Do you understand what is bounce rate?
If you are anything like myself. That would means that you are always checking your stats to see where you can improve on.
One of the components I like to know is my bounce rate. Let me explain what is bounce rate…
It is a measurement in percentage of visitors who landed on your page and left without doing any activity. What I mean by activity, staying on your page to read your content or clicking on other links.
By having a high bounce rate that would mean that the information you are presenting is not relevant to the individuals that landed on your page.
What gives you a bounce rate:
- When the browser window is closed or the tab
- When a new URL is typed immediately visiting your page
- When someone leaves the page by clicking the back button
Now, as an internet marketer you want to know how to lower your bounce rate. When you have a lower bounce rate that means your visitors are staying on your page and you are able to convert.
According to Avinash Kaushik, Google analytics specialist - “It is really hard to get a bounce rate under 20%, anything over 35% is cause for concern, and 50% (above) is worrying.”
How you can check your bounce rate:
- Have Google analytics installed on your blog/site
- Check your traffic stats on Alexa.com
Let me share with you, how you can CONTROL your bounce rate:
- Have relevant Content – By you having relevant content for your visitors. You will have a less chance of the visitor leaving your blog/site. If your blog is about copywriting and you are not talking about copywriting, then you will have a high chance of having a visitor leaving your blog for lack of information.
- Reducing blog load time – Most visitors today don’t have patient to sit and wait for a page to load. Therefore, by reducing your load time will help out. Here is a plugin that was mentioned on what are the favorite wordpress plugins it is W3 Total Cache.
- Proper Linking – Have proper linking within your post to other post or pages that are related. Make sure to have an easy navigation flow to avoid frustration.
- Don’t forget above the fold rule – You should have your important information above the fold. I’m going to include your opt-in have it above the fold. Above the fold means the section of the page showing without having to scroll down.
Here is a video that I came across done by Avinash. This video is created in 2007. However, it does contain some valuable info on bounce rate.
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Hi Josh,
Our aim should be to keep readers at our sites for as long as possible so lowering our bounce rate is a critical factor. All of your points to help with this are important although I think the first is probably the most important factor. Excellent value as usual. Thank you.
~Marcus
.-= Marcus Baker´s last blog ..Free Tweak Guaranteed to Increase Referrals to Your MLM Blog =-.
Hi Marcus,
It is important to keep an eye on this since it will affect your conversion.
Hi Josh,
Thanks for sharing the video and your tips to decrease bounce rate.
Keeping the essentials above the fold has helped me. Make your site reader friendly, keeping your audience in mind with each tweak you make.
Ryan Biddulph
.-= Ryan Biddulph´s last blog ..4 Oversights Which Prevent Readers from Seeing Your Blog =-.
Hi Ryan,
It does make it reader friendly. The same goes when creating a capture page. You want as much info above the fold.
Josh,
After we spoke 2 weeks back I made some of these improvements because of my bounce rate.
I started to include revelant posts inside the post my most current post.
I also remove some of my affiliates that were in my column which were making my page slower.
The last thing was taking my video off of autoplay because people may be eager to leave if your video continuously plays each time they check a page on your blog.
Thanks Josh for this great post!
Tommy D.
.-= Tommy DiPietro | MLM Prospecting Hero´s last blog ..MLM Sales Strategy For Your Home Based Business Top Five Ways To Have An Impact in Forum Marketing =-.
Hi Tommy,
That is awesome that you made changes to help out your bounce rate. It will affect your opt-in rate.
Love the video on bounce rate. I am working hard on improving my bounce rate and doing a decent job (about 12% BR drop in last month).
I am a fan of metrics and love to use stats to improve things. Your tips are great and should be very helpful to people trying to improve their BR.
Thanks
Steve
.-= Steve´s last blog ..Info Income Coaching Class Week 10 =-.
Hi Steve,
Bounce rate is something that I like to monitor every 2 weeks to once a month.
Hi Josh,
Thanks for sharing this information! I was doing some research and trying to found out if my bounce rate was okay. I think I’m doing pretty good. Thanks for helping me understand bounce rate better. The video is very helpful too!
Take care,
Evelyn
.-= Evelyn´s last blog ..Numbers Don’t Matter- People Do =-.
Hi Evelyn,
You have a low bounce rate. That is awesome!
Hi Josh,
Thanks for this awesome information! I have been watching my bounce rate and I definitely need to lower it. Working on it.
Great post!
Ilka
.-= Ilka Flood´s last blog ..Building Your Network Marketing Business is Not a Sprint – It’s a Marathon =-.
Hi Ilka,
Bounce rate is definitely something you want to keep an eye on.
Hi Josh,
Very interesting! (I’m sending you an email if that’s ok.) I’d love a little additional clarification if you have any.
I’d love to see a follow up post with suggestions for goals on bounce, average time on site, % new visits, and pages for visit, with suggestions on improving them.
Thanks,
Heather
.-= Heather C Stephens´s last blog ..New Ann Sieg Video on Marketing to Women and the 10 Simple Laws You Must Not Break! =-.
Hi Heather,
Received your email.
