Esther C Kane

Well, as you may have guessed, this month, the theme of the blog is Website Statistics.  Mainly, Google Analytics since we use that and are most familiar with it.

Today’s topic is on Bounce Rates.  If you’re not checking your website bounce rates, you should.  So, let’s see if I can explain it to you and help you figure out what to do if your bounce rate is not so great.

According to Google, bounce rate means:  “the percentage of single-page visits or visits in which the person left your site from the entrance (landing) page.”

Basically, if someone comes in to your website on your Services page and then leaves your website without going to any other pages, that’s a bounce.

Is a high bounce rate a bad thing?  Well, it depends on what you wanted the visitor to do from that page.

If the visitor comes in to your website on the “Contact Us” you may want your visitor to call you.  So, a high bounce rate from this particular page would not be a bad thing.

But, if you do have a high bounce rate on a page that you shouldn’t, here are some reasons as to why that might be.

1) The information on the page isn’t what the visitor was looking for.
Solution: First, make sure that the keyword phrase you’re marketing is what’s on this page.  Second, make sure that the description  tag matches the information on this page.

2) The site design is poor, leaving the visitor confused as to where to go to next.
Solution: There’s a true art to website design.  It’s not just about the colors and the graphics.  It’s also about navigation.  Get as many different opinions from as many different people as possible about your site’s navigation.  Is it easy to find things?  Are the buttons clear?  Etc.

3) There’s no call to action on the page.
Solution:  In the process of designing (or redesigning your website) make sure that you set up an intended action for each page.  You want to know what action you want the visitor to take and you want to tell the visitor as clear as possible that you want them to take that action.