Why you should watch your Website’s bounce rate.
Normally when people discuss their websites stats, most people talk about how many hits their website has received over a period of time. Hits in this regard, means the number of times your website or more specifically your Webpages were visited. This stat used to be important once upon a time as it was used to suggest how successful one’s website was, however, when it comes to getting visitors nowadays it’s become a bit more complicated than that.
Today, with tools like Google Analytics monitoring various metrics and providing us with reports we can see how these sites are actually performing. In amongst all the various stats we need to monitor, we find that one of the most important ones often gets overlooked, your bounce rate.
What is a bounce rate?
Bounce rate is a measure of the number of visitors that landed on your site and simply left without even awarding you with a single click. This stat is very important because it depicts the perspective of the visitors “I came, I saw nothing worthwhile so I left”. There can be various reasons behind a high bounce rate:
– Your keywords could be targeting the wrong audience. It’s important that not only people come to your website but the right people come. If your keywords are attracting the wrong audience, it could mean your target audience aren’t finding you.
– It could be that you have weak calls-to-action. If a user lands on your website and the next step isn’t obvious, or they can’t easily find what they’re looking for, they’ll be leaving in search of an easy-to-use competitor.
– If your visitor is on a mobile device and your website isn’t responsive, it can be a chore to use. Users don’t have much patience these days and will leave before any interaction is made.
Your bounce rate is one of the measuring sticks of quality. Having a lower bounce rate means a higher quality website and also makes for better search engine rankings.
How high is too high?
As Google Analytics allocates percentage to the bounce rate of each website, one important thing to consider is where a particular visitor is coming from. Since the quality of traffic that is being sent to your website can vary, you’ll never achieve a perfect score but the analytics can provide you with a good idea of consumer behavior. Generally, anything that spans between 55% – 70% is higher than average and will need to have the cause investigated, although it should definitely be fixable. Anything above that however, and you should consider a full overhaul of your website.
A bounce rate of about 40% and under is great and it’s what we strive for at Estate Apps, but if you’re sitting somewhere between 40% and 55% you’re doing about right.
No need to panic
Even if your bounce rate has hit an all-time high, don’t start tearing your hair out! The information provided by Google Analytics, in the right hands, can be used to enhance your website. With a bit of professional guidance ,you should be able to address the existing issues, be that the content or the website structure, and start getting better results from your online presence.
Having a better bounce rate means your visitors are more engaged with your business. More engaged visitors means a better performing business which in turn leads to more sales. So keep an eye on those percentages!
Want some more information or a push in the right direction? Give us at Estate Apps a call and we’ll see how we can help.
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