Some industries naturally have higher bounce rates than others. Knowing your industry’s benchmark bounce rate shows how you stack up. The ultimate goal you set for your bounce rate must factor in time spent on page and your ultimate goals for site visitors. Your bounce rate may not be as low as someone else’s — and that’s fine as long as you’re meeting your overall goals as a brand.
Fortunately, no matter what industry you’re in, there are some universal ways to reduce your site’s bounce rate. Studying other brands that likely have slow bounce rates is a way to figure out what elements work toward converting site visitors into customers or subscribers. Here are five examples.
1. Speed Up Your Site
People are impatient and have shorter attention spans than ever before. If your site doesn’t load in a few seconds, visitors will abandon your site and go to one that loads quickly.
Many elements impact the speed of your site. Start with your web hosting provider. Your server speed affects how quickly parts of your page show up. Choose the fastest platform you can afford. You should also optimize images and eliminate elements that bog down your site, such as unnecessary WordPress plugins and JavaScript.
AJokeADay loads lightning fast both on a PC and mobile device. The hallmark of a site optimized for speed is that on the first visit, you see all the elements on the page almost immediately. In a recent report, AJokeADay ranked in the top 100 fastest websites at 863 ms.
2. Add social proof
A site visitor has no reason to trust you or believe what you say. If you want to keep them on the site and get them interested in your offers, you must provide social proof and show that other people who already trust you.
There are a few ways to offer social proof. Add customer testimonials, allow reviews on your products, link up to social media accounts and show how many followers and likes you have and tell visitors how many customers already love your brand.
3. Include a video
Around 90 percent of people feel product videos help them decide on buying. While a product video grabs attention, you can also share video testimonials, brand stories and many other types of videos. A video engages site visitors and offers an additional action, which, in turn, improves your bounce rate.
One Point Partitions offers a video on their landing page highlighting the process and how easy it is to design your partitions for a bathroom or any other use. It shows how easy the partitions are to install, as well, which addresses the concern buyers might have about a complicated installation.
4. Improve user experience (UX)
A user lands on your page and looks at a number of different elements, which all impact the overall experience they have. Improving UX on your website means looking at your site through the eyes of your target audience. Just a few of the elements of UX include:
- Aesthetics of the design
- Size of the font
- Ease of locating navigation
- Clickable links
- A balance of white space and positive space
- Loads fast
Many other features play into the user experience, so go over everything and make adjustments as needed.
5. Revamp your call to action (CTA)
Look at the calls to action (CTAs) on your website. What is their purpose, and do they fulfill that purpose? Study click rates, and if any of your CTAs aren’t performing, change the placement, button color and wording. Conduct A/B split testing and see which CTAs increase your conversions.
Grubhub does an excellent job with their CTAs. When you land on their homepage, they offer you a chance to “Find Food” in your area. The CTA is a bright green, which contrasts with the rest of the page, so it pops. The CTA is self-explanatory and to the point. After a few minutes, a pop-up box appears and offers money off your first order with a CTA that is bright blue against a white background and reads “Save $12 on your first order.”
Focus on Controllable Elements
You’ll never have total control over your bounce rate but making some minor adjustments to your landing page will likely improve your site’s sticky factor. Improving your bounce rate takes time and ongoing effort. Track your site’s analytics and make changes as needed, but don’t stress over minor fluctuations.
This is a guest post by Lexie Lu. Lexie is a web designer and UX strategist. She writes for Marketo, Creative Bloq, Manta, Website Magazine and Cats Who Code. Check out her design blog, Design Roast, and follow her on Twitter @lexieludesigner.