Are your visitors engaged with your WordPress blog or bouncing out after just a few minutes? Knowing your blog’s bounce rate – and understanding the factors that affect it – are essential to improving your visibility in search results and your visitor’s overall experience.
Your blog’s bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who arrive at your website, view only one page, and then leave before going any deeper. Thanks to Google’s latest algorithm tweaks, bounce rates are more important than ever. A high bounce rate tells Google that your site lacks quality content, burying your blog in search results.
Is your site suffering from a high bounce rate? Here’s what you need to know.
How to Fix a Bad WordPress Blog Bounce Rate
So, what exactly is a bounce rate?
As defined by Google Analytics, a bounce rate is a “measure of visit quality.” Google calculates bounce rate by taking the total number of visits viewing only one page and divides this number by the total entries to a page. Visitors may view just one page on your site and then “bounce”. Common reasons for bouncing include:
- Clicking on a link to in your blog to a different website
- Clicking “back” to leave your blog
- Typing a new URL
- Closing the open window or tab
- Slow load speeds – site is too graphic heavy to load quickly
What is a ‘bad’ WordPress blog bounce rate?
The average bounce rate is 40%, but can vary based on industry. According to Google, the following are average website metrics:
- Average time on site: 190.4 seconds
- Average pageviews: 4.6
- Bounce rate: 40.5%
Bounce rate varies widely by industry. For example, FAQ service sites have a low rate average of 10-30%. Content websites with high search visibility for irrelevant terms have a much higher bounce rate of 40-60%. In contrast, news websites with relevant content material corresponding with search terms have a lower rate of 30%.
What factors affect my bounce rate?
Pop-up ads, streaming video, and streaming music that automatically starts when visitors go to a site negatively affect bounce rate. After all, no one wants to visit a blog and be bombarded by loud videos and music. That’s the equivalent to “welcoming” a visitor by screaming in their face. Poor site layout, bad design, or even offensive colors and graphics can have visitors clicking the back button.
How do I find my bounce rate?
From your Google Analytics account, select Audience -> Overview. You’ll see a list of visitors, page views, average visit duration and bounce rate. For more information on visitor engagement, including visit duration, go to Audience -> Behavior.
How can I improve my bounce rate?
Quality, engaging content ensures visitors stick around to explore your site. Don’t waste your time optimizing for high-visibility keywords that have little relevance to your actual material. Instead, attract the right visitors by optimizing for keywords that match your blog’s content.
- Keep visitors engaged by posting a question at the end of your blog to stimulate discussion.
- Ditch the pop-up ads and automatic videos.
- Give visitors reason to stay: include links to three popular posts at the end of each post.
- Take a look at your site’s navigation. Is it easy for visitors to find what they need?
- Speed up load time with a WordPress plugin that compresses images and caches your site.
What is your site’s bounce rate?
