I’m working on reducing bounce rate for a website and came across this article, thought I’d share! original can be found here.

We’ve discussed bounce rate numerous times, yet we find that we continue to get asked questions about bounce rate and why it is a metric that should be a regular part of a client’s dashboard when reporting on the success of online campaigns (organic or sponsored).

So before we dive deeper into how to reduce bounce rate, here again is our definition of bounce rate:

Bounce Rate: the percentage of web site visitors who arrive at an entry page on your web site, then leave without visiting any other pages or leave without going any deeper into the site. Bounce rate is typically measured as a percentage. The lower the bounce rate that you have the better as this is an indicator of how users are engaging with your website.

In order to understand bounce rate, you must identify it within your site analytics. Google Analytics makes this easy by placing bounce rate as default item on your main analytics dashboard. This says something in itself, if Google has included bounce rate as a metric on the dashboard, they must think that bounce rate is a fairly important metric right? Well in fact it is a key metric when measuring user engagement on your site. A high bounce rate is a good indication that users are not finding the information that they are looking for and as a result are not proceeding any further.

What is a Good Bounce Rate Anyways?

Great question. We’re glad you asked. As with many items in the world of SEO and organic search, the answer is it depends. Obviously a lower bounce rate is better, but bounce rate averages can vary by industry or type of site. Sites that are information portals will most likely have lower bounce rates than sites that feature limited content. The fact is that bounce rate is affected by the user’s intent. That is, based on the user’s query did they find the information that they were looking for? For example let’s say you were looking for information about the TV program Las Vegas and you typed in “Las Vegas” in a search engine. You would no doubt receive a lot of Las Vegas (the city) related sites and potentially you might even be returned with a result that talks about the TV show albeit briefly. You might click through to some of these sites but unless the information that you were looking for about the show is present you would most likely revisit the search results page and/or re-enter a more specific search query. The bounce rate of the sites that you did click through would be affected as you were unable to find the information that you were looking for.

So to answer the question, what is a good bounce rate, generally speaking if you have a bounce rate that is in the 40-50% range that is not bad. If you manage to have an overall bounce rate that is in the 30-40% that is fantastic. As Avinash Kaushik states “a 35% bounce rate is very good…” We’ll add that anything less is pretty spectacular. For the record, we’ve worked with clients and have helped them lower their bounce rates to less than 20% and in some cases to 7 or 8% which is quite exceptional.

So the question becomes, how do we lower bounce rate?

Five Ways to Lower Bounce Rate

Provide Relevant Content – seems simple enough doesn’t it? Well then why are so many sites not doing it and why are people abandoning sites soon after arriving on them? If you are going to optimize a webpage, do it right. When writing copy, consider your audience. Use their language not yours, which leads us to point #2.

Use the Language of your Target Audience – do you really think that using the fancy industry lingo is always the way to go? Well sometimes, but many times your target audience may be versed in an entirely different language… that is their own language. Corporate or industry speak may not always be the same language that your target audience uses or is looking for. Work to understand your target audience and the terminology that they are using. If your content can speak to your site visitors, your bounce rate will decline significantly.

Have Clear Navigation – if you are lucky enough to have a user find your site through Organic Search, treat them well. Every site page that you makes up your site, should have clear and intuitive navigation to guide the user through their site experience. Capture their interest and guide them with a well interlinked site to assist them in finding all of the information they are looking for. If they expect to see pricing on the site, be sure to provide them with this information. Someone who performs a search for “CRM pricing comparisons” expects to find a page that features jus that, comparisons of CRM (software) pricing.

Provide Ample Content – whether in the form of page copy, images, video etc. Be sure to provide sufficient content to your site visitors. If you have a page about green widgets, make sure that you have some information on green widgets. Here’s a hint, product or vendor comparisons work well, as do consumer reviews, pricing and shipping information. Having a brief sentence or two just doesn’t cut it. Try to have a minimum 300-400 words of content on your site pages.

Update Your Content – if you have content that is dated, consider adding some new information. Check your analytics to see which pages have the highest bounce rate and revisit the page copy for these pages.

There are a number of ways to improve (lower) your bounce rate. As you can see many of the easiest ways to reduce your bounce rate is through your content. In the world of Search, content is king for a reason. Use relevant and informative content to reduce the bounce rates of your site pages because if you don’t, your competition definitely will. The Searcher will eventually find what they are looking for. Why not keep them engaged on your website?

