For those who’re still new to managing a website, a bounce rate is the percentage of visitors (either to a site or a page) who land on the page and then immediately leave. Conversions are the visitors to a website which take an action on-site and either become subscribers or clients. The lower your bounce rate, the better; the higher your website’s conversion rate, the better!

And studies show that there’s a certain amount of positive correlation between these two statistics. So, wherever possible, it makes sense to do things on your website, whether publishing content or adjusting the way users can interface with your website.

Improve User Experience

improve-user-experienceA great user experience on a website is simply all the qualities on a website which make it fun and easy to use. This means great organization, clear text, an easy to use and find search function. The best way to improve user experience is to get a few other people to test-drive your website, and see what they might recommend to improve the usability of your website. This can include: changing site colors to be less garish, changing fonts to be more readable, optimizing site speed, and breaking up large blocks of text. You should also utilize high-quality, high-res images, and ensure that no images are stretched, blurry, or cut-off looking from the user side.

Site speed can be influenced by using a page caching system, reducing heavy image effects on interior pages, and optimizing your website’s hosting. And just for proof that speed really matters: depending on industry, each second of delay in a website’s loading speed can increase a site’s bounce rate by as much as 11 percent.

Optimize Display of Key Information

optimize-info-displayWhether it’s your calls to action, pertinent information offered on each page, images, or forms, optimize their placement and appearance. Ideally, the key information on any page should be readily visible without any need for scrolling. The easier you make it for users to get the information they need without scrolling, the more likely they will be to stay on the site, and to fulfill any actions needed. When in doubt, bold important information, turn lists into bullet points, and place forms high on the page. Also when you build a website, try to organize images into galleries rather than simply pasting single images onto a page, as doing so can increase user interaction. Furthermore, you can increase information optimization by using a visitor’s location data to show them location-specific pages: ensuring that they land on already-translated areas if necessary, for example.

Exit-Intent Pop Ups

exit-popupExit intent pop ups and other actions happen when a user goes to leave a site: something happens to encourage them to stay! Often this is a pop up which displays a last minute offer, or asks users to subscribe to a website’s newsletter. Wherever possible, use exit intent technology to encourage any possibly exiting visitors to stay or take an action before they go. Statistically, many users take advantage of offers listed in such pop ups.

Target Your Ideal Users

target-audienceWhy do most drop offs and bounces happen? Because people come to a site which wasn’t what they wanted. If you want to increase the visitors who stay and take actions, ensure that the majority of people who come to your site are those who are looking for what your site offers! The best way to do this is to pinpoint-target your marketing efforts, PPC, and SEO so that the people who want to be on your site are the most likely to find it! A great way to see if you might not be targeting your ideal group of users is to look at the top keyword spread of your website, and then also your primary landing pages. Are the top keywords aligned with the page itself, and the site in general? Many webmasters can be very surprised to see that some keywords pop up which aren’t ideal for the users you’re wanting to draw onto your website.

Once you can identify misleading or less-optimal keywords, you can modify your content accordingly, working better to streamline your landing pages and the site in general to ensure that it is ranking best for those keywords which will draw in your ideal users. Doing so will reduce bounces, and likely improve your conversion rate.