20 Ways to Reduce Bounce Rate and Increase Conversions

Is your website’s bounce rateBounce rate is the percentage of visitors to a website who visit only one page. A high bounce rate indicates that visitors are not satisfied with your website. alarmingly high, and you are at a loss as to why? If yes, you are far from alone.

The bounce rate for an average website typically falls between 40-55%, with any rating of 50% or over definitely needing closer inspection.

That being said, this will be dependent on the particular products and services that your site offer. Therefore, it is important that you set your own bounce rate baseline and adjust your digital marketing strategies accordingly.

In terms of what is a good bounce rate, if you are falling under 40%, then you are doing a good job, but as with everything, there is always room for improvement.

Ready to discover how to reduce your bounce rate and, in turn, increase your number of conversions?

Within the below guide, you will learn:

• What is bounce rate?
• How to find out your bounce rate
• What factors affect your bounce rate
• Why bounce rate is so important
• How to reduce your bounce rate and increase conversions

All in under 15 minutes of reading time!

What is bounce rate?

Before getting into how to reduce bounce rate, it can first be a good idea to take a closer look at what exactly it is.

Bounce rate is defined as the percentage of visitors that leave your website without taking any action. This could include signing up for your email subscription service, filling out a contact form, or making a purchase.

Having a high bounce rate can be incredibly frustrating for any business owner as you have successfully managed to attract visitors to your site but have then fallen at the final hurdle and failed to get them to act once there.

Fortunately, even if your bounce rate is extremely high, it is never too late to turn it around and convert site visitors into actual paying customers. Conversion Rate Optimization is the process of increasing the percentage of visitors who carry out a desired action on your site. As a vital part of reducing your bounce rate and actively turning visitors into customers, you need a CRO strategy if you want your business to be a success.

How to find out your bounce rate?

If you are not sure what your current bounce rate is, then finding this out should be your first priority. You can check your bounce rate using the free online tool Google Analytics.

Simply follow the below steps:

• Log into Google Analytics or sign up for a new account
• Look under Audience ->Overview
• Your bounce rate will be displayed here as a percentage

This figure is your site’s overall bounce rate, meaning it is the average number of bounces across all of your pages divided by the total number of visits across all of those pages within the same time period. You can also track the bounce rate of a single page or section of your site by using the advanced filter feature.

If you want to dig even deeper into your site’s bounce rate, Google Analytics offers nine different segment options, including:

• Age
• Gender
• Affinity
• Location
• New site visitors
• Browser
• Device
• Acquisition
• Landing page

Furthermore, you can adjust what Google Analytics considers to be an interaction. For example, you may consider it a success if a visitor has watched a video on your site, even if they then left before making a purchase. Once you have done this, you may notice a reduction in your overall bounce rate. Plus, you will be able to gain a little more perspective when it comes to your rate.

What affects my overall bounce rate?

As briefly mentioned earlier, the bounce rate that you strive to achieve will be dependent on the type of business that you have. However, there are also several other factors that affect your bounce rate, including:

• The type of traffic you are attracting. For example, are people looking for information, or do they have commercial intent?
• The source of your traffic. Are you visitors coming predominantly from social media or from a search engine such as Google?
• The pages your visitors are landing on. As a general rule, your homepage should experience fewer bounces than a blog post.
• The layout of your website. If your site is difficult to navigate or is not compatible with mobiles and other devices, your bounce rate is likely to be higher.
• The speed of your site. As you might expect, the faster your site, the lower your bounce rate.

Why is bounce rate important?

Although, strictly speaking, bounce rate is not a performance metric, it can be a strong indicator that the content you are providing is not adequately targeted to the searcher’s needs. For example, if a visitor comes to a web page on your site but then leaves without exploring what else you have to offer or, even more crucially, without making a purchase, then they are unlikely to have had a beneficial experience of your business.

In fact, best-case scenario, they simply didn’t find what they were looking for, and worst-case scenario, they have come away with a less favorable opinion of your brand.

This is why you should always be looking into ways to reduce your bounce rate, even if your current rate is already above average.

Not sure where to start?

It is now time for the exciting bit of the guide: Our simple and foolproof steps that you can take to actively lower your bounce rate and increase conversions.

