Understanding and Reducing Google Analytics Bounce Rate Pt2

Understanding and Reducing Google Analytics Bounce Rate Pt2:

This is continued from part one

As we said in the last post, there are two main factors in reducing the bounce rate;

1. Engage people enough that they read the first paragraph of your page
2. Give people something to do, or encourage people to take action, before they leave your site

There are many factors that come in to play with keeping people interested, as Toby Zigler said, its the science of listener attention. You have to try to distil the idea down, and use words that are surprising and interesting to the reader.

Source of traffic

Each source can result in a different Bounce Rate. We have found out that the traffic driven by search (paid and organic) and other sources other than the campaign had a much lower bounce rate than traffic that is driven by ads. Buying a high searched keyword is ultimately useless if you do not provide what people are searching for those words actually want. If the message on your banner or search ads do not comply with the messages on the landing page then chances are you have one of those 50% + bounce rates.

Page load time

Long load times can lead visitors to bailing out on the site leading to a higher bounce rate. You can reduce your load times by following our handy guide. If your site is plastered with pictures and other bells and whistles users with slower connections may be leaving because they have to wait too long.

Too much clutter

Make sure your pages are clutter and interruption free. People will not hand around and search for what they are looking for if there are too many things in the way.

Links to external sites

Pages that contain links to external sites (or sub domains / pages that do not follow the same data warehouse) will show higher bounce rates. High Bounce Rate is most likely due to incorrect application of the tracking code.People can also leave your site from your entrance page because of site and usability issues.

Create Related Content

Providing links to other related content on your site can go a long way in keeping visitors engaged. We have related content links on the side and below each of our posts.

Take Action

There are plenty of free or inexpensive Web Analytics tools out there. These tools can provide a serious amount of data, but the information here is not the end game. But do not assume that going to work. You should consider performing A / B and multi-variant tests when making even minor changes to your site. If you are using WordPress it is easy to change the design of your site, or to try different themes. Mix things up, you never know what might attract people to stay on the site.

This is continued from part one

Related posts:

1. Understanding and Reducing Google Analytics Bounce Rate Pt1
2. Sitemaps And SEO – Do Sitemaps Help Your Google PageRank?
3. WordPress – Increasing Speed, Reducing Time to First Byte