Stop the Bouncing: Google Analytics Basics: How to fix Bounce Rate
This article is “how to fix bounce rate on your website as seen in Google Analytics.
My previous article is the deep dive on “What is the Cause of a High Bounce Rate in Google Analytics?“.
The main causes of Google Analytics bounce rates are
a) your page does not satisfy people’s search intent
b) the page has a technical problem and not loading or showing content
c) your page load speed is slow—and people don’t want to wait.
But what is Google Analytics bounce rate?
Google Analytics Bounce Rate
A Google Analytics bounce is when a visitor lands and reads one page, and exits your website without clicking any buttons, links, menus etc., during that session.
That one visit is given a 100% Bounce rate score.
The bounce rate score is independent of the average time a person stayed on the page.
Prioritise How to fix the Google Analytics Bounce rate
First, fix the bounce rate on your action-oriented pages. Those are your “money pages”, your newsletter sign-up page, your signup form, contact us and sales pages.
High bounce rates on blog posts and informational pages matter less and require slightly different actions to fix.
The High Bounce Rate Fix for your “Money Pages”
From the helicopter 🚁view:
Is the offer on your money pages clear and does it makes sense?
An offer to “sign up for our newsletter” is not appealing and is one step away from spam and people will bounce away.
Do the technical parts of your website sign-up form work? Do you have a thank you message displayed after submission or is there only a black hole of nothingness? Do you send a double opt-in message?
Sales pages are different. Still, what is the offer you are offering? Are you sending warm prospects to your sales page? Are you using cheap bait-and-switch tactics to fool people into buying from you? If not then does your shopping cart function correctly? Are you asking for too much information on your checkout page?
High Bounce Rate Fix for your Informational Pages
If people arrive at your info page from a search, the first item to look at does that page satisfy the intent of the search. Right?
The 4 most common search intent is informational, commercial, navigational and transactional.
- informational – looking for a pancake recipe
- commercial – which premium iPhone is best
- navigational – where is the Ford website
- transactional – Buy books
What is the intent of the person searching your info page? So does your info page matches the intent of the keyword and search intent?
Also, add links to related articles’ sidebar widgets. Add links to your product pages, and podcast pages and add videos.
Additionally and importantly, the page load speed is critical.
This google page speed insights page tests your URLs for free. If your mobile score is >=90 you are set. If not then you have work to do to fix your speed.
Page load speed is a big deal.
How to fix bounce rate on your Website
Bounce rate is when a visitor lands on a page and exits your website from the same page. The visitors do not click on any buttons, links, sidebar or header.
If 10 people land on page A, 8 click over to page B, and 2 exit. The bounce rate for Page A is 20%.
Bounce rate is a page ranking factor. Therefore, keeping people on your website is a good thing. Keep people on your page longer by for example adding a related articles widget, related products, link to the podcast page or adding a video to that page.
Also, the page load times are important. Any load times >3 seconds is a problem.
Don’t worry, I am Urban Renström, there is always science and research involved in everything I say, teach, and demonstrate.
