How do Your Visitors Behave?
image credit: Cieleke
One of the main statistics you’ll see on your Google Analytics page is the bounce rate.
This means nothing to a lot of small business website owners, so don’t worry, you’re not alone.
Keep reading to find out more about what your bounce rate means and what you can do to improve it.
What is the bounce rate?
The bounce rate is the percentage of people who arrive on your site and leave without visiting a second page.
Why should you care?
Well if you’ve only got a one page website, you don’t really need to worry.
However, if your website has lots of pages then a high bounce rate can be a cause for concern.
For example, let’s say you sell pre-written wedding speeches online and you have your home page and an order page.
If the bounce rate for your home page is 85% that means only 15% of people are actually clicking through to your order page, which is obviously a lot lower than you’d like.
What can you do to improve your bounce rate?
The reason for a web page having a high bounce rate could be one or more things, depending on the individual site.
Here are a few general suggestions you may want to look at if any of your web pages has a high bounce rate.
- The page takes longer than 10 seconds to load
- The links from one page to another are broken
- You have no call to action i.e. “order your speech online now” with a link to the order page
- Your site design looks unprofessional or homemade
- You don’t have any online trust certificates to say your site is secure
If you don’t already have a Google Analytics account, set one up now and read my beginner’s guide.
By making a few subtle changes to your website you can dramatically reduce your bounce rate and make your website ‘stickier’ for visitors.
Google Analytics – Your Bounce Rate Explained | SearchBlogger…
Have you ever wondered what your website’s bounce rate actually meant on Google Analytics? Find out what it means and why it’s important in this article….
Google Analytics – Your Bounce Rate Explained…
Ever wondered what your bounce rate means on Google Analytics? Read this handy article which explains it all….
What’s helped me the most in improving my bounce rate would have to be a better blog design. When better designs/themes are put into place, there’s instant trust that develops between writer and reader. It’s amazing what a dash of paint can do!
Christian recently posted..Building Up a Blogging Community
Hi Christian, thanks for stopping by and making a comment. It’s a very good point you make – a poor site design can indeed cause people to leave your site quickly without looking at any further pages. Cheers, Jamie
It is always a good idea to check out your Google Analytics Bounce Rate. If it is to high you then need to make the required updates to the site. Thanks for the tip on the ‘Online Trust Certificates’.
Kerry Lea recently posted..Google Analytics Bounce Rate
Hi Kerry, Thanks for your comments. People can become too focused on the number of visits without seeing the full picture in terms of bounce rates. Fore example I could have 1,000 visitors a day but is it of any real benefit if 999 of them leave the site after 1 or 2 seconds?