WHAT IS YOUR BOUNCE RATE?

Are you aware of your bounce rate? Your Bounce rate is the percentage of users who view only one page on your Website before they "bounce" off to another Website.

If you are not aware of what your rate is, we recommend you find out now. Most Website traffic analytic software will provide you with your bounce rate, if you don't have one available we recommend you install Google Analytics - It's free and extremely useful. Contact us if you would like help integrating Google Analytics into your Website.

Once you have access to your Website analytics, review those pages that have the most page views on and see what the bounce rates are for each. Also take note of the bounce rate on your homepage.

Pages with a high number of page views combined with a high bounce rate mean you need to take action! It's hard enough to get a visitor on your Website; there is no good reason why they should leave after seeing only one page…

When your bounce rate is high, it may be due to a number of factors:

1. Your Website is not organized properly - visitors cannot find what they are looking for
2. The graphic design is over the top, poorly created or makes reading content difficult
3. You are not offering any compelling or unique content
4. The visitor may have bookmarked that particular page and visits it for updates (i.e., book marking a weather forecast page, stock market quote page or sports update page)
5. Poorly executed search engine optimization where your site is being returned in search results for keywords that don't directly relate to your business

To address your bounce rate you need to be creative and analytical at the same time. You need to understand what your visitors are looking for and how. Don't be afraid to talk to your customers and colleagues to get their opinion and perspective. You may also consider providing a Website feedback button that encourages visitors to comment on their experience.

Reducing your bounce rate will take time and effort. As a general rule of thumb, strive to get your bounce rate down to 25%. Anything over 50% means there is more work to be done!