One of the major issues in any SEO campaign is the bounce rate that a website produces. The bounce rate refers to how often a person checks on your website than immediately or almost immediately backtracks to look at the previous search results. This is often seen as a negative snap judgement on your website and a high bounce rate will knock your rankings down. This stat is also closely tied into a related website statistic that also affects SEO: average time spent on site per visitor.
All the off page SEO work might be a waste if people take one look at your website and then run away screaming. While each reason for a quick bounce might be different, there are a few things every website owner can do to help them tackle the problem of a bad bounce rate.
5 Hacks on How You Can Recover From Bad Bounce Rate
#1: Junk Pop-Up Ads & Check Ad Placement
Many people swear by pop up ads because the visitor has to interact with them, but most visitors absolutely hate them. For many web surfers the appearance of a sudden pop up means an automatic backspace off the page. This could be absolutely killing you by shooting your bounce rate through the roof.
Even if you don’t have pop up type ads, you should take a look at your overall ad placement. If you’re following the old advice of having big block ads at top, consider moving the ads around so they’re not so immediate or in your face. Even if the conversion rate goes down slightly, 3% of 10,000 visitors is much better than 5% of 500. Get that bounce rate down and give visitors a reason to stay on your page!
#2: Be Realistic about Your Content Quality
Great quality content is critical, and one of the hardest things to do is being realistic about how good your content is. Does the opening line grab your attention? Is the title not only SEO-friendly but actually something that grabs a reader? Do the first few sentences just flow or are they choppy and abrupt or run on and meander on forever? There’s a lot to look at, and the truth is that it’s hard to write truly great content, especially when opening an article.
Be realistic about what the quality of your content is. If you can improve it, then do so! That opening is what’s going to keep the reader going or have them flip back to find a different source to look at. The first couple lines and first couple paragraphs need to be strong, and if you don’t know how to write with a good style that creates both flow and flair then spend the money on a writer who does! That not only improves the bounce rate but also content quality – a double SEO win.
#3: Consider Adding an Introduction Video to the Beginning
This is a great hack for reducing bounce rates and keeping people on site longer. While any video can work per page, having a basic 30 to 40 second introduction video to the blog or website means a person will probably listen to the entire thing. That almost completely reduces the 5-6 second bounce rate mark since everyone will take the time to listen to the video. If it’s a good video, it will make them continue reading, as well.
This tip can help to obliterate your bounce rate and boost that time per visit stat to shoot you up the search engine rankings!
#4: Use An Intriguing Photo
Whether it’s a beautiful picture, an odd picture, or a graphic that displays intriguing information that a reader will take at least some time to look over and study, a good photo at the top of the page can make a huge difference in boosting up those precious seconds and even giving direct value that invites a reader to test out those first few paragraphs to see if they build suspense, give value, or otherwise deliver on the promise of that initial photo. These are easy ways to keep attention for longer.
#5: Tease A Call To Action
If you have something to offer the reader like a free course, consultation, or a pitch for your services, don’t just have a call to action at the end of your post – but why not have a tease pointing to that call of action at the end of the article? Even something as simple as “special offer at the end” could be the tie breaker that turns a 10 second skim into a 2 minute read.
While there are many other ways to improve the bounce rate of a website, these five can be a powerful way to really improve this crucial stat and get the SEO results that you want.
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