Improving Bounce Rate on Home Page
- Thread starter dtemple
- Start date
Hi Dinah,
While it's always good to try to improve bounce rate, everyone's bounce rate is high it's just the nature of the beast. One thing to consider is how you are getting traffic and how targeted the traffic is. So it may have less to do with your site and more to do with your marketing methods. (Possibly, just a suggestion).
Sorry we don't allow you to mention your site in the general discussion areas. After you have 10 posts and are a member in good standing you can request a site review down in the proper section and that forum allows you to post a link to your site.
While it's always good to try to improve bounce rate, everyone's bounce rate is high it's just the nature of the beast. One thing to consider is how you are getting traffic and how targeted the traffic is. So it may have less to do with your site and more to do with your marketing methods. (Possibly, just a suggestion).
Sorry we don't allow you to mention your site in the general discussion areas. After you have 10 posts and are a member in good standing you can request a site review down in the proper section and that forum allows you to post a link to your site.
95% is perhaps a little higher than usual.
I think you must address where your traffic is coming from. In your analytics account look at the pages that have the really high bounce rates and the keywords that are bringing traffic to those pages. Simply put the high bounce rate may indicate that people are not finding the information they want on your page. So again, look at the keywords and ask yourself if the content on the page addresses a problem that a person using the keyword may have
The other reason I can think of is slow loading time. If the site takes too long to load properly then people will click on to another site.
Cannot think of anything else at the moment
I think you must address where your traffic is coming from. In your analytics account look at the pages that have the really high bounce rates and the keywords that are bringing traffic to those pages. Simply put the high bounce rate may indicate that people are not finding the information they want on your page. So again, look at the keywords and ask yourself if the content on the page addresses a problem that a person using the keyword may have
The other reason I can think of is slow loading time. If the site takes too long to load properly then people will click on to another site.
Cannot think of anything else at the moment
Yes 95% is very high and should be addressed. You should take a look at your site as a whole and decide if it is worth clicking into. As Niche mentioned, dig into your stats and compare the bounce rates for different pages, keywords, referring pages, country, etc. Either your website does not hold people's attention or your traffic is low quality. For your homepage think of where your eye is naturally drawn, is there some type of call to action link there? Perhaps you have too many ads or an unappealing design that turns off visitors. Is your navigation easy to use and understand?
Thank you for responding. These are all valid points to consider. The site was launch about 5 weeks ago so It is always a work in progress. I re-designed the home page just before the initial post here. Now the bounce rate is 88%. Are there any affiliate sites that you can recommend looking at for design ideas?
Thanks for your help. I REALLY appreciate it.
Dinah
Thanks for your help. I REALLY appreciate it.
Dinah
Hi Dinah,
We can't mention affiliate sites as most people don't want their site mentioned on a forum where someone could steal their ideas or compete in their niche.
Also site styles can vary somewhat based on the niche. If you had a Mom site and someone showed you an electronics site it probably would not help you much.
So best thing is to do a Google search for your niche or search for products that would be marketed to your niche and do some digging to try to find some affiliate sites that way.
All great responses that are of value to newbies. Linda - might this make a good sticky?
Hi Jay, thanks for the suggestion but we get complaints when we get too many stickies and we already have verging on too many. When it's time to do a sticky house cleaning 
I'll see if we can fit it in.
I'll see if we can fit it in.TylerDurden
New Member
If you're using Google Analytics on your site check out Google Website Optimizer, hopefully that can help you fix whatever it is that is causing your high bounce rate.
Similar threads
