

Ask HN: What do you do to reduce Bounce Rate? - ekianjo

A very simple question. I am using Google Analytics and while I&#x27;m not sure if I can rely on the bounce rate provided by their services, I seem to get a relatively high number for that rate (usually 60%+). I am not sure how I can interpret that and what I should do to reduce that rate (of even if that&#x27;s a problem altogether). Could you provide any advice?
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mc_hammer
I think the first steps would be:

    
    
      - make sure your design is not off-putting (bad logo, bad font, confusing layout)
      - make sure you have attractive/interesting headers. usually this is your h1,h2 tag for example. it should draw the reader in or share a personal struggle, insight, or experience. for example "how i saved $10,000", or "twitter sucks; here's why"
      - consider writing in a different style, what if you talk to your readers as you would talk to a friend.
      - consider writing content that is similar to stuff you wrote in the past that was a success
      - you might not be targeting your target audience, you want to get your ads to your customers not to other groups. consider rewriting your ads, consider a more narrow (targeted) ad-text copy, consider advertising to a more focused demographic, consider doing guest blog posts for blogs close to your target audience, consider getting a guest blog poster, consider adding a city to your adwords search terms, consider producing localised content (to a city), consider narrowing your posting topics
    

Hope that helps

I am also available for consulting for 25/hr with 14yrs experience, email me
at jg (undrscore) work (at) kify (dot) net for a resume or to chat.

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DigitalSea
When you have a high bounce rate it usually always means the visitor saw no
value in your site, or the content they landed on wasn't what they were
looking for or expected.

Without knowing what kind of website you're running, it's hard to say. In all
instances where I've experienced high bounce rates it is because my content
has sucked and the demographic I thought I was targeting just wasn't getting
it.

Knowing what your target market wants is definitely one sure fire way to
improve bounce rates. Tailor your content to the demands of your website
visitors and they'll stay. It also pays to ensure your site loads fast, it is
aesthetically pleasing and it is instantly apparent what your site is and
does.

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ekianjo
I know what bounce rate means, but is that measurement really meaningful ? How
is it measured and how do you determine exactly the root cause of that bounce
rate?

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jeffmould
It is meaningful in knowing how visitors interact with your site. Are they
coming and then leaving without looking around?

It is measured just by that metric. It is the percentage of people that came
to your site and left without going to any other pages.

Determining the root cause of a high bounce rate is a multitude of factors. In
addition bounce rates can vary greatly between sites and content topics.
Without knowing what your site is it is almost impossible to tell you exactly
what is wrong or even if your bounce rate is out of the normal range for your
site.

It could be something as simple as the appearance of your site (i.e. if you
are using WordPress or another CMS system where you can easily change themes,
try a different theme to see if it improves any). It can even be something as
simple as the color of your text that drives people away. It could also be
your writing style. If it is a technical site it could be that your writing is
too technical for what the reader is searching for or vice-versa.

Also, if people are reaching your pages using certain keywords, but the
content on the page doesn't match the keywords they will leave.

This brings up another point with bounce rate too. It could be that your
content is so highly focused and that when people search for and land on your
pages their question is answered immediately and they have no other reason to
poke around your site.