How to reduce your bounce rate

If you are worried that reducing your bounce rate is going to be a hugely time-consuming task, then you will be pleased to know that we have broken down the process into twenty straightforward and manageable steps that you can undertake at your own pace. Remember, any changes, however small, will have a positive effect on your bounce rate, and with a bit of effort, you should start to see results very quickly.

Step #1: Format your content

It is not enough to just provide engaging and relevant content. In today’s increasingly hectic and chaotic world, you also need to make sure that your content is easily digestible. Searchers simply do not have time to read through huge blocks of information, looking for what is relevant to them. The solution to their problem needs to be clear for them to see, even at a cursory glance.

Therefore, any content you post or have on your website needs to be formatted in a clear and concise way. If you are not sure how to make your content easier to consume, then check out our top tips below:

• Use subheadings as these will instantly make your content more “skimmable.”
• Use bullet points to show takeaway points.
• Add images, charts, infographics, and expert quotes to engage with visitors.
• Ask questions to involve the reader.
• Include a call to action at the end.

Top tip: If in doubt, keep your formatting simple, allowing the content to be the focal point.

Step #2: Create a strong CTA

As just touched upon, each piece of content that you post needs to have a call-to-action at the end of it; otherwise, readers do not know what they are supposed to do next. However, you can’t just write any old CTA and expect to see great results. You need to make sure your call-to-action is compelling so that users actively care about what is on the other side of the link.

Anyone can write a strong CTA; you just need to learn how. Take a look at how we write compelling CTAs for our clients that customers are guaranteed to respond well to:

• Start with a strong command verb such as buy, shop, or order.
• Use language that evokes emotions.
• Add an exclamation mark for added interest.
• Clearly demonstrate what the benefit for the user is.
• Take advantage of FOMO (fear of missing out) with limited-time-only deals.
• Create different CTAs for different devices.
• Use numbers such as specific discounts or timeframes.

Top tip: Design your CTA to look “clickable” by using a motion graphic or 3D aesthetic.

Step #3: Tell a story

Never underestimate the importance of telling your brand story when it comes to engaging with your customers. A great product will only get you so far. You need to also find a way to make people invested in your brand. You want them to become loyal customers rather than one-time-only ones.

If you think your website’s content lacks the art of storytelling, it is not too late to make your content more personal and emotive. There are several tried and tested techniques when it comes to effective storytelling, including:

• Focus on your truth. People want to know who you are, what your brand is about, and what your employees are like, so tell them. There is no need to sugar coat this or try and make your brand appear to be something it isn’t. Tell the truth about your business, and you may be surprised at just how relatable you are to your target audience.
• Put the customer first. When telling a story, you need to create content that people will want to share, and this involves creating content that directly relates to them and their lives.
• Choose the right format. Consider whether infographics, articles, case studies, video, or a combination are right for you. The format you choose will be dependent on the content topic, your niche, and where you plan to post it.

Top tip: Think about your brand’s core values when telling your story.

Step #4: Use high-value keywords

Using the right keywords in your content is crucial if you want to reduce your bounce rate and increase conversions. Hopefully, you already have a keyword researchKeyword research helps websites unearth the best keywords to drive traffic and visibility. This research is supported by a number of powerful web-based tools, the best of which we’ve listed here. strategy in place, but if not, don’t worry; you can start now.

Google Ads Keyword Planner should be your go-to tool for carrying out keywordKeywords are the words and phrases that potential customers might search for to find your business. research, and in terms of lowering your bounce rate, you need to focus on optimizing content with high-value keywords as this is where the high-value traffic is.

If you are not sure how to find high-value keywords, or you are not entirely sure what they are, the below should help. There are four key elements to a high-value keyword:

• Traffic value
• ConversionA conversion is a desirable result on a website that leads to an action such as completing an order, filling out a form, or simply clicking on a link. value
• Persona value
• Brand value

In terms of finding high-value keywords that you can rank for, simply follow the below steps:

1. Identify the keywords you are currently ranking for.
2. Use the keyword suggestion feature on Keyword PlannerThe Google Keyword Planner Tool helps you find new keywords and synonyms based on the ones you already rank for..
3. Complete a competitive analysis.
4. Choose topic clusters.