I won’t be doing a follow up post on what you mentioned. There are books available that cover that information. With this post I have a book on exactly what you are looking for.
Hi Josh,
I thought bounce rate was something to do with my site not loading or something like that, glad you cleared that up for me. My rate was really high back in April at around 70% but last month it was down to 25%. From your post I can see where I can improve so thanks for sharing.
Tristram Lodge
.-= Tristram Lodge´s last blog ..How Will Power Should Be Used in You Network Marketing Business =-.
Hi Tristram,
I’m glad to hear that you know what bounce rate is.
If you have a regular newsletter (2 – 3 times a week) and your readers come via a link in the email you will have a pretty high bounce rate. They read and then leave. In this case it’s important to see how long the average stay on the webpage per post is and what your opening rate of the emails is.
Markus Trauernicht
.-= Markus Trauernicht´s last blog ..Wissen Sie wer bei jedem Goldrausch das meiste Geld verdient hat =-.
Hi Markus,
That is why it is important to have deep links within a post, videos, and related topics. So readers won’t come and go.
Hey Josh,
Thanks for letting us know about this. I think you are absolutely right in that to keep readers engaged on you site, you need to have good, relevant content.
Thanks for sharing,
Wayne
.-= Wayne Wu´s last blog ..No Leader has ever Built to the Top without This… =-.
Hi Wayne,
You can never lose by having relevant content.
Hi Josh,
I am having a bounce rate of 40 over percent, should be of some concern. Thanks for sharing ways of reducing the bounce rate. Having relevant content is the way to keep your visitors longer. Definitely the golden rule.
.-= Lye Kuek Hin´s last blog ..8 simple ways to increase RSS subscribers =-.
Hi Lye,
All you have to do is tweak couple of things and your bounce rate will decrease.
Hi Josh,
your post was a great reminder to check my bounce rate again at Google Analytics. And wow, in the last thirty days it was 13 %. Is that possible ? It used to be more than 60 % before that period. I stopped submitting my posts to a certain forum one month ago because those folks ruined my bounce rate, obviously the wrong pond, right ?
According to Alexa, my one month bounce rate is 36 %, that wouldn’t be too good.
Any idea where the discrepancy comes from ?
Thanks for sharing your insight.
Take care
Oliver
.-= Oliver Tausend´s last blog ..Lessons From Robert Kiyosaki’s “Cashflow Quadrant” For MLM Network Marketing Pt 6 =-.
Hi Oliver,
That is an awesome number…13%! If you have Google Analytics installed go by that. Alexa is a last resort or for a quick glance. GA is more accurate than Alexa. Not everyone has GA installed.
The analyzation and the optimization of the bounce rate and the conversion rate goes hand in hand for me. If the conversion rate is low I first check the bounce rate for clues.
Hi Andreas,
I do the same thing when my conversion is low. That is why it is good to know these metrics.
Josh.. these are some great tips for lowering the bounce rate.
There seems to be a big difference between Google Analytics and Alexa’s Bounce rate %… I don’t know who to go by..
thanks for sharing
Hector
.-= Hector Cuevas´s last blog ..The 1-062 Words Guide To Creating An “Almost Perfect” Sales Process =-.
Hi Hector,
You will find a big difference between GA and Alexa. Go with GA when measuring your metrics. GA is more accurate.
Hey Josh,
Thanks for bringing that point out. I found myself looking at how long people are on my blog and my goal was to improve in that manner. These are very crucial keys. Traffic is no good if they don’t stay long enough to see your value.
Thanks Again,
Kelvin and Amber Jones
.-= Kelvin and Amber Jones´s last blog ..Fantasy Football- your answer to MLM Success =-.
Hi Kelvin,
That is great that you are looking at your metrics and seeing how you can improve on them. Most individuals simply ignore them or don’t know about their metrics.
One of the thing that I have been kicking myself about for a long time, that almost instantly decreased my bounce rate, is to only put partial posts on your home page. Most bloggers do this, but I’ve only started this recently.
In the past I was putting up the entire post on the home page, so no one had to click anywhere to read the rest. This just caused people to read and leave. Now it’s fixed and getting better. Linking is also critical. Showing your customers that you have other posts on that same topic is a great way to reduce your bounce rate.
Last, make sure you are carful how you tage your pictures. This can be a blessing and a curse. If you have a picture that people are searching for frequently, you will get a lot of traffic from Google images, but the traffic will be completely irrelevant to your blog. Rename pictures that you don’t want people to find in a search.
For example, if you own a real esatate site and you have a picture of a garden, you might get a lot of people to the site from your gardem link that have no interest in what you are selling. elminate this by giving your picture random names that no one would search for, OR better yet, by tagging it with a keyword instead.
-Joshua Black
The Underdog Millionaire
.-= Joshua Black | The Underdog Millionaire´s last blog ..How to Attract Customers By Hooking YOUR Giant Goldfish =-.
Hi Joshua,
You are awesome for providing this tip on pictures. Hope everyone takes note on this valuable tip.
Very useful as always. Checked out my bounce rate which could be improved for sure.
