Have you been diligently checking your website analytics, monitoring what works and what needs a refresh? Take a moment to review the bounce rate for your blog. Is it abnormally high? Blogs by their very nature tend to have higher bounce rates. Yet, there are things you can do to lower the bounce rate. Below we will discuss five things you can do now to improve your bounce rate and keep people engaged longer.
1. Know your Audience
One obvious reason that people are bouncing from your blog is that it isn’t connecting with them. Make sure you have a good understanding of who your audience is and what they are interested in. Use words that they would know, not your internal company jargon. And most importantly, deliver on what you promise. Don’t title your blog one thing and then talk about something completely different. If someone is clicking through to your blog based on the subject line, ensure that they will be satisfied once they begin reading.
2. Add More Visuals
People are naturally drawn to images more so than text. You are likely to keep visitors engaged with your blog longer if there is a lot of imagery to look at. Consider incorporating several supporting images or even an infographic to keep users engaged. Sam Bitton from Imonomy recommends adding a big image at the beginning of each page so that people must scroll down to view the content (Social Media Today). This encourages interaction which increases the amount of time people will stay on your site.
3. Make it Easy to Scan
If a visitor arrives to your blog and sees a long scrolling page filled with paragraphs of content, they may decide they don’t have the time and will bounce right off of your site. You can prevent this bounce by using lists, bullet points, and pull quotes when formatting your content. Doing so will make it much easier for users to scan your blog when in a hurry.
4. Go Mobile-Friendly
If your website is not currently mobile-friendly, you might as well say goodbye to all of the potential blog views you would receive from users on mobile devices. People coming to your website from a mobile device expect to have an optimal viewing experience. If they pull up your site and find that they have to pinch and zoom to read anything, they will leave your site immediately. Making your site mobile-friendly through responsive design will guarantee that all visitors have an optimal viewing experience no matter the device.
5. Include a Clear CTA
A big part of lowering your bounce rate is increasing the number of pages a visitor visits when on your site. You can encourage users to move around your site by incorporating strong and clear CTAs (calls to action). Every blog should link to another related blog, direct people to your services page, or ask the user to contact your company. Hyperlinks and prominent navigation will also encourage users to click from page-to-page.
Now it is time to review your last few blogs and see where you can make some of these enhancements. Don’t forget to run before and after reports on your blog’s bounce rate to monitor improvement! If you need assistance with setting up or managing a blog or monitoring your site analytics, please contact Informatics.
