6 Factors that Make High Bounce Rate a Persistent Issue

Sometimes, a visitor views just a single page before going back to a referring site or to the search results. This has been termed as a “bounce” by Google, and the percentage of such occurrences is called a “bounce rate”. 

Based on this classification, however, a high bounce rate may not necessarily be a bad or unavoidable phenomenon. It is relative, which means it relies a lot on your organization’s objectives and the nature of your website. 

6 Main Reasons Why You May Have a High Bounce Rate – and How to Overcome Them

To help you determine this, here are 10 major reasons for a high bounce rate that may apply to your website. In this blog, you’ll learn more about them as well as how you can resolve them, whether you’ve chosen Magento eCommerce development or any other format for your website –

1. Slow & Sluggish Web Pages  

Websites that take too long to load create a negative impression in the visitors’ minds from the get-go. Poor site speed is considered a sign of negligence on the owners’ part. And if yours is slower than a few seconds, you can expect a high bounce rate. After all, there are plenty of other websites that load faster and have good enough content – why should your visitors have to wait?

Google offers its “Featured Snippets” for this reason – to give users the facts they’re looking for as fast as possible. You, too, can prevent a poor experience for visitors by maintaining proper site speed. Although it is a perpetual process, the more you work on your site’s speed, the better it will run. 

You can keep tabs on the speed of each page, or the entire website, through tools such as – 

• Lighthouse reports
• Pingdom
• Page Speed Insights by Google
• PageSpeed reports on the console (Google Search Engine)
• GTmetrix

2. Nature or Quality of Content 

What if your website is meant for quick visits? Is its content designed to provide what visitors need in a matter of minutes, and get them to bounce? In such cases, a high bounce rate is not necessarily a ‘problem’. A good example is static web designing that includes a landing page with only a short form for leads, which visitors fill and leave.

If your website has a landing page like this, you probably have nothing to worry about. Still, you can do the following, if you’re concerned about bounce rate:

• Observe the amount of time spent on each web page in Google Analytics
• Perform tests on user experience and A/B

Additionally, you may want users to linger on your website after they’ve filled that little form. In that case, you can attract them with interesting blog topics to read below or near the form. 

3. Inaccurate or Confusing Title/Meta Description

The purpose of the title tag and meta description is to present an accurate summary of the content on a web page. If they don’t fulfill that purpose, your visitors may feel misled or even cheated and are more likely to bounce. 

Regardless of your intention with incorrect or inaccurate meta content, you can resolve it fairly easily. All you need to do is rewrite the same to reflect the content of the specific page and attract visitors. 

4. Too Many Errors or Blank Pages

Once you’re sure that a high bounce rate is unfavorable and unexpected for your website, check to see if your bounce rate is, indeed, exceptionally high. If it is, then a blank or error 404 page might be a reason. This is likely to lead both you and your visitors toward disappointment – them, for not finding the required content, and you, for a higher bounce rate. 

Thankfully, many search engine optimization services include taking care of such pages, indirectly improving your website’s ranking as well.

5. Poor Quality or Unoptimized Content

How good is your website’s content, anyway? Is it informative or catchy enough to keep visitors engaged? You can find out by having a few honest, critical people take a look at it. It’ll be even better if they know at least a bit about content marketing or copywriting. 

You can also consider optimizing your content in the following ways – 

• Check if the level of writing matches the audience’s level of understanding.
• Analyze it and check how many header tags it has. 
• How well does it answer the burning questions?
• Check whether the content supported by audio-visual content for more convenience.

There’s a world of difference between the content created for the web and that of other offline media. If the quality is not what your visitors expect, consider hiring professionals who specialize in web content to help revamp your website in terms of powerful content.

ALSO READ: Competing with big brands in SERPs is easier than you think

6. Unpleasant or Bad-Quality UX

Too many ads, pop-ups, and email subscribe prompts can irritate a visitor and send them running for the hills. Delivering an amazing user experience should be one of the main goals of a website. 

At least, it’s what Google thinks – it’s Core Web Vitals are all about UX. And thanks to this, user happiness plays a large role in website ranking these days.

So, make sure 

• you know your website inside and out
• your website isn’t confusing to navigate, regardless of the device they’re surfing it on
• visitors can explore as much as they want easily, through the well-placed search box and menu items
• you have a web designer go through your website and make changes as needed

Final Thoughts

A high bounce rate isn’t necessarily a cause for panic, especially without context. It may take a while to understand the footfall of your website, but it is worth the effort.

That’s because you’ll be better equipped to know whether a medium or high bounce rate is a good or a bad thing in your case.

So, don’t try and “fix” bounce rates unless you’re sure they are an issue. If they are, you may also try hiring professional search engine optimization services for an all-around approach to improving website standings.