How to Decrease Bounce Rate- 8 best Tactics That Really Work

Updated February 2022

How to decrease bounce rate? Yeah, you heard it right. In this article, I am gonna give you some actionable tips that can decrease the bounce rate of your website.

Bounce rate is crucial and you should not ignore it. Keep reading and you will get to know why it is so crucial and how to achieve an optimal bounce rate.
Before we begin, just to make sure all my readers are at the same point. I want to give you a quick definition of “bounce rate”.

What is Bounce Rate

Bounce rate is a measure of visit quality. This is the percentage of visitors leaving your website after landing on a page without interacting with other pages.
for example, if a visitor lands to your webpage from Google and then he goes back without checking out any other page then this is a bounce.
If most of the visitors coming to your website are only checking out one page and then leaving your site, this means you will have a high bounce rate.
If most of the visitors who landed on a webpage of your website visit your other web pages too then this means you will have a low bounce rate.

How to measure bounce rate?

Bounce rate is the percentage of users leaving your landing pages without visiting other pages. In order to measure it, you would need to install Google Analytics on your website.

Google analytics will measure and record every aspect of your website including bounce rate and visit time.
It is a great tool for webmasters to keep improving their site.

Why you need to Decrease Bounce Rate

A. Are you getting enough traffic but no conversions?

If this is the case then most probably your bounce rate is high. Bounce rate is inversely proportional to conversions.
So you need to decrease your bounce rate to increase conversions. This is a proven fact. You will definitely have low conversion rate if your bounce rate is high.

B. Are you not able to get enough email sign ups out of your visitors?

Again, you need to decrease your bounce rate. If your bounce rate is high, then chances are there that most visitors are not seeing your email pop-ups, slide-ins or whatever.

C. Are you not getting search traffic?

High bounce rate can lead to low rankings.
If you have heard about Google Rankbrain update then you would be knowing how crucial low bounce rate is for a website to rank 1 on Google.
Google monitors your Bounce Rate and visits time.
When some visitor lands on your website from Google and then click the back button without spending much time on the page. for Google, this means that this is not the desired webpage users were looking for that’s why the user clicked the back button very soon. Thus Google starts ranking your site low.

I think these are enough reasons for you to think about decreasing your bounce rate. It’s crucial and that’s why you should not ignore it.
Let’s move on to the tips to decrease bounce rate.

8 Tips to Decrease Bounce Rate

If you will use these tips that I am Gonna list in this article, you can decrease your bounce rate significantly.

Let dive into the main content.

1. Deliver the right content with the right insight

If you want your website to have a low bounce rate make sure you create content what your audience is looking for. Create content for your, not search engines.

One reason that can be responsible for your high bounce rate is you are misguiding users with meta titles and headlines or content.
for example, suppose I searched on Google- “how to decrease bounce rate” and on the SERP, I saw a suitable result with the title “decrease your bounce rate”. I clicked on that result, and what I noticed after landing on the webpage is there was no tactic listed to decrease bounce rate, there was only some definitions and explanations of bounce rate. What I will do now is click the back button because this was not the content I was looking for.
So make sure you create relevant content which your audience is looking for.

Through your meta title and headlines try to give your audience a clear insight into your content.

If you will do so, your visitors will feel disappointed as they would not get the exact content they want and they will click the back button without interacting with your website.

In short, create content that users want and craft headlines accordingly.

2. Make your content Readable and appealing

What if a user landed on your article and he is not able to read what you have written?

Most probably, he is gonna click the back button and choose some other website to read the same article which is more readable.
That means you need to make your article more readable. But how?

1. Readable means you need to use proper English first of all (if you write in English). Proper English means correct spellings, correct grammar and correct sentences.
2. The second things you need to do to increase the readability of your articles is choosing the right fonts and the right font size.
   Sometimes, very fancy fonts are hard to read, thus if you will use very fancy fonts then they may make your content less readable thus increase your bounce rate.
3. But don’t use ugly fonts. Use font which looks good and easy to read.
4. The font size also plays an important role in your overall content readability. If your font size is too small to read or too large to be like to read then most probably you will have a high bounce rate.

Now your content is readable but what if it’s not interesting and appealing?

If the user will not find your content interesting, he will not keep reading for sure. Thus he will click the back button soon.

To make sure your content is appealing, try to build a connection with your reader using words like “you” and “me”.
Make your content is scannable.

What I mean by this is use subheading in your article and table of content if possible.

Don’t use long paragraphs, this would make your content look boring even though if it is not boring in reality. So users will click the back button.
In short, do whatever it takes to make your content engaging and interesting.

3. Use internal linking to decrease bounce rate

If you will use a lot of internal links in your article as reference. Most probably users will click one of them. And they would be visiting other pages. This way you will save some bounces. And you will have a low bounce rate.

To the contrary, if you will not use internal links. Even though Readers will read your full article but they would not visit another one and click the back button.

So make a habit of using internal links in your content.

4. Avoid Pop-ups?

Many people say that if you want to decrease your bounce rate you need to avoid pop-ups.

That’s true to some extent.

But a reverse theory says that if you want to convert single time visitors into subscribers then using pop-ups is the best way. When you use pop-ups, you can get 50% more subscribers then you usually get.

So you cannot avoid pop-ups. Now, what you should do?

You can use pop-ups without increasing bounce rate if you use them wisely.

Wisely?

Try to show people pop-ups once they are engaged in your content or have spent some time on your webpage.

This means trigger pop-ups using the percent scroll function. Suppose, if your visitor would be reading your article and have read it half and suddenly a pop-up appears.

What the user will do now?

No, he will not click the back button as he has read the half article and would like to complete it.

What he will do is either close the pop-up or subscribe via your pop-up if he thinks you are a man worth subscribing. He would only think so if you will reflect that through your article.

This is the best way to use pop-ups without increasing the bounce rate.
Additionally, when you use pop-ups and trigger them on exit intent, this can save some bounces for you and decrease your bounce rate.

5. Website design and appearance matters

Yes, if your website looks ugly or outdated then your visitors would not feel like your website is worth checking out and they will not interact with your website thus increasing the bounce rate.

To prevent this, make sure you invest in a good website design and theme and make your website look awesome and interactive.

Use a clear navigation system on your website. And your website should be mobile friendly and responsive on mobile devices.

If you will do that, users will interact more with your website and you will have a low bounce rate.

6. What about Speed?

If your website takes ages to load then most probably users will click the back button without even looking at your content. Internet users are just so impatient in 2018.

This would mean a high bounce rate and all your hard you did for creating awesome content goes in vain.

So make sure your website loads fast and give users a nice experience.

7. Include CTA buttons

Cta stands for a call to action buttons. These buttons guide your users to your conversion goal and increase conversions.

You know that conversions and bounce rate are inversely proportional.

Thus using a relevant call to action buttons would decrease bounce rate.

8. Choose high-value traffic

If most of the traffic you are getting is not targeted then this would mean that most of your visitors are not really interested in your services. Then how can you expect them to interact with your website?

Determine which sources are sending you low-quality traffic and then stop them.

This would decrease your bounce rate.

What is a good bounce rate?

Generally, a good bounce rate is somewhere between 30-40%(a guess). Anything lower than that is great. And anything more than that means the scope of improvement.

Conclusion

Bounce rate is a crucial aspect which can govern your revenue. As said earlier, bounce rate is inversely proportional to conversion rate.

That’s all. I hope this helps. Write your thoughts below in comments. Share with the world.

Thanks for reading!