Top tip: Do not overstuff keywords and try to make them sound as natural as possible.

Step #5: Optimize your meta descriptions

A simple step but one that businesses and marketers alike often overlook; you need to optimize your meta descriptions if you want to improve your overall click-through rate.

Search engines use meta descriptions to show searchers a small snippet of what a web page is about and are therefore crucial in helping users determine whether a page is relevant to them or not. Furthermore, as Google shows search terms in bold to clearly demonstrate how a page relates to a search query, a failure to optimize your meta descriptions can result in you losing valuable traffic and confusing users.

As a general rule, when writing a meta descriptionWebsite meta descriptions are used to inform web users on search engines about the content of webpages., you should aim for no more than 155 characters (including spaces) and always include your primary keyword.

Other top tips include:

• Including a call-to-action
• Match search intent
• Use the active voice rather than the passive
• Make every word count

Top tip: Try starting your meta description with a question and then offering your solution.

Step #6: Improve your site speed

The speed of your site is vital in reducing your bounce rate, with every second having a huge impact on how likely a user is to stay on a particular page. On average, searchers expect a web page to load in 2 seconds or under, with three seconds or more significantly increasing the likelihood that a user will leave your site and possibly never return.

If you are not sure how fast your site’s loading speeds are, you can check them manually, or you can use Google PageSpeed Insights. This handy, free tool will not only tell you what your current loading times are but will also offer bespoke advice on how you can improve upon your speed.

Common factors that may be affecting your site’s speed include:

• Heavy CSS and JavaScriptJavascript is one of the web’s key programming languages but coding it incorrectly can cost you in technical SEO terms. In order to avoid common mistakes, and understand how Java operates, here’s a quick guide to coding Java the right way. use
• Poor choice of server and hosting company
• Poor coding standards
• Too many plug-ins and widgets

Fortunately, once you address the above issues, you will find that your page loading speeds improve significantly, and, in turn, your bounce rates will lower.

Top tip: Enable caching to enjoy much faster page loading speeds.

Step #7: Build a responsive website

Can your web pages be viewed perfectly on mobile phones and tablets in the same way that they can on a desktop computer? If not, this could be contributing to your high bounce rate.

Mobile searches are becoming increasingly popular across all demographics, with users using their phones to search the web, browse products and services, and make purchases on-the-go. Therefore, if your site is not digestible in mobile format, you will lose out on valuable traffic.

The simplest way to ensure that your site can be viewed on mobiles and tablets is to build a responsive one. This means that you don’t need to create a separate site that is purely for mobiles.

If you are not sure how mobile-friendly your site is, you can check this manually, or you can use Google’s mobile-friendly test tool. Simply add in your website URL and discover if your site is mobile-friendly or not. If it is the latter, you will also be met with the reasons why your site is not mobile-friendly, with common reasons including:

• The text is too small.
• The linksHyperlinks, also known as links, are the connection points on a webpage that take you to other webpages. are too close together.
• The content does not fit the screen.
• The mobile viewpoint has not been set.

If you are not overly technically-minded or simply do not have the time to build a responsive site, you may want to enlist the services of a professional website designer.

Top tip: Create finger-friendly CTA buttons.

Step #8: Improve the user experience

This may seem obvious, but you will be surprised at just how many businesses make their site all about themselves, rather than what it should be about, the customer. User experience encompasses every single aspect of a user’s interaction with your site, from the first page it is directed to, all the way through to the point of sale.

To improve your site’s user experience, you need to not only focus on the technical aspects of your site, such as the site layout and speed, but also on how your site makes a user feel.

Are they engaged with your brand?

Do they feel satisfied with the page they have been directed to? Or perhaps, they feel let down or confused?

Has your website made their life easier? Or made them feel better about a problem?

These are all crucial questions that you need to address if you want to reduce your bounce rate and increase your number of conversions.

If you want your site visitors to have a great user experience, you need to:

• Know your audience inside out.
• Monitor their behavior on your site.
• See what influences their buying decisions.
• Offer personalized communication and offers.

