How to improve bounce rate

It is true that having a high number of visits to our website is always good. But we should not rely solely on this figure, as many of our visitors stay less than a minute on our website. And if this percentage is very high, we have a problem.

What is bounce rate?

The bounce rate is the percentage that tells us how many users have left our website without browsing it . That is, users who have not interacted with our site and have remained on it for a very short time, normally between 5 and 30 seconds. This metric, which Google Analytics provides us, indicates how many users do not find the content of our page interesting or have not found what they were looking for. This translates into the level of satisfaction of the users who enter your website and the quality of the visits you receive. However, not all bounces can be considered as such. Everything will depend on the objective of our website. Here an essential factor comes into play for websites dedicated to information (blogs, newspapers, ...): the time spent on the site . And when a user enters a page of this type and remains, for example, five minutes before bouncing, we should not consider it a bounce since the content has interested them enough to spend several minutes reading it.

What bounce rates are considered acceptable?

Assessing the time spent depends on the type of page and our objectives, as we have explained above. If the customer stays five minutes on an article, it is considered that he has read it and, therefore, that the objective has been met. However, if we are in an e-commerce , it can be assessed as the user has not found what he wanted by not interacting or browsing the site. Thus, the bounce rates that are considered acceptable vary according to the content of the website:

- Content pages (blogs, online newspapers, etc.): 40% - 60%

- Landing pages (contact, requests, registrations, etc.): 30% - 50%

- eCommerce: 20% - 40%

- Corporate pages: 15% - 30%

In Google Analytics we can observe in detail the bounce rate of our most visited pages (Behavior > Site content > All pages) . A screen like the one in the following image will appear, which will break down the average bounce rate by URL and the time spent on the page. All of this will help us to identify and discover which page has the problem and, therefore, to analyze why it is not effective in converting the user into a client. In this example, a high bounce rate can be observed:

In the following example, we see the opposite.

Abandoned carts in your online store?

In addition, in the case of e-commerce, it is important to keep in mind abandoned shopping carts. Yes, those are so difficult to remedy. According to studies carried out by Forrester Research & Shop.org and Rejoiner , the rate of abandonment in the purchase process ranges between 55% and 80.3%. And why does this happen? There may be many reasons, but there is no exact formula that guarantees that users will complete their purchase. Although we advise you that if you put the following data into practice, you will gain the trust of your customers:

1. Don't force them to register . They just want to buy, and if you make it easy for them, even better.
2. Inform them as soon as possible of the final price , that is, including shipping costs, VAT, etc. Many times the user reaches the final process just to get an idea of ​​how much they have to pay and not get a surprise.
3. Show certificates and all necessary explanations of your store's secure payment . This will give them much more confidence and decision when it comes to buying.
4. Add all the necessary information and explain any questions you may have: how many days it will take to receive the order, which fields are required to be filled out, etc.
5. Be clear about the different steps of the purchase . Don't make them too dizzy, so they can continue almost automatically. And the shorter, the better.
6. Don't ask for more information than necessary , especially if it's personal. This will generate a lot of distrust.
7. Facilitates payment options .
8. Visualize the contact method (phone, email, etc.). The customer wants to know that if a problem arises, there will be someone to solve it.

We advise you to put yourself in the customer's shoes. Simulate a purchase in your online store objectively, as if it were in another store. Is there something that makes you turn off? This will help you detect the problem more easily and get to know those customers who do not complete the purchase better.

What are the causes and how to improve bounce rate?

Once you've analyzed this data and evaluated it based on your page's goals, it's time to think about where the problem(s) are located.

• Slow loading speed . Although it may seem obvious, we often overlook the fact that our website loads slowly. Consumers are not willing to wait, especially if they access the site from a smartphone or tablet, because they know that there are more pages with the content or product they are looking for. Use Google's Page Speed ​​tool to optimize the loading speed of your website:

• Bad website design. Design helps a lot to improve the user experience. Be organized and clear, do not use very strong colors or animations and pop-ups that distract and cause rejection by the user. Make sure that your website is displayed correctly in all browsers and, of course, that it is responsive. We advise you to take a look at our post on this year's web design trends, it will help you to better plan your site!
• Incorrect use of keywords. This can lead to poor positioning and disappointing users when they enter your site. Don't mislead visitors and choose your keywords carefully, as you will only attract traffic that is not interested in your content. The more targeted our keywords are, the higher the quality of our visits will be. And, of course, check that the titles, headings and other metas make sense and are consistent with the content of your page.
• The content is boring or not interesting. Create quality content that is unique. In the case of an online store, it is not enough to just put the title of the product. Describe it in an attractive way, with clever texts that are not copy and paste and with all the information about it. When buying, the user wants to know all the characteristics of the item they are going to buy. Likewise, the images of the product must be of good quality and not create distrust in the customer.

• Expensive products or services.
• Complex navigation. Use a clean and simple navigation menu, through which users can easily access other content that may interest them, such as this one:

• Poor quality images. More and more importance is being given to the quality of images. If they also have little to do with the text, they will scare away the user. Images are always a good tool to attract new users, as they make the content more agile and give it more life.

The goal of every website is to retain users for as long as possible and build a relationship that lasts forever. If you take into account all the problems on your site, you will be closer to them. You can use several tools to correct them, you will already know Google Analytics, but there are other alternatives, such as Woopra and Clicky , that offer very precise data. We hope that you have found this information useful and that you apply it to your site. Let us know in the comments! And if so, share it on your social networks! We are sure that it will help some of your contacts too ;)