What is bounce rate – 7 ways to improve

These days the current competition renders web analytics as an indispensable tool for business owners. One of its handy features Bounce Rate. Today, we would like to introduce the topic and provide some hints on how to benefit from it to help you grow your enterprise.

Bounce Rate – table of contents:

1. Definition
2. How to improve Bounce Rate?
3. What is the difference between bounce rate and exit rate?

Definition

Bounce rate tells you what percentage of users have entered a site and then abandoned it, i.e. left without taking any further action on it. The rate is calculated by dividing the number of sessions with abandonment by the number of all sessions.

The statement that the higher the bounce rate, the worse the website is not entirely true. It all depends on the nature of the site, its design, industry, or even the expectations of the audience. For example, blogs or news sites may have higher rates. However, it does not mean that the server was not interesting for them. It may be that on the first page they found the answer to the question they were looking for.

How to improve Bounce Rate?

Factors that increase Bounce Rate are:

• slow page loading,
• too many pop-ups,
• not adhering to UX principles,
• offering poor quality content,
• lack of responsiveness,
• Visible blank pages,
• technical errors,
• poorly configured Google Analytics.

If a high Bounce Rate is detrimental to your business, you can follow the tips below:

1. Study the information which pages users leave most often.
2. Combine the bounce rate data with information about the time a user spends on the page. If, for example, the time spent on a blog is very short, it may mean that the content is not captivating for the recipient.
3. Checking other reports available in Google Analytics, e.g. to find information about the bounce rate on particular hardware
4. Optimize your website for mobile devices
5. A lot of benefits may come from A/B tests, i.e. showing one-half of the users a different website than the rest of them see it. In this way you can find out which version of the site is more attractive and keeps the recipients for longer
6. Include CTAs
7. Make sure the meta title and meta description describe well what the user is likely to find when they enter the site

What is the difference between bounce rate and exit rate?

The exit rate tells you what percentage of all page views on a site, are the last page views in a session. However, the bounce rate focuses on the percentage of pages that were the only pages visited by users.

Remember to consider the bounce rate when analyzing a website. With correctly interpreted results, a business can improve conversions within their site.

Read: How to increase conversion in your e-store

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