Did you know your website bounce rate can determine your Google search rank? Are you looking to increase your unique visitors while losing fewer potential customers?
Many people on the internet bounce from one page to the next, never finding the right engaging content or attractive design. Your bounce rate tells the web how intriguing your website is to the average user.
Content Square ran a study to find out the bounce rate of any website. The report stated that the bounce rate for any website opened via desktop is 45%. Meanwhile, the bounce rate recorded from mobile and tablets corresponded to 49% and 42%, respectively.
But this rate also varies per industry. For instance, B2B websites get the highest bounce rate of 75% while Energy websites get only a 38% bounce rate. One factor for the higher bounce rate in B2B is the high number of B2B websites published online. Since there are so many options, web goers tend to hop on from one site to another more quickly when they don’t immediately see answers to their questions. Whereas, there are only a few energy websites per location prompting users to browse through their pages more keenly to find what they are looking for.
The numbers are frustrating and getting more difficult to get customers to stay on your website longer when they know that there are millions of other results they can check for their query. But there is definitely a way to make them stay and we’ll discuss them below.
How to Lessen Website Bounce Rate Using Design and Content
The goal is to spark the interest of your web visitors longer than 30 seconds. You don’t want them to just look at the banner on your home page and leave. You want them to go to your services or products pages as well as your contact page. So, how exactly can you make them do so?
Here are some ingenious suggestions to try:
1. Target the Right Audience
It always starts with defining your target market because the appropriate web design and content to use will depend on the type of audience you want to attract.
In simple logic, a shoe lover who’s looking into buying a new pair will search for shoe eCommerce sites. It will not go to food online shops or automotive parts online shop. In a somewhat similar way, automotive parts sellers will design their site a little bit more rustic and professional-looking while shirt and shoe sellers will make theirs more vibrant, colorful, and playful.
The keywords to use in your content will also depend on your target market. You have to rank using the right keywords for your products or services so you can make profits. Otherwise, it will be just another wasted effort.
2. User-Friendly Navigation
Your website will contain loads of information, most especially if you’re going to sell multiple categories of items or services. To prevent making your web visitors confused, you’ll need to give them a map and that map will be your navigation bars or buttons.
As we mentioned earlier, consumers tend to leave the site when they can’t immediately find what they came to the website for. So to engage them beyond the first look at your site, you need to strategically layout your home page and navigation bars and buttons.
Start by writing a compelling copy on your banner that will spark their curiosity and make them want to browse down to find out more. Give them a preview of the solution you offer for their problem, but do not layout you’re your cards at once. Make them crave more information.
Avoid white spaces by using images and graphics or videos that are relevant in conveying your point. It would be better for your images, graphics, and videos to be unique so you can try to capture your images or videos and process them on the photo and video editing software; or creating vector graphics that represent your business. Also, use larger call-to-action buttons that will lead them to your contact or products/services pages.
At the top of our website, be sure to create your navigation buttons. Put them at the bottom of your web pages too so they can easily click from the button and do not need to scroll way back up when they find your home page content convincing.
Remember, your goal here is to convince your audience to stay on your website while making navigation easier for them.
3. Publish a Targeted Content For First Time Visitors
Not all websites have a space or content for new visitors when it is a good opportunity to let them know what there is to offer. One can set up a landing page way past your banner that will lead new visitors to content where you have a rundown of your products and services and all other reasons why they should choose to transact with you over the others.
Another way is to set up a plugin that recognizes a visitor’s exit intent. Take this opportunity to pop up a message that will prompt them to take any action without annoying them. Add a line saying they might have missed looking into a page that may have what they are looking for and place the link to that content. You can also ask them if they want to leave their details so and their recommendations so you can generate an email list and get a clearer idea of what’s making your visitors leave your site.
4. Install a Content Recommendation Tool
Apart from finding out what’s making visitors leave, find out what kind of content they are looking for. There are content recommendation tools you can use to highlight the pages that web goers usually visit on your site. Through this, you can generate more content around that topic or develop that topic by writing-related content that will add value to that original content.
5. Mobile Optimization
Statista noted that there are already 6 billion mobile users around the world. That’s a lot to target. So if you want to convert at least 10% of that population into your customer you have to make your website mobile-friendly.
Making a mobile version of your website is the way to go. Mobile users are more impatient when browsing websites as 5G becomes available. When a website loads too slowly in their 5G devices it only tells them to leave since the site they’re visiting is designed for desktops and will give them a difficult time zooming in and out the screen just to browse through pages.
Key Takeaways
Web design and content have a big influence on the bounce rate of any website. Web design should make the site more appealing, responsive, and easy to use. Meanwhile, content should equip the website with the right copies to convince visitors to stay a little longer and read more about what’s in store for them.
So, if you want to make visitors stay, make some efforts to upgrade your web design and content. If you get the right formula, new visitors will never think of looking away from your site.
AUTHOR BIO
Engineer turned Writer. Donna found a deeper interest in expressing her thoughts through words rather than numbers. With four years of experience, she has now mastered different writing styles. Writing Technology Blogs for the computer software shop Softvire Australia is her latest stint. After work, she morphs into an anime and TV series fan.