-commerce websites generally have a bounce rate of 20% to 45%, while blogs can have a much higher bounce rate of 60% to 90%. B2B website bounce rates meanwhile usually fall between 25% and 55%.
What causes a high bounce rate?
A high bounce rate can be caused by a lot of things. However, there are a few common culprits you may want to look into.
Slow loading pages
If web pages take ages to load, most visitors won’t stick around. You should aim for a web page to take no longer than 3 seconds to load.
Unprofessional design
If a webpage looks dated, if colors clash or if images are poorly formatted, you could also find that most visitors immediately leave in order to look elsewhere.
Poor quality copy
Glaring spelling/grammar errors or walls of text could also put off many visitors and cause them to make a U-turn.
Too many pop-ups
Nobody wants to be bombarded with constant pop-ups from the get-go. Too many pop-ups could frustrate visitors and cause them to leave before they’ve had a chance to interact with your site.
Poorly optimized keywords
Are visitors coming to your website to ‘watch Disney’ movies only to be greeted by a Disney wristwatch? Are visitors typing in ‘trendy glasses’ looking for spectacles only to find that you sell wine glasses? Targeting the wrong keywords could be causing you to attract the wrong type of visitors – also leading to a high bounce rate.
How to improve a website’s bounce rate
Redesigning your website may be the best way to fix a high bounce rate. Companies like Red Spot Design can help you identify the problems with your site – whether it’s bulky code causing your site to load slowly or poor-quality images.
You should also consider the quality of the text on each web page and whether any heavily used keywords are relevant. Don’t be afraid to hire a copywriter to help spice up product descriptions or FAQ pages.
You may be able to carry out A/B testing to compare the effectiveness of two differently designed landing pages. From the results of each, you can then work out which version works better.
Conclusion
The bounce rate is an important factor to consider when it comes to not just attracting visitors but converting them into customers. This guide should have hopefully explained exactly what the bounce rate is and how to achieve a good bounce rate so that more visitors are sticking around.
