How to Reduce Your Bounce Rate

If you are looking to your SEO specialist to optimize your company’s website for improved search rankings, at some point you will come across the phrase “bounce rate.” What exactly does “bounce rate” mean?

Simply put, a bounce rate is the percentage of visitors to your site’s landing page that leave within one minute of arriving. While a high bounce rate can point to red flags that need attention from you or your SEO professional, it doesn’t always have to be a bad thing. For instance, a landing page with concise address and contact information may have a high bounce rate simply because visitors are able to quickly get the info they need and, well, bounce! However, a high bounce rate can be problematic for companies who need their visitors to stick around and navigate their websites in order to make important conversions- in other words, buy stuff or sign up for things. Reducing your bounce rate can help you ensure that your prospective customers are staying on your site long enough to perform the action you want them to perform, whether that be making a purchase, scheduling an appointment or signing up to receive more information. Here are some ways to reduce your bounce rate, which can lead to maximized conversions and an improved bottom line for your company.

Spice Up Your Content

Part of getting prospective clients to stick around and view your website is to attract and hold their interest. After all, a visitor who is engaged with the content on your site won’t be going anywhere until he or she has finished reading it. Interesting blog posts that relate to your company’s product or service can help reduce your bounce rate by retaining your audience’s attention. Try to keep posts concise and entertaining, and post at least twice per week to keep your website current, which will help with your search rankings along with your bounce rate. If you or your staff are uncomfortable with writing your own blog posts, enlist the help of a professional content writer through your SEO provider.

Improve your CTAs

You probably hear a lot about CTAs, or “calls to action.” This is the term for the direct instruction to your audience to perform a certain task, such as sign up for a service or purchase a product. CTAs are the foundation of marketing in all forms; after all, what is the point of all of this if your target prospects don’t do the thing you want them to do? You can make CTAs simple (“Call Dr. Brown’s office today for an appointment”) or memorable (“Hate cleaning hair out of your drain? Mario Bros. Plumbing is here to help! Call today!”). No matter which style you prefer, it is essential to sprinkle CTAs throughout your site, along with a helpful link so visitors can easily make a conversion at their convenience. Keeping CTAs present without sacrificing good content can help retain visitors on your website for longer periods of time, leading to a reduction in bounce rates.

Happy Landing!

Quick question: if you were a visitor to your website and you saw your landing page, would you want to stay and learn more? If your answer is no, we need to change that right away! An engaging, informative landing page that answers visitors’ main questions at a glance is vital to a successful company website. It is also important to make sure your landing page links to product and service pages that are easy to navigate for an average computer user. If you pepper your landing page with a series of confusing, hard-to-read links, or if you add too much content that creates lag time and delays with page loading, a visitor will instantly be turned off and search for a similar company with a better website. If you think a bad landing page is the source of your high bounce rate, ask your SEO specialist to help you fix it ASAP!

Contact an SEO Expert to Lower Your Bounce Rate

Reducing your bounce rate doesn’t guarantee an overall improved conversion rate, but it certainly helps! By tweaking your website with better content, a user-friendly landing page and compelling calls to action, you will be on your way to lowering that bounce rate and boosting your business. Contact Echero today to speak with one of our SEO experts about how we can help reduce your bounce rate!