Top tip: Embrace white space on your site, as this can help make your content more legible.

Step #9: Promote customer testimonials

Customer testimonials can do so much for your business, helping to instill credibility, promote your key selling points, attract your target audience and offer peace of mind to potential customers. In fact, a whopping 97% of consumers say that online reviews influence their purchasing decisions, with 84% saying they trust them as much as recommendations from friends.

That being said, if you think there is not much more you can do with your testimonials other than just place a small quote or two at the bottom of your homepage, you would be mistaken.

Why not try the following?

• Create a video of your most stand-out reviews.
• Use illustrations to drive home your USPs.
• Build a stand-alone testimonial page on your site.
• Add a face to each testimonial.

If you are struggling to get strong testimonials from your customers, it can be a good idea to offer an incentive such as a money-off voucher or coupon so that they feel rewarded for their efforts.

Don’t forget that as well as encouraging good reviews, you also need to make sure that you manage any negative ones. Our Reputation Management campaigns focus on outranking any bad press with a constant stream of great content. We will also monitor all your brand mentions and references, identifying any potential red flags and counteracting them with a tried and tested reputation management strategy.

Top tip: Ask your customers to share specific information about how your products or services have helped them rather than vague, wishy-washy statements.

Step #10: Have a well thought out content strategy

Do you currently have a consistent content marketing strategy? If not, this could be affecting your bounce rate. Some businesses believe (wrongly) that as long as you are producing content, you will drive organic trafficOrganic search traffic (sometimes called natural or unpaid search) is the traffic that's driven to a website because of unpaid placement on a search engine results page. and increase your conversion rateA conversion rate is the percentage of visitors that take a desired action on your site.. However, there is a lot more to successful content marketing than just that.

You need to be consistent in your efforts in order to increase customer engagement and instill trust in your brand. You need to be using different types of content for different platforms — for example, visuals for Instagram and videos for Facebook. You need to generate exciting, relevant, and on-trend content ideas.

The list goes on and on. An effective content marketing strategy takes time, effort, and persistence, but the results will be worth it.

Top tip: Use a content calendar to help plan your content schedule and generate fresh ideas.

Step #11: Showcase your credibility

As touched on above, trust is crucial when it comes to improving your bounce rate, and one way to gain the trust of users is by showing that you are a credible site. There are several ways that you can do this, including the following:

• Showcase any awards or endorsements that you have.
• Make your website secure so that customers feel safe sharing their personal details, such as their credit card information.
• Limit the number of pop-up ads as this can appear spammy.
• Choose a trustworthy domain nameA domain name is the address of a website and is a necessary part of the process of establishing a web presence..
• Have a clear contact us page with a 24//7 live chat feature if possible.
• Display trust seals such as certificates of excellence and 5-star ratings.
• Show off your warranties and guarantees.
• Display testimonials and reviews.

Of course, you also need to ensure that the products and services you offer are of the highest quality and actively deliver on what they promise.

Top tip: Highlight any experts on your team or respected organizations that you are affiliated with.

Step #12: Deliver useful internal links

Internal linking offers a great way to keep users on your site for longer and reduce your overall bounce rate. However, this is only the case if it is done correctly. Many website owners make the mistake of adding as many internal links as possible with no regard to the user experience, which can lead to users feeling frustrated.

Instead, focus on adding relevant and useful internal links that actively enhance the user experience and offer genuine value to your target audience.

Our top tips for internal linking are as follows:

• Use natural-sounding anchor textAnchor text is the text highlighted by a hyperlink. The words highlighted are crucial for SEO, informing Google’s crawling bots about the content of the site linked to..
• Don’t use the same anchor text for two different pages.
• Avoid only linking to the homepage.
• Only link to relevant content.
• Use follow links.
• Place links higher up on the page.
• Avoid using automation tools.

Top tip: You do not have to link to your contact page at the end of every post.

Step #13: Limit promotions

Although you will be hard-pressed to find a blog that doesn’t have some sort of ad or offer in the sidebar, that doesn’t mean that all web pages are suited to promotional content.

Think about what you like when you visit a website for the first time.

