Do you know what your bounce rate is for your website? If you don’t, then you are missing out on a way to increase your SEO search rankings as well as your conversions. The bounce rate, simply, is the amount of time a visitor is spending at your website. The lower it is, of course, the worse it is for you. You think you have the greatest website design in the world but when you check your recent bounce rates, you find that visitors are only spending a few seconds at your site. Why is that? Why are they fleeing?
They come, they see, they flee. You can have the greatest product or service in the world but if your website is not turning interest into sales, it may be time to try and figure out why. It all begins, of course, with the design of your site, especially the home page. Design is crucial yet too many small businesses leave their site design in the hands of graphic designers. These “graphic artists”, for the most part, know absolutely nothing about sales, marketing, or SEO. You may think your site looks dynamic and appealing, but is it? Just because it looks nice to you, doesn’t necessarily mean that it will be effective.
If your site is too busy, they will leave. If you are heavy with images and graphics at the top of the page, the search bots and spiders will not take the time to wade through your slideshows and fancy graphics. They will simply move on to a more text heavy top of a page where they can immediately discern what the site is, what it’s selling, and get that info up on an immediate SERP.
Recent market research declares that a visitor will eye the center of your page first and then work their way to the sides of the page. If what you want them to do is not right there in front of them, they are leaving. If what they are looking for is right in front of them at your rival’s page, then you lost a sale and, maybe, a long term customer. Also, somewhat in the same vein, if your page is taking longer than three seconds to load, they are gone.
Your SEO strategies are vital to attracting the kind of customer you really want to come to your site. Your SEO defines their expectations. It tells them exactly how you will help them and how you will add value to their lives. The more exact your SEO, the less of a bounce rate you are likely to have.
Finally, most sites fail, and end up with huge bounce rates, because there is no call to action on the home page or subsequent landing pages for a product or a service. You must let them know exactly what you want them to do and how you want them to do it. Make it as easy as possible for them to buy from you. The more steps involved, the more forms to fill out, the higher the bounce rates.
Just remember that your SEO efforts and your social media presence exist for only one reason and that reason is to drive traffic to your site. Your site exists for only one reason and that is to keep a visitor there until they have made a purchase. If none of this seems to be happening, it may be time to re-organize and re-design until all of this is doing exactly that – making conversions.
-Written by Kevin Sawyer
SearchPro Systems
2024