How to Reduce Your Bounce Rate and Optimize Your Site's Content Experiences

Data-collection platforms like Google Analytics (GA) and Google Search Console gives site owners, admins, and marketings the type of data needed to make confident user experience decisions. It gives you data-rich view of your site's performance -- and not all data is created accurately. In this post, we'll hone in on a popular metric called "bounce rate", define what it is, how to help it deliver more accurate data, and a few tips to help improve your overall (adjusted) bounce rate.

Bounce Rates Explained

Bounce rate refers to the percentage of site visitors who leave before viewibng more than one page at your site. It's a good indication of how well you engage with visitors, and sites with a high bounce rate rarely maximize their revenues.    Too many talented content marketers pour their heart into their work. Some days might even leave you hazy. Taking a few simple steps to keep visitors engaging with their content and site long enough so the can secure a conversion. However, there are several simple steps you can take to stop people bouncing away into digital oblivion:

1. Be Realistic About Your Target Bounce Rate 

The first thing to note about achieving an optimal bounce rate is that each website will naturally have different bounce rates. For example, a well-constructed eCommerce store will tend to have a bounce rate around 35 percent. For ordinary bloggers, achieving a rate of lower than 70 percent is exceptional, so don't be too concerned if you see higher rates than that.

2. Learn How to Adjust Your Bounce Rate 

When you log into Google Analytics or other web analysis tools, at a glance you’ll see a basic bounce rate. Take this number with a grain of salt as it isn't the most accurate metric for website owners to make strategic decisions around. That's because many people visit a single page, read it at length and then convert by subscribing or signing up for further services. You need to weed those visitors out to separate them from genuine "bounces".    To do this, alter the Google Analytics tracking code on your blog site. At the end of the tracking code, you can add a line of code similar to:  

  setTimeout("ga('send','event','Qualified Engagement','time on page more than 40 seconds')",40000);

or 

  setTimeout("_gaq.push(['_Qualified Engagement', '40_seconds', 'read'])",40000);

To give you an idea of where this line is added, here’s an example code snippet:

  <script type="text/javascript">    var _gaq = _gaq || [];    _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-XXXXXXX-1']);    _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);    setTimeout("_gaq.push(['_trackEvent',40_seconds', 'read'])",40000);    (function() {      var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true;      ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js';      var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);    })();  </script>

This code tells Google Analytics to separate people who stay longer than 40 seconds (or 40000 milliseconds) from those who stay for a shorter period. It sets up a Google Analytics alert, which you can then find on your Analytics dashboard. The time used above is purely an example. This portion of the code is fairly flexible; you can adjust the time minutes to seconds, increase the number or, decrease the number.  PROTIP #1:  The amount of time you’ll want to use should depend on your unique website and how long it may take your individual users to decide if they’ll stay or, “bounce.” Your new, adjusted bounce rate won’t paint a 100% precise picture of your bounce rate, in fact, it might be nearly impossible, but it will give you a stronger, more accurate representation of your site’s bounce rate.  PROTIP #2:  Give this tracking event ('_trackEvent') a strong and relevant name such as: '_Qualified Engagement'. “Qualified Engagement” or “Profitable Engagement” are widely used naming conventions for this type of analytics tracking event. Your adjusted bounce rate is the only bounce rate that matters (pending the discovery of a 100% precise method). If you need a little more background information on creating your setTimeout line of code, you may find the insights shared by Rob Beirne of Moz to be a convenient stop along your journey.

3. Uncover Where Your Low-Quality Traffic is Coming From 

You need to uncover why people are not staying for long periods of time. One common reason is who they are and where they come from. Check each of your traffic sources (such as Google searches, Facebook, ads, Twitter, other blogs) and find out whether any of them are underperforming.    You may have linked these traffic sources to the wrong keywords, in which case you might want to try a different keyword strategy for future campaigns. Alternatively, they may just be the wrong place to promote your blog. If so, don't be afraid to cut them loose.

4. Ensure Your Content Is Relevant to Your Users' Interests 

Sometimes, people leave blogs quickly because the content on the site doesn't match up to what they were searching for. Stuffing valuable keywords into text that doesn't refer directly to those terms is a sure-fire route to a high bounce rate, so try to keep your keywords tightly focused on the actual content.    If visitors come from the banner or pop-up ads that contain a call-to-action (CTA), make sure that the CTA syncs up with the content of your landing pages. If not, visitors are not likely to stick around to work out why they were sent to an irrelevant page.

5. Make It Easy to (Want to) Spend Time on Your Pages 

Usability is a key factor in reducing your bounce rate. If a site is well laid-out, visitors will be much more likely to click on other links and start to explore the site in general. It's also a good idea to draw visitors' attention to your own CTA, which could be anything from a signup form to social media like buttons. Whatever form of CTA you use, signpost it in your text and make the links or buttons clearly visible.    Make good use of graphics as well. Blogs with attractive, relevant photos, videos or infographics have a much lower bounce rate than those consisting of pure text. Formatting that text is also important. Break it up, with short paragraphs and plenty of white space. Use a font that is large enough to make your text readable, and place it on a background that doesn't make it difficult to read.    Optimizing your blog template for mobile devices is another must. These days, most of your hits will probably come from tablets or smartphone users, so consider implementing a responsive design.

6. Create High Quality, Sticky Content 

This is the key factor in achieving a low bounce rate. Fundamentally, if people don't like what they read when they visit your blog, they aren't going to explore your previous postings. You need to give them a reason to engage with your site and your business before they will convert, making it crucial to write fluent, relevant content that meets their needs.    Make sure that this content is also linked to other postings. That way, you can guide visitors to other parts of the site, allowing them to form a picture of who you are and what you have to offer. But don't link indiscriminately. Only link to relevant pages that add value to what users have already read. Tags are also useful in making sites easier to navigate.

7. Include Dynamic Feedback Systems to Analyze Your Results 

There's no point trying to make your site or page as sticky as possible if you don't collect data about whether your strategy is working. Google Analytics is useful, but it can only take you so far. It's also vital to get a sense of the user experience that your site provides.    One good idea is to add thumbs-up or thumbs-down buttons at the end of each posting. If users like what they have read, they can approve (or vice versa), and this info can allow you to make future postings more efficient. Comments forms also provide qualitative feedback that can be invaluable.    With these kinds of dynamic feedback systems in place, you can start to build a picture of how well your blog is engaging visitors. Instead of bouncing them back to search engines or social media platforms, you will soon be able to engage them in your work. Before too long, that engagement will result in profitable conversions.

Wrap Up

Don't just create content and rely on "what you see is what you get" bounce rate data. Create content smartly and help your bounce rate return more accurate data. Using a little analytical work and paying attention to web optimization, you can boost engagement and turn casual visitors into loyal users.