Bounce Rate Reduction

What is Bounce Rate?

Bounce rates are simply the percentage rate at which visitors land and exit a web page without engaging deeper with any of the contents on the page. However, bounce rates can be reduced over time using several proven techniques.

Strategies for Reducing Bounce Rate

Call To Action

Commonly known as CTA by product, marketing and data science teams. CTA’s are a guide map influencing a customer to arrive at the destination of their journey on the webpage; CTA’s vary depending on the level of a funneling goal set by the sales team.

For example, a news media outlet site would be interested in getting its current or new site visitor to;

1. Signup using their email for either a free or discounted subscription.
2. Pay for the subscriptions either weekly, monthly or yearly (final step).

While an online retail store might have several goal funnel levels such as;

1. Signup or create an account.
2. Order one (depending on the business domain) or more items and add them to their cart.
3. Pay for their items using either payments options and plans.

A well-tuned CTA utilises every text, audio, and visual content on the site to directly or subconsciously influences the customer decision. A clear CTA will significantly reduce bounce rate, ensuring customers spend less time making decisions and more time engaging with the web content.

Visuals and Content Delivery

Using colour styles, text fonts and layout to inform each user on the web page is an effective tool for improving conversion rates. Visuals are an effective means of communication, which help enhance the understanding of the content with minimal amount of time and effort. The content delivery of a site refers to the organisation and site structure. Although this step is chosen during the site A/B testing phase, it is vital for a good customer experience. Effective content delivery is used to display the service provided by the site owner in a manner relevant to the site user. Ensuring the site content is relevant to the customer needs by accurately showing solutions or providing services of interest to its target audiences.

Landing Page

The first page a visitor lands on after searching for your website on the internet or being referred from organic or other sources. To understand this better, think of your websites like a hotel and the landing page as the hotel’s reception. Landing pages just like hotel receptions offer a unique opportunity for service provider to inform, describe and convince the web users on their page, using proofs of excellent service (testimonials) and a clear call to action. A relevant landing page increases conversion rates and minimises bounce rates by ensuring the service or products offered on the site are appropriate to the customer’s needs and desires. An example of a relevant case is a customer looking for a site to place an order for Pizza. If the page the customer lands on is that of a Pizzarian service, then this is a relevant landing page, and as such, there is a high probability of the customer engaging (looking at the menu, price ranges and probably placing an order) more with the site. However, suppose the same customer were to land on an automobile repair shop (an extreme case of illustration to prove irrelevance). In that case, the customer, realising they are on the wrong page, will close the page, increasing the bounce rate. Landing pages with a clear call to action, which informs the customer on the availability of solutions to the customer needs, have higher conversion rates than landing pages that display irrelevant information.

Site Navigation

The increased ability of a user to go around a website, perusing its content to unravel information and gain more understanding. Site navigation is a valuable tool that improves users’ ease of access (non-tech-savvy or physically impaired) around a site to achieve their goal of being on the site. i.e. Suppose you have ever arrived at a part of a website that isn’t relevant to your current needs. To get back the page most relevant to your needs, you can immediately click on the site logo or use the navigation bar, usually at the center top, left, or right of the web page. Although for physically challenged, several additional tools have to be added to the site.

Load Speed

Refers to how quickly your site loads when a user has typed out your domain page and hit enter on their keyboard. If your site load speed is less than two and a half seconds, this might be one of the possible causes of a high bounce rate from your site. If your site is experiencing this problem, this can be fixed by optimising the site for faster load times. Images, audio, and video files can be reduced to the barest minimum at the risk of quality before being displayed on websites.

Alternatively, the web developer could be tasked with adding a time delay in the programing code for large files on the website, and this will allow the essential site functions, variables and buttons on the site to load immediately while giving room for images and videos to come up later, ensuring that the customer can successfully engage with the site.

Testing

Pages are vital for customer conversion, not just because they are the first step (in terms of landing pages) or the point of contact with the customer. Referring back to our earlier example where we think of our site as a hotel, the amount of quality service a hotel can provide to its customers is what determines the reputation of the hotel, likewise for your site, a poor experience will ultimately result in a higher bounce rate, and if not handled properly, will result in total reduction of site visits. A well-designed page includes clear and concise information using a combination of at least texts and visuals, to motivates its users (potential or recurring customers) to take specific steps or actions.

The dilemma of choosing the most converting pages often exists during A/B testing, where marketing, sales and data science teams often have requirements and agendas which they would like the landing page to meet. Tests are usually conducted over a timeline spanning a few weeks to determine which pages users prefer. I have observed during analytics that landing pages with a clear call to action, which concisely informs the customer on the availability of solutions to the customer needs, turn out to have higher conversion rates than landing pages that display too much information.

Summary

Bounce rate is the number of times users land and exit your site page(s). Landing pages with a clear call to action, which informs the customer on the availability of solutions to the customer needs, and next steps for the customer to take, turn out to have higher conversion rates than landing pages that display irrelevant information.

Maintaining a fast load time for all pages will provide your sites user’s a great experience, as research claims that people tend to remember how experiences made them feel more than any other memory.

If you require more information on this subject, do not hesitate to reach me here.