Do you want to find the information you want quickly and easily? Or do you want to be overwhelmed by pop-up ads, limited time offers, and award emblems?

Most likely, it’s the former, and the same is true for most searchers. People want content that is highly relevant to their search query, and, if they don’t get it or their view is restricted by ads, they will bounce from your site.

So, what should you include in your sidebar?

Related article recommendations are always welcomed as these have the ability to make your content “stickier” and help showcase your brand as a trusted source of knowledge within your niche. You can also offer newsletter sign-ups, although you must make sure that you do not push these too hard or too fast. Let the reader enjoy your content first, and then ask them to do something else, such as sign up for emails.

Top tip: Exit intent pop-ups are ideal for e-commerce sites that are looking to reduce shopping cart abandonment.

Step #14: Overhaul your product pages

Never underestimate the importance of having great product pages when it comes to reducing your bounce rate and increasing conversions. That being said, knowing what to include on your product pages can be a challenging process.

Too little information and potential customers will be wary of making a purchase. Too much, and you risk them feeling overwhelmed and suspicious of what you are promising.

As a general rule, when you look at the bounce rate for specific pages on your site, you will find that product pages have a slighter higher rate. This is completely normal as not everyone who navigates to a product page is ready to make a purchase. That being said, if your bounce rates on these pages are higher than you would like, there are steps that you can take to reduce them.

These include:

• Adding more information to ‘your product descriptions, especially where the product was made.
• Adding more customer reviews to increase credibility in your products.
• Highlighting a clear call-to-action.
• Activating lift chat on key pages so that customers can get more information if needed.
• Clearly displaying social proof and guarantees.
• Upselling where applicable.
• Always including high-quality images and/or videos.
• Writing compelling product descriptions.

Top tip: Make your product pages simple in layout but interesting in content.

Step #15: Identify your worst pages

If you have checked your site’s overall bounce rate and found it to be too high, it is likely that one or two pages are dragging down your average. Identify these pages, make any necessary changes, and you will find your bounce rate improves significantly.

Common issues that you may want to look out for on these pages include:

• Unappealing design
• Difficult navigation
• Poor or old content
• Intrusive ads
• Spelling and grammar mistakes
• Poor legibility

It can also be a good idea to look at other metrics of these pages, such as how long users spend on the page and whether they are coming away satisfied despite a high bounce rate.

Top tip: Hire a professional content writer if you are struggling to generate fresh content ideas.

Step #16: Create multiple landing pages

Creating landing pages should be one of the most important elements of your digital marketing campaign, allowing you to turn a site visitor into a customer. In terms of reducing your bounce rate, if you look on Google Analytics, you will probably notice that the majority of your site visitors are leaving your site via your homepage. Counteract this issue by creating more landing pages that are based on high-value keywords and then link them all to your homepage.

If you are not sure where to start when it comes to creating optimized landing pages, you can find several free online tools to help you, or alternatively, follow our tried and tested techniques below:

• Create a strong heading that clearly states what you are offering.
• Use trust signals such as testimonials and trust badges.
• Keep any form fields short.
• Customize for different audiences.
• Match your landing page copy with PPC ads.
• Use eye-catching images and color buttons to encourage conversions.

Top tip: Encourage social sharing by including social media buttons on your landing pages.

Step #17: Embed YouTube videos

People love watching videos online. In fact, 89% of video marketers say that video content offers great ROI and 80% state that it has increased their overall sales figures. Furthermore, research shows that by embedding videos on your web pages, you can actively lower your bounce rate and increase the amount of time a user spends on your page.

Although you can choose to make your own videos about elements of your business, such as your products and services, your employees, and any events that you organize, adding videos from YouTube that directly relate to the page in question can also be effective.

If you would like to have a go at creating your own video content, make sure that you stick to our video content creation tips below:

• Create short and sweet titles that include your keywords.
• Add keywords to your video description.
• Use tags.
• Create eye-catching thumbnails.
• Optimize your videos for mobile viewing.
• Make a video sitemapA site map is a list of pages on your site and their relative importance. Use sitemaps to make it easier for visitors to find what they're looking for, and to ensure that search engines can find all the information they need..

Top tip: Don’t forget to analyze your video performance using Google Analytics and YouTube Analytics.

