Being able to analyse the performance of your content is a skill needed to help improve your rankings. One of the statistics which you should be tracking is bounce rate, but what exactly is it and how do you improve it? 

In this blog we discuss everything you need to know, so continue reading to learn more…

What Is Bounce Rate?

Bounce rate is the percentage of clicks onto your website, which then clicks straight back off it again, without looking around or interacting with the page at all. This means the page visitor has made no interactions except for clicking the ‘back’ button. Google describes it as ‘the percentage of single page sessions’. 

What Is A Healthy Bounce Rate?

Of course, a healthy bounce rate varies from website to website, depending on the form of content being offered. However, as a general rule, a healthy bounce rate sits at around 40%. Optimal bounce rate can reach up to 55%, with anything higher indicating need for improvement. 

Whilst the lower the percentage is, the better, it’s important to remember that it’s common to receive artificially high or low bounce rate results. Therefore, if your bounce rate is showing as 100%, it doesn’t mean that nobody ever stays on your website, but rather the measurements are off. Anything below 20% or above 90% are cause for concern and likely the results are inaccurate. These false results are caused by a number of factors including bots, tracking code errors and more, 

How To Improve Bounce Rate…

Luckily, there are plenty of things you can do to improve your bounce rate without needing to change all of the content written on your website. We’ve listed some of the simplest options below to help guide you. 

Website Speed

It’s not just about the content you have available on site, but also how easily accessible that content is in the first place. For example, if your website takes 12 seconds to load, consumers will get bored of waiting and click off to elsewhere. It’s important to note that 40% of people will abandon a page if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load. By improving your website loading time, they’re less likely to look for other websites for information. 

Relevance

This may seem obvious, but aim to only optimise for keywords which are completely relevant to the page you’re writing. It’s all well and good to optimise for as many keywords as possible to increase traffic, but if your completed page is only vaguely relevant, the traffic won’t stick around and your bounce rate will rise quickly. 

Sidebar Widgets

When building your pages, ensure to not overpopulate with widgets. Having too many things going on next to the content you want to focus the page on can be incredibly distracting to a reader. If you want to have content alongside, attempt to provide links to other pages of relevant content instead, keeping it relevant to the reader and not overwhelming them with awards and ads. A simple layout will help to minimise page visitors leaving, improving the bounce rate. 

Page Format

Similar to our last point, you don’t want to overwhelm your readers. When writing for your page, ensure to use shorter paragraphs, imagery and plenty of spacing between chunks of text. Breaking up your writing will make it a lot more digestible, enabling more readers to consume your content which in turn improves the bounce rate. 

If your bounce rate is high and you are unable to change it yourself, why not book a free consultation with us below? We can ensure that your pages are fully optimised for the best user experience.

Author Profile

Shannon Greenway
Shannon Greenway
Our Junior Copywriter Shann Greenway is a creative wordsmith. Blogging is her passion, and she spends most of her time writing and editing. As a self-confessed music addict, she loves reviewing albums and interviewing artists, a hobby and skill which transfers well into her role here.

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    Author Profile

    Shannon Greenway
    Shannon Greenway
    Our Junior Copywriter Shann Greenway is a creative wordsmith. Blogging is her passion, and she spends most of her time writing and editing. As a self-confessed music addict, she loves reviewing albums and interviewing artists, a hobby and skill which transfers well into her role here.