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Bounce lower and keep your visitors for longer!
Introduction: When I was reading my newspaper: “The Press & Journal”, my head was thinking about this catchy term: “bounce rate”. Nevertheless, if you want to know the true meaning behind this term. Then, try this out for yourself!
First of all, take a look at your newspaper and look at the headlines; parts of a storyline or the image (if there is one). After reading (for a while), there might be some interesting things that catches your attention. Eventually, you will land on a good paragraph or post that will make your eyes glued to that particular area, and, you will eventually read the entire story, post or paragraph. But, this is also similar to images and ads from a particular magazine.
In conclusion, you will be amazed that you are spending more time on that storyline. However, most of the time, the story are really bland and boring. Therefore, you will not spend too much time on that block and you will lost interest. So, what will you mostly do? You skip that paragraph or that headlines and move to another area, that has a better story, or, an article that has good image.
So, what exactly is “bounce rate?” Here is my answer…
Bounce rate is the percentage of a page visits or visits, in which the person left your site and enters your site from the entrance (landing) page. This entrance, it can be from any page on your site.
Right, how do I improve my “bounce rate?” Any suggestion??
When we are tracking our visitors, the percentage of a single page or multiple pages, it must be as low as possible. So, by average, the percentage must be under 50% and nothing more. But, don’t worry! There are many ways to grab and compel your visitor’s attention, and, make them stay on your site for longer. In other words, the longer your visitors / readers stay on your site, the lower your bounce rate will be.
Here is some advice and suggestion that can help you reduce / lower your “bounce rate” percentage.
1.] Keep your headlines entertaining, simple and informative. If you pull this off, nicely, your guest may be interested and read the full post.
2.] Make your post interactive by encouraging users / readers to click on other links, within your post or site. For example if you’re writing an article about ‘Wordpress Meta Tags’, you can refer your previous posts, that has been written and published for the public. However, your previous post must be relevant or identical to your main topic: “Wordpress”. This techniques will also give your reader / readers more options and they might stay on your site for longer.
3.] Make sure that your best post can be seen, reached or access from every / any page of your site. But, don’t try to overload it!
4.] Reconsider your blog’s design, theme layouts, navigation and your chosen plug-ins that could cause usability problems. For example, your font’s colours are too dim! Therefore, you could change it to another colour and make it readable.
5.] Make sure to use a costume ‘404 landing page’ (on your blog or website). Users will hit this page if your posts, links or paths are broken or not found. By using this method, you can suggest users / readers with a post that was moved, or, you can suggest them with a new – linked – post.
6.] Check your navigation and directory. They must be simple and clearly labeled. But, don’t try anything fancy, or else, your visitors / readers will get paranoid and leave your site. You will also need to keep in mind that a lot of readers and visitors are very sensitive, when they are reading your post! In other words, your categories and posts should be readable, easy to identify and visible on your site.
7.] Website owners, bloggers and publisher should use relevant tags while writing posts. Tag’s relevancy is crucial! Therefore, you should use them wisely and efficiently. Also, please keep this in your journal or books: nearly all visitors, readers and guests use ‘search engines’ just to find the sources; information and results that is relevant to them! So, please be aware and add decent tags that describes your article, topics and post contents.
On the other hand, if your tags are not relevant, then your ‘bounce rate’ will rise! Be very careful!!
8.] Try to create something and promote it. For example, you can create Ebooks, PDF articles for users and readers to collect. But, most of all, try to make it free, so that everyone can download and share!
Recommended project that can help you reduce your “bounce rate”.
- Create mini – ebooks and dish them out for your guest to download, collect and read.
- Create pdf articles for everyone to download and enjoy.
- Design a small program and promote it to the world! (if you know how to design / create one)
- Write source code for other bloggers and publishers. They will love your codes and they might come back for more!
- Compile all of your old articles and output them as help files.
Notes: for beginners, please use Maestro Ebook and create your own Ebook in HTML format. That way, you can dish out more articles without problems!
9.] Use interactive elements that would require individuals to take small actions.
- Create polls for user / readers to take action.
- Create a small quiz by writing it in HTML / PHP / JavaScript format. If not, you might want try this website!
Link: http://www.gotoquiz.com/quizmaker
- Create a small Chatbox / Shoutbox for everyone to talk and interact. But, you’ll need to be careful with the user’s contents. They might swear, flame at someone else. This could also frustrate other readers…
10.] This is optional. But, it might help!
If you have time, you can create a small ‘Welcome’ page. But, your description must be attractive and informative. Any other description that is outside your site’s parameter, they are classified as useless! So, try to be constructive and write a short paragraph about your site’s services, and anything that is relevant. But, don’t go off and write crazy sentences. The readers / guest might get angry and offended. They might as well – never come back!
Finally, by following these rules, there is a chance that your ‘bounce rate’ will plummet. So, don’t panic and hit the red button like a cartoon character. Just give it time and it will drop…
That is all for today, I better take a nap and work on my other project.
Copyrighted By Lair360.