Step #18: Satisfy search intent

Google is by far the most popular and used search engine on the web, receiving an estimated 63,000 searches every second. This means that if you want to increase the amount of organic traffic to your site and reduce your bounce rate, you need to be offering content that gives searchers on Google what they want. In other words, you need to satisfy their search intent.

What is search intent, and why is it so important? Let’s take a closer look.

Search intent, also known as user intent, is the purpose of any online search. It is the “why” of a particular search. If you don’t know why a user is making a specific search, you will struggle to provide them with the content they want and need, resulting in a higher bounce rate and a lower ranking on SERPs.

There are three main types of search intent:

• Informational
• Navigational
• Transactional

On average, 80% of all searches are informational, with the remaining 20% split equally between navigational and transactional intent.

Informational search intent

As the name suggests, informational searches are when a user is looking for information on something. The most effective types of content for informational intent searches are:

1. Blog posts with lists and top tips
2. How-to videos
3. Step-by-step guides
4. Checklists

Navigational search intent

Navigational search intent refers to any searches where the user is looking to reach a particular website or product/service that they are already aware of.

To meet the needs of a searcher with navigational intent, focus on content such as:

• Case studies
• E-books
• Products and services lists
• Webinars
• Online forms

Transactional search intent

Transactional search intent is when a searcher is actively looking to make a purchase. They are highly likely to use phrases such as “where to buy” and “for sale.”

To target transactional queries, look to optimize the following content:

• Product pages
• Pricing pages
• Free consultations
• Sales pages
• Live demos

Top tip: Always make sure that you understand search intent before you start optimizing your content.

Step #19: Fix any technical errors

Technical errors such as broken links and 404 errors can be extremely frustrating for site visitors and create a poor user experience that can contribute to a high bounce rate.

If you think you may have some broken links or errors on your site, you can easily check for these using Google Search Console. Follow the below simple steps:

• Log in to your Google Search Console account.
• Click the site you would like to monitor.
• Click crawl and then Fetch as GoogleFetch as Google is a tool in the Fetch and Render extension that lets you see how your site appears to Google..

It can take Google up to one week to fully crawl your site, and once it is complete, you can check for any issues under Crawl ErrorsGoogle crawl errors are errors that prevent Google from accessing a page. and then fix them.

Alternatively, if you have a WordPress site, you can use the broken link checker, a highly popular plug-in that is very simple to use. Once installed, any broken links will be displayed, and then you have the opportunity to change the URL, remove the link, mark the link as “not working,” or hide it.

It is worth knowing that broken links are inevitable, so you need to make time to find and fix them on a regular basis if you want to keep your bounce rate low.

Top tip: Carry out a full technical SEO audit at least once a quarter to get on the first page of Google.

Step #20: A/B test your site

Last but definitely not least, if you want to know why visitors are bouncing from your site and what makes them stay, you need to A/B test everything.

A/B testing, also known as split testing, is the process involved in comparing two or more versions of your webpage to see which one performs better. During A/B testing, you can show multiple versions of your site to your target audience at the same time by changing different elements of the page, such as your call-to-action, the copy, and contact forms. You can then compare the conversions to see what works best.

If you have not carried out A/B testing before, why not try the below ideas that can help you to generate more leads, reduce your bounce rate, and increase conversions:

• Vary the size of your search bar to improve useability.
• Promote your best-selling products on the homepage to encourage sales.
• Expand your payment options to offer more security.
• Upsell certain products to improve revenue.
• Add a live chat option to see if it increases sales.
• Test different free shipping offers.
• Allow guest checkout to simplify the checkout process.
• Vary your button copy.
• Show and hide pricing to see what works best.

Top tip: Don’t be afraid to experiment when it comes to A/B testing.

Conclusion

You should now have a much better idea about the importance of knowing your site’s overall bounce rate, plus what steps you can take to actively reduce it and enjoy more conversions. Although it may seem like an overwhelming number of tasks, you may be surprised at just how quickly and efficiently you can start checking each step off once you get going.

Alternatively, if you don’t think you have the time or level of expertise for some of the above, why not let our experienced team give you a helping hand?