How to Reduce Bounce Rates and Improve Conversions

The importance of boosting conversions is self-explanatory, but what exactly is a ‘bounce’? And how do you reduce bounce rates?

Bounce rate refers to the percentage of visitors who enter a website and subsequently exit ("bounce") without viewing any other pages or interacting further in the same visit. 

This can occur by way of any of the following:

• A visitor to your website clicks the ‘back’ button to leave 
• The visitor closes their browser or window 
• An external link is used to exit your site
• A new URL is typed into the address bar at the top
• The session times out or is ended suddenly for any reason

Depending on your business and goals, reducing bounce rates to 70% or lower generally means you’re doing something right.

Regardless of your niche, there is always something you can do to reduce bounce rates. In doing so, you stand every chance of pushing conversion rates in the right direction. 

The 6 Most Common Reasons for Elevated Bounce Rates

Viewing the issue in reverse is often the most effective approach when looking to boost conversion rates. Rather than searching for ways to improve conversions, focus on keeping more people on your pages in the first place.

Irrespective of business size and type, the most common reasons for elevated bounce rates are constant.

If any of the following apply with your online business, you should remedy them as quickly as possible:

1. Your website is not providing a flawless experience for mobile visitors. This counts double right now, given the scheduled introduction of mobile-first indexing for March 2021 by Google.
2. The meta descriptions attached to your pages do not provide an accurate description of page content or purpose. As a result, many users enter your website and are greeted with content that doesn't interest them.
3. There are technical problems with your website that are causing excessive page loading times, frequent crashes or other inconsistencies with its operation in general.
4. The navigation system on your website is nowhere near as simple or streamlined as it could be, making the entire experience awkward or unnecessarily complicated for your visitors.
5. Content quality on your pages is questionable at best, providing an uninspiring first impression and driving traffic in entirely the wrong direction.
6. There are too many distractions on your landing pages; your site visitors do not have the patience to sift through them all to find what they want.

For each of the above, a strategic program of A/B testing as part of your digital strategy will help steer things in the right direction. Analytics will provide you with all the information you need to identify when and where people are exiting your site.  After which, it is simply a case of putting the necessary fixes in place.

A Neutral Third-Party Perspective

If you have serious reservations about your conversion rates and bounce rates, hiring a third-party to optimise your website is highly recommended. One of the biggest issues with in-house CRM campaigns is how difficult (or impossible) it is for those with a stake in the business to look at matters 100% objectively and impartially.

Reducing bounce rates and improving conversions is all about viewing your website from the perspective of the customer; a third-party with no emotional or economic connection with your business whatsoever.

Therefore, even if it is simply for an initial consultation and analysis, outsourcing CRM is well worth considering. Particularly given the potential for a significant and ongoing improvement to your long-term ROI.