According to Google, a bounce is when a user opens a single page on your website and then exits without triggering any other requests during their session. Therefore, a bounce rate is the calculation (percentage) of how many users trigger a bounce on your website.
Is a high bounce rate bad?
If the success of your website depends on users getting deeper into your website (to checkout with a product, making a sale or to submit a contact request through a form), then yes, a high bounce rate is bad, but there are ways to fix it…
1 – Decrease Load Times
One reason users leave a website is if it takes too long to load. The rule of thumb is that is should take less than 2 seconds for your website to load and there can be many causes as to why your website is slow. You’ll want to optimize all images so that their file size isn’t humongous, enable caching so that the browser doesn’t have to load elements every time and minify code.
2 – Optimize for Mobile
It is extremely likely that most of your users are accessing your website through their smart phone or tablets and if your website is not optimized for the device they’re using, it creates a bad user experience, which will in turn make people leave your website out of frustration. You’ll want to ensure that your website is fully responsive no matter what device a user is viewing your website from.
3 – Hire a UX Designer
The best thing to do to improve your bounce rate (and in turn, improve your conversion rate), is to hire an expert, who can assess things like everything mentioned above, but also design elements and typography that will help create a better user experience for everyone who visits your websites. If you’re interested in seeing how I can help you improve your bounce rate, let’s get in touch!
