Eric Strong
If you are hearing a “BOING!” sound coming from your website, that is probably the sound of visitors bouncing off your home page. A bounce rate measures how quickly visitors leave after coming to your website. They don’t interact with your site or visit any of its pages. They just come to your site, don’t find anything they like, and leave. This, of course, is bad…very bad.
So what can you do to lower your bounce rate and make people stick around? Here area a few suggestions.
1. Add a Video
A great way to get people to stick around and interact with your page is to add a video. A short commercial or explainer video explains your product or service in a fun and interesting way. If done well, a video can keep a visitor on your page for a minute or more. That should give you long enough to give your elevator pitch and hook your visitor.
A good video will wet your visitor’s appetite and have them clicking or calling for more information. In fact, according to Social Fresh, videos on landing pages increase conversation rates by 86%!
For more on this, you can read my article on designing a Landing Page.
2. Get Creative
If your website is unattractive, looks out-of-date, or is confusing, people are not going to stick around. A Slide Share study found that 46% of people say a website’s design is their number one criterion for determining the credibility of a company. You can’t afford to have a poorly designed website.
On the other hand, if a site is sleek and modern, people will feel safe and gain confidence in your company. If your site is really creative, people will actually stay longer. Sites that go outside the box in a positive way will have people talking about them and sharing them with their friends. If you don’t believe me, just go check out the Google home page.
Good design goes beyond looks. Good design also takes function into consideration. A website that looks good but is hard to navigate won’t help you either. You need a good balance of beauty and functionality to have a site that successfully lowers your bounce rate.
3. Solid Content
If you want people to stick around, give them a reason to stick around. There’s a little trend going around these days called content marketing. It’s kind of a big deal. If you give your visitors valuable information and resources, they will hang around long enough to read it. It’s sort of like how you are reading this article right now.
Don’t talk about your company’s history or post your latest press release on your home page. Give your visitors helpful information and they will not only appreciate it, but also come back for more. They might even bookmark your website or join your mailing list.
4. Fresh Content
It’s also important to keep your content fresh. This is especially true for returning visitors. If people come to your site and see the same things they saw last time they visited, there won’t be a reason for them to stick around.
However, if you have new content, updated resources, and recent posts, they create a sense of excitement and give visitors new information to look at and digest. In a nutshell, you are giving returning visitors a reason to stick around. Which means more opportunities for you to make a sale.
Fresh content also adds to the pool of resources that you offer your visitors. Even if they don’t have a use for one blog post, they might find another one helpful. Keeping your content updated on a regular basis also helps with SEO
So there you have it. Put these tips to good use and you should see that bounce rate drop lower and lower.
Resources:
https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1009409?hl=en
https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/2525491?hl=en
2014 Marketing Statistics Every CMO Should Know [Infographic]
Digital & Social Articles on Business 2 Community
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