Why does bounce rate matter?
When a user (e.g., customer, prospect, or reader) visits your site on any page (known as an entrance page) and leaves without visiting other pages on the same domain, that’s a bounce. Your bounce rate is the percentage of all users who enter and exit on the same page, without any clicks to other pages on your site.
This matters because if you have a high bounce rate it means you’re not attracting the right site visitor or the visitors coming don’t have a good user experience.
1. Improve Content Readability
A customer has a good experience when the content is well organized and easy to read (7th grade level). A great way to improve readability is to use subheadings (H2, H3, H4, etc.) when formatting your page. This allows the reader to see the breakdown of content easily on your page.
Bullet points are a great way to showcase the most important parts of your page. Once your content is written, pick out the key benefits you want your audience to takeaway and make a bullet point list. This allows the reader to easily digest the content and to remember the most important aspects of your page.
2. Use plenty of charts, images, screenshots and quotes where appropriate.
One way to gain the readers attention is to use visual aids within the content of your page. Many readers remember the visual aspects more than the written content. Images, charts, or screenshots can help explain complex material or be an aid that provides more detail to the content already written.
3. Bold keywords when necessary
Bolding keywords can help showcase the primary focus and topic of your page but don’t overdo it. You only want to bold your keyword 2-3 times in the entire body of the page, it doesn’t have to be every keyword. Use it sparingly but effectively.
4. Use bullet points to explain benefits or points worth noting to break up paragraphs of text
5. Use storytelling to captivate your audience
People are wired to remember powerful stories and adding them to your content can help bring your brand to life according to Adam Toren. Not only does storytelling help your page but it also appeals to the emotions of the user. A great story alone can create a great page of content that will help improve your bounce rate and time on site.
6. Ask questions in your content
By asking multiple questions in your content you are giving readers an invitation to participate, instead of just reading your content.
7. End your content with a subheading entitled “conclusion.”
This tells the reader to quickly read the last few words and take action. It is important that once a customer finishes the content on your page they have an actionable step that will drive them deeper into your funnel to becoming a customer. The largest mistake you can make is giving a customer a great page but with no action for them to take.
8. Add videos to your content
Another great way to keep users from exiting your page is to give them something to do and what is better than watching a video? A video can be an extremely powerful piece of content to enhance your page and even your rankings. If you are adding a video make sure it is:
- Relevant to the primary keyword of the page
- Structured properly to include video schema
- 30 seconds – 3 minutes long
- Embedded straight on your page and not just a clickable link
- Checkout our blog post on the exact steps you need to take to get your videos to rank on Google.
9. Use bright colors that grab the users attention
Colors play a large part in the user experience of your page. When creating your landing page make sure to use bright colors that will grab the users attention and make them want to stay on the page. With properly structured content, bright colors, and visual aids a user will be more inclined to spend time exploring your website instead of bouncing.
10. Increase Page Load Time
Page load time plays a large role in the bounce rate of your page. According to Kissmetrics 47% of consumers expect a page to load in 2 seconds or less. It is vital that your page loads quickly on all devices because all it takes is a few seconds for a customer to click out and find a new page.
11. Set external links to open in a new window
One of the biggest mistakes marketers make is having external links open in the same window. Sometimes a reader just wants to view more information but not lose the page they are currently on. By allowing external links to open in new windows you are making sure the customer doesn’t leave the page until they are ready to exit.
12. Create a Good Call-To-Action (CTA)
A good call to action can make all the difference when trying to convert your page views into customers. But creating the best CTA isn’t just a catchy sentence. Below are a few tips you want to use when crafting the perfect call to action:
- Have multiple CTA’s that allow the customer to navigate to different areas on your site.
- Position the first CTA above the fold of the page so the reader is able to take action within 3 seconds.
- Make sure the CTA is relevant to the users reading your content.
- Your CTA should compel users to NEED to see what is on the other side of the button.
- Use a color opposite of the color palette of your page so it stands out to the reader.
13. Add helpful internal links to your content
Adding internal links to your content can help navigate the reader to other parts of your website that may meet their needs more than the current page they are on. Within your page make sure you are linking to other service lines, products, or further information that could drive the reader closer to becoming a customer.
14. Make sure to use relevant anchor text
Using proper anchor text makes a large difference in your content. Anchor text can provide both search engines and users relevant contextual information about the content of the link’s destination. A great example of relevant anchor text is using the keywords you are trying to rank for. Example: Hospital SEO Agency is one of our keywords that we link to our healthcare marketing landing page.
15. Test your content
Once your page is completed it is a good idea to test it using read-able.com This website will tell you how readable your site is and what needs fixed in order to have a page easy enough for a user to digest.