I’m sure this isn’t a new topic, but I thought I would talk a little bit about brand management online for small businesses.  Many small businesses believe that because they are not using the internet that their business is not being talked about online. This is frankly stupid.  There are many sites out there like yelp and zagat that allow users to create profiles for businesses, services, restaurants, etc. and then vote on their experiences. Also people have their own blogs (like this one!) where they can rant and rave about the guy they bought their new car from or the mom & pop coffee shop they went to last week.  And this doesn’t include forums, wikis, twitters, facebooks, and what have you that let people say pretty much whatever they want.  In other words, just because you are not online talking about your small business doesn’t mean that other people aren’t.  To that end you need someway to monitor what people are saying about your company, or website (if you have one) online.  There are a couple of options here: 1. would be to spend every hour of every day doing google searches, crawling over tweets, facebook, yelp, and all of those other sites mentioned above 2. pay someone to do this for you 3. dupe an intern into doing this for you 4. pick up some software that you have to pay for to do it 5. use Google Alerts.  For most small businesses options 1-4 are pretty prohibitive.  So I’m gonna talk about Option 5.  Google Alerts. Alerts is a free system provided by Google that allows you to enter various keywords and then get either a daily digest or an instant email when something is posted with those keywords.  So what I usually do for my clients is to create a Google Alert with their company name inside of “”. This means that by and large if someone write an article, posts on a forum, etc with that company name I will get an email about it. (I usually create these an instant alerts as I want to know ASAP when someone comments about a client). Now sometimes these will not be talking about your business especially if you have a common word as your company name or if it is a common company name.  But the nice things is that these alerts work just like google so if the company was AlteredGames and it is based in Missoula, the alert would be “AlteredGames” + Missoula. This would return all mentions of AlteredGames and Missoula.  You could also add other identifiers so you knew it was your company.  Next I like to set up an alert or two that is a daily digest and is more concerned with the industry or area. So if we were doing a restaurant in Missoula, the alert might be: “local restaurants” + Missoula. This just lets me monitor what’s being said about the general area, and may provide some good places to drop a link or a comment about the business to help drive traffic.

These are just a few tips for a very powerful tool that Google provides. The biggest thing is just to remember, if you are doing your job right SOMEONE is talking about you online even if you aren’t. And in this day and age it is important if you are not the one leading the conversation that you are at least aware of what is being said.

I was watching some TV Saturday morning, and caught bits of a new “dance” flick on MTV.  The basic premise (this will come into play in a minute) is that a gorgeous dancer obsessed with Disco meets a guy looking for a theme for a new nightclub. One thing leads to another and they decide to open a disco themed nightclub.  The problem is that really except for the music (which they remix) and a bit of a choreo’d dance number there is nothing that looks like DISCO in the club. (Oh! except the name: INFERNO. get it? disco inferno. ha! ugh.) If you are working on any project, brand, product, et cetera and you are going to pick a theme, especially one like DISCO, you must commit 120% to that theme.  It’s like a wedding, if you tell everyone you’re doing a vintage hollywood theme, and the only nod to that theme is a picture of a Cary Grant in the bathroom, everyone is gonna ask: “Where’s the Hollywood theme?” Now if the groomsmen had fedoras, there is choreo’d dance to “singing in the rain”, a red carpet, etc. Now you’re getting there. A Theme like any element of a brand is a promise to the customer. They look and want that theme, that is why they chose your event, your product, et cetera.  ESPECIALLY in a nightclub! The simple head nod to a theme, makes one feel that you just don’t care. You call you club Mardi Gras, I want to see beads, Hurricanes, doubloons, masks, costumes, jazz, and so much purple, green, and gold that it makes me want to puke!   When working on your theme, do not exist in a bubble, ask friends, associates, family, and everyone else, what they see in the decorations, and in the font of the adverts.  Try not to ask them: “Do you see Disco?” this leads them to a predetermined answer. Instead just ask them: “What comes to mind here?” If their answer isn’t your theme right away, then make some changes and try again.  Even in a corporate environment people are less likely to take it as a joke and make lame comments around the water cooler if you fully commit to the theme. The more committed you are to theme, the more committed they become.

To start, some people may have noticed that I took the Business out of the subtitle of this blog. This is because I have decided to expand the thoughts that I’m writing about beyond JUST business. There will still be business elements mentioned on this site so please check back for those, but I will also be talking about movies, books, events, games, and other thoughts. I have also started up alteredgames.com which will be focusing more on the ARG industry and how it is evolving and how I am getting involved there.

I thought I’d start off with the movie “Whip It” that I decided to grab from the red box last night (by the way, LOVE the Redbox! Especially the iPhone App for it).  It’s the one directed by Drew Barrymore and starring Ellen Page.  It was a fun little flick about a teen growing up in a small town in TX with a mom obsessed with pageants and how she discovers roller derby.  This movie was fun, nothing amazingly stellar, I didn’t immediately begin to question my own life, future, relationships or any of that. But it did help to reinforce my love of movies (and also books, comics, etc).  Because no matter how bad your day was, how the bills are piling up, etc. You can come home open that book, turn on that tv program and forget about it for a bit.  These things build even if temporarily a little protected sub universe where we can just enjoy the moment without the stress of everything else. And if we move beyond this we start to look forward to it.  Sitting at your office desk, dealing with stressed out coworkers, and whiny clients, there can be a certain reassurance in knowing that there is a new episode of Castle on that night. Which means curling up on the sofa with someone you care about and getting a chance to laugh, cry, or whatever your particular evening poison is.  So what am I trying to say? I guess a few things: 1. you creative types, keep on doing what you’re doing. Whether it’s writing, filming, broadcasting, what have you. Keep doing it to give us that escape and that Hope we so desperately want. 2. Take time to smell the roses. As they say: man, does not live by bread alone.  If you’re at work and stressed, just remember there is that simple pleasure of a book at home, or a store full of movies waiting for you to lose yourself in their action, drama, relationships, loves, jokes, et cetera.