Improving "Bounce Rates"
If you've visited my site and have found it lacking, I'd love to hear how I might improve it, just leave a comment below.
So you get a website, you start tracking its peformance and you find that some people are coming to your site and leaving or "bouncing".
Abviously your website didn't have what they were originally looking for and this could be caused by a number of things some of which you have direct control over and some you don't.
So, let's review some of the things you can do to decrease the "bounce rate" and increase the satisfaction level of the people visiting your site.
1.Content is king. As the search engines get more and more sophisticated with their algorithms the content of your site plays a bigger role. The search engine optimization companies or SEOs who would in essence force sites up the search rankings artificially using various tricks to out-smart the search engines are having to focus more on content. A site might get a lot of traffic but the bounce rates are higher because it is attracting attention from outside the site owner's target audience. So the focus is now rightly being put on content and "copyrighting" is becoming the rage. This entails hiring someone to write copy for your website that will attract once more the search engines and increase a site's rankings on the search results.
2. If you are using Adwords or some form of paid advertising make sure it is specific and appeals to your target audience in your geographical zone. Using quotation marks around specific key word phrases as well as ensuring your locations selected are only those you serve.
3. The best traffic is from past & current clients or referrals from them, the bounce rate is much lower from these types of visitors, providing your site has what these people are looking for. If not ask them what it is miising and put that in.
4. This leaves the bulk of paid for advertising visitors with the highest bounce rate and the lowest conversion rates as the biggest reason your bounce rates are higher than what you'd like to see. These visitors are not likely to give you feedback as to what your site was missing and what you need to do to make it more satisfying to them but giving them a way to easily leave this information with you might be of some value.
Disclaimer - I am not a website traffic guru, I'm a REALTOR® in the greater Edmonton area and have jotted down some thoughts I have based on my own experience. That said, I'd love to hear what you have to say and learn from your comments and perhaps help others too.
If you've visited my site and have found it lacking, I'd love to hear how I might improve it, just leave a comment below.
Thanks,
Kevin Grenier
780-893-0269
PS My current bounce rate is 35%
