How to Easily Reduce Your Ecommerce Store Bounce Rate
If you’re unfamiliar with the term, Bounce Rate is an analytics expression used to describe a single-page or non-interactive website visit. A bounce is when a user visits a website from google or another channel, browses only one page, fails to interact, then leaves. The more this happens the higher a bounce rate is.
In most cases, a high bounce rate can hurt you because you want visitors to convert past the homepage or landing page they arrive on. While it can be difficult to pinpoint the exact reason for a higher bounce rate, it does act as a solid indicator of general engagement and satisfaction. When it comes to google rankings, the bounce rate is important, but not a signal that directly sways SEO. Lowering your bounce rate won't guarantee a better google ranking but will positively affect the experience visitors have on your website.
Before we dive into how to reduce your bounce rate, it’s important to remember that the goal of a lower bounce rate statistic is to increase engagement and satisfaction, not just lower the rate. Working to reduce bounce rate only works with active efforts to engage users in new and unique ways. Giving users what they want and enjoy is the ultimate goal. The following techniques are some of the most effective and simple methods we've found to lower that bounce rate and re-engage your audience.
Page Speed
We live in an age of instant gratification and digital connectivity. This means that users expect your website to load quickly and clearly to meet their needs. Any content or page assets that take too much time to load discourages people from continuing their browsing experience. Optimizing page speeds improves the user experience and boosts google rankings, making it one of the most straightforward and cost-effective tools to combat bounce rate.
Expand Intent Satisfaction
Once you’ve nailed the speed down, another relatively simple method to understand why users are leaving the site begins with re-evaluating your intent satisfaction. This refers to insights or the ability to satisfy people who are visiting your site. Knowing exactly what people are looking for and need helps facilitate meaningful conversions rather than encouraging people to search somewhere else. The best way to satisfy intent starts with:
A deep competitive analysis: Before diving into the specifics of content and intent, it’s important to conduct deep competitive analysis. Identify and obtain information about your competitors. Evaluate their strategies, strengths, and weaknesses relative to your brand. This, on top of mapping out a detailed customer journey and persona, will give you a foundation on which to base your efforts off.
Answering questions: Reframing content in a way that it responds to the questions and demands of customers will draw them in further and encourage them to stay on the page longer. Naturally, the more precise, relevant, and complete the content is, the deeper the intent satisfaction will be.
Linking to related content: You have undoubtedly read a blog or website description with highlighted and hyperlinked words. Including external and internal links to other website pages or content encourages users to follow a train of related content. Out of natural interest, people tend to browse longer and more attentively when they find relevant or similar resources to explore.
Provoking CTA’s
Determining the most effective calls to action should come naturally after conducting customer research and competitive analysis. CTA’s that clearly satisfy the intent and include ranking keywords are the most effective and simple way to capture engagement and lower your bounce rate. To explore what keywords you rank for, delve into Google Search Console or Ahrefs keyword explorer tools.
Inverted Pyramid Writing
Engaging copy should hook and encourage people to dive deeper and want more. The inverted pyramid style of writing starts with a lead, quick answer, or hook, followed by details that relate to a promised outcome or revealed truth. This grabs the reader and forces them to keep reading to hopefully uncover the figurative pot of gold or tidbit of information they seek at the end of the rainbow. There is nothing better than engaging content that draws people in and looks great at the same time.
Simplify Site Searching
The more obvious and accessible your site’s search features are, the easier it is for users to find what they're looking for rather than going back to google and searching it. If they search on your site, that means they are engaging in other relevant pages that reduce the bounce rate. This is especially important if you have a heavy site with a lot of products and pages that take time to manually find without searching
Engaging Media
Adding engaging video, images, illustrations, and infographics appeals to the visual attraction all users share. No matter what your brand or industry is, brainstorm ways to visually represent who you are and how your products or services apply to your target audience. Professional videography and photography can make the world of difference in drawing people in and keeping them entertained longer than normal. In most cases visuals speak louder than words, so don’t miss out on the opportunity.
Reduce Rage and Dead Clicks
The last of our tips to reduce bounce rate pertains to rage and dead clicks. These are when people attempt to click on an element, button, image, or button that they believe to be linked, when in fact it is not. Tracking these areas and elements can be done through free software like Microsoft Clarity, which provides heat maps of where clicks take place. Fixing these elements so that they are clickable will only work to improve the bounce rate and engagement.
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