Business Blog:
Get That Bounce Rate Down
So you’ve done it – you’ve finally launched your start-up’s website. First off, congratulations! It’s pretty hard to overestimate the importance of having a website in today’s business world; no matter what industry you’re in, it’s pretty much a necessity.
Now that your website is online, the next thing you’re probably thinking is: ‘How do I get people to visit it?’ There are plenty of things you can do, such as advertising and social media – which we’ve covered previously – but we’re going to focus on one aspect in particular in this blog post… Lowering Bounce rates. If you’re not sure what bounce rates are, don’t worry, it’s pretty straightforward. Basically, they correlate to how much time people spend on your website. If someone leaves your website almost immediately after landing on it without interacting, that’s a bounce.
Keeping your website’s bounce rate down is great for a number of reasons. On a basic level, a low bounce rate means that people are engaging with your website and business – which we’re sure is something you want! – but it can also improve your ranking on search engines such as Google. So it’s definitely something worth keeping an eye on! (We should also mention that Google Analytics is a fantastic tool for checking your website’s bounce rate – and it’s free and easy to integrate. If you can’t see what your bounce rate is, it’s impossible to know whether you’re making any progress.)
If you’re ready to get your bounce rate down, read on!
Get To The Point
Make sure your website is clear in what it’s about, basically. The number one reason for high bounce rates is the fact that most of us have a super short attention span in the technological age. If someone lands on your website and immediately finds it too complicated, unclear or confusing… Then yeah, they’re gonna leave.
You need to make sure your website gets straight to the point. The landing page should outline what your business is about, preferably in as concise a manner as possible. Even if you’re offering exactly what a specific visitor is looking for if you make it an unnecessary challenge for them to find out the information they’re after then they’ll just go somewhere else. The main reason people use business’s websites is to get the info they quickly and conveniently. So why make things more complicated than they need to be?
Avoid Sameiness
It’s important to make sure your website isn’t too samey. There are plenty of great places online that make creating your business’s website a complete doddle – Squarespace and WordPress, off the top of our heads – so launching a site has never been easier. Just pick out a template, whack together a little of text and you’re ready to go, right?
While there’s nothing wrong with templates – they do make life a lot easier – you need to make sure your website has a personal touch. If you do choose to make your website through an online resource like Squarespace or WordPress, you need to make sure it doesn’t look lazy or exactly like someone else’s site. A lot of these website templates have probably been used dozens of times before by other people, remember. Just adding a few images and playing around with the elements – whether it be side-bars, headers or whatever – can help make things pop a bit more.
A bit of further reading:
Paaaageee Spppeeed
Slow is a no-go, basically. As we mentioned earlier, most people these days have incredibly short attention spans, so you need to make sure your site is quick. If it takes too long to load then they’ll go look somewhere else for what you’re offering. It may sound a little ridiculous, people being so impatient, but it’s something we’ve all been guilty of sometime in the past.
But how can you make your website run faster? Well, while you have no control over your visitors’ Internet speed, there’s plenty of other stuff you can do. For one, make sure your website isn’t too bloated. Tying to our first point (about getting to the point), make you don’t fill your site with too much unnecessary fluff, whether that be pages or large image and video files. Stripping your website back a bit is only going to have a positive impact.
Update It Regularly
A great way to keep people coming back to your website – which will also do wonders for your search engine rankings – is to update it on a regular basis. While it may be tempting to put your website together, triumphantly say, ‘Done!’ and then not touch it for a few years, we don’t recommend it.
On a simple, kinda obvious level, it’s important to update your website quickly when certain aspects of your business change, whether it be contact information or the services you offer. On a slightly more complicated level, having something like a blog can create an incentive for people to come back, creating an interactive, ever-changing element. Doing so will not only help out your website in the search engine ranking and bounce rate departments, but it’ll also help keep your business in your customers’ minds, making it a part of their regular life in some way. And all from a simple blog post every now and then… Pretty sweet, right?
Revamp Your Look
You know the old saying, ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover?’ While it’s a great sentiment – and one we urge everyone to live by – it’s not one that a lot of people follow… Which means that an ugly website is a lot like a book with an ugly cover: people aren’t going to stick around long enough to discover whether it’s actually worth their time.
That’s why it’s important to ensure that your brand’s logo is super-slick – because a good logo can speak a thousand words. If people think your logo looks disastrous, then they’re unlikely to stick around long enough to figure out whether your business’s website worth their time. Securing a good logo (say, with us at Do More Design) can be a great way to ensure you create that killer first impression with visitors to your website. Make sure people hang around long enough to give your website a shot and give your book a new cover!
So what do you think? Do you have any killer tips we’ve missed when it comes to squashing high bounce rates? Let us know – connect with us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram (or all of them!)
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