As you say, relevant content is very important, perhaps the key factor.
regards
Charlie Holles
.-= Charlie Holles´s last blog ..Top MLM Companies – annual convention time =-.
Hi Charlie,
Knowing where to start is always a great way to improve.
It is amazing how much information this one statistic can reveal. I was looking at my Google Analytics overview page today (I have MANY websites) and was comparing all the bounce rates. Some really surprised me and I’m learning a lot from that. It really helps to focus on what people are really looking for, not just what I like. Great post!
.-= Karen Newman´s last blog ..Susan Boyle Sings Success =-.
Hi Karen,
That is a great tool to find out what your readers like and don’t like. I like to use to come up with topics as well.
I always thought bounce rate was simply the person viewed the page they landed on then left. So if your bounce rate is 80% but time on page is 3+ minutes all that means the person found what they were looking for. If time on page was less than a minute then that is a problem.
My bounce rate overall is frustratingly high (74% roughly), but that is b/c 67% of my traffic comes from search, and search is only for long tail phrases related to dating, texting etc. even though I only have a few posts on dating. My site is not a relationship blog. Who knows, I do everything right in terms of site design. I need better search traffic. My direct and refering bounce rate is fine though. Would love your opinion.
.-= David´s last blog ..Riskology 101- Why Fear is Not an Option With Tyler Tervooren =-.
Hi David,
The best way to decrease your bounce rate is by identifying your target audience and promote to them. This will allow you to balance out your bounce rate from only search engine traffic. Now, there is nothing wrong with search engine traffic as long as you are driving the audience you are looking for.
“It is really hard to get a bounce rate under 20%, anything over 35% is cause for concern, and 50% (above) is worrying.”
I will have to disagree with his numbers: All my blogs have a bounce rate of over 50% and I don’t see a source of worrying in that..I would say 60%-70% is a source concern for me. Not to mention that I don’t fully trust the bounce rate showed by GA…or any other numbers showed by GA
.-= Cole Stan´s last blog ..Anniversary Gifts for Men – Rock His World with These Romantic Gifts =-.
Hi Cole,
From my experience when my bounce rate is 50% my conversion is very low. When it is 35% and below I have a much better conversion rate. How is your conversion at those numbers?
Your ideal bounce rate depends entirely on the content an purpose of your site. 50% would be an ideal bounce rate for my site. I’d be happy with that. I’m at 80% right now, but for a very new site, I can understand that. As quality content builds and visitors find more to their liking, the number will come down.
Hi Steve,
You are absolutely correct as you start building your audience your bounce rate will decrease.
Thanks again for an informative blog! I like that you cover many aspects of our reality as Internet Marketers and Network Marketers. I too like the analytics side of things and love nothing more than seeing my bounce rate nice and low. When I use Google analytics, the content drilldown and bounce rate per post lets me learn from my old posts, what was working and what not. As well the traffic statistics bounce rate gives me an idea of responsive referal sites and were to focus more advertising.
.-= Terry Tiessen´s last blog ..The Key To A Successful MLM Internet Campaign =-.
Hi Terry,
I like to use the analytic tool to take a look at my topics of my post. It lets me know what is a HOT topic and drives traffic.
Hey Josh
Bounce rate is very important to watch and to improve upon.
I made one change to my site and I noticed a significant decrease in bounce rates, and that was adding the Related Posts plugin.
Peter
.-= Peter Fuller MBA´s last blog ..Are You Making This Mistake When Setting Your Goals =-.
Hi Peter,
Know that is very cool that you notice as soon as you installed Related Post plugin your bounce rate decrease. For some reason, it hasn’t been working on my blog.
Great topic to talk about, Josh.
Bounce rate is a good way to determine how “healthy” your blog is.
I’d love to add a couple more to your list, if I may:
1. External Links : make sure you use target=”_blank” for external links. That will force the links to open in a new window ensuring that the visitor will return to the original page.
2. Upper Left to Lower Right : Keep the upper left of your site pretty, pretty nice and attractive. Because visitors will first see that only and that decides whether they need to stay or not.
3. Optimize The Sidebar : Remove all those useless and time consuming widgets from your site’s sidebar and try to include widgets such as “Popular Posts” and “Recent Articles”. You can also use “tag cloud” in the sidebar.
Ana Hoffman
.-= Ana | Traffic Generation Cafe´s last blog ..Treasure Island of Link Building- How to Find the Best Links Every Time =-.
Hi Ana,
Thanks for adding some additional ways to lower the bounce rate. My favorite is making the links so they open up in a new window.
Hi Josh, excellent tips!
Just like everyone else I am also working hard on improving my bounce rate. It can be tricky,yes, but it helps me improve my content some more and these stats are really helpful. Google Analytics is genius, I can’t imagine NOT using it! You listed down some really good tips on improving bounce rate. I think it’s great that you pointed out page load time. It can really turn off visitors.
Thanks Josh!
.-= Elmar Sandyck´s last blog ..Stuck In A Blogging Rut Get Inspired With These 2 Tools =-.
Hi Elmar,
Knowing your bounce rate is very important and using Google analytic helps out with that.