Source: http://searchenginewatch.com/sew/how-to/2431671/14-ways-to-reduce-your-sites-bounce-rates
Is your site’s bounce rate high? Keep site visitors from leaving your pages. Below are some tips to entice them view more and stick around.
1. Check that your pages load fast on mobile and desktop.
- People abandon sites that are slow to load
- Users may wait for about 2 seconds
2. Provide all the information that visitors may need.
3. Avoid attracting clicks through clickbait, pop-ups, or annoying ads.
- Your content should be relevant to the headline.
- Users bounce quickly if you trick them into clicking on ads.
- A huge pop-up will make visitors hit the back button.
4. Provide users with links to other interesting articles.
- Use internal linking
5. Make sure your external links open to a new window.
- External links make users leave your site and inflate your bounce rate.
6. Appealing site design.
- Convey a certain level of professionalism
7. Check your article formatting.
- Have clear sub-headings, bullet points, images, and bold text on key stats and points
8. Provides users an easy navigation option.
- Site search
- Make navigation intuitive and consistent.
9. Make your calls to action clear.
Bounce rate could be an indication of how relevant your landing page is. If it is high, it could mean that your page or content has not delivered what the visitor is looking for. In SEO, it could be a useful ranking factor.