If your marketing efforts are effective, but nobody’s there to see the results, are they really working?
Just like the proverbial tree in the forest, if you’re not looking at the data, there’s no way to know for sure whether your marketing efforts have been effective or not. When it comes to your website, metrics such as pageviews, audience demographics, and bounce rate are important aspects to keep an eye on. Though the first two are fairly straightforward and easy to understand, the latter is a little more complex.
What is bounce rate?
Your website’s bounce rate is the number of people who visit one page of your site and then leave, effectively “bouncing off” of your website without interacting with the page. The number is reported in the form of a percentage (percent of site visits which were single-page sessions), with the average resting somewhere between 40%-60%. Typically, the lower the bounce rate, the better.
Bounce rates can be affected by a few things:
- Site design – A poorly designed site will send your visitors packing. Whether it’s confusing navigation, a cluttered layout, or off-putting colors, a bad user experience is a great way to send viewers bouncing off to a more pleasant website.
- Information – Are you giving people the information they’re looking for? If a visitor comes to your site expecting contact details and service descriptions, but you just provide philosophical quotations, they’ll bounce off to a site where they find what they need, fast.
- SEO – On the same note, if your keywords and content don’t match, you’re killing your bounce rate. Make sure your website aligns with any campaigns you’re running and search terms people find your site with, providing the info they would expect.
- Pages – If you have a single page website, 100% of your site visits will be single page sessions, resulting in a very high bounce rate that is not necessary reflective of your users’ behavior.
Why is bounce rate important?
Bounce rates are a great indicator of how well (or poorly) your website is performing. A low bounce rate means your customers are finding the information they need, exploring your website, delving into multiple pages, and enjoying the user experience.
Though not an absolute measure, a high bounce rate can mean that you’re doing something wrong, and that your website needs some attention. Keep an eye on your analytics – if your bounce rate is increasing, take a hard look at your website. What has changed? What can you edit to make the experience smoother and simpler for visitors? A little trial and error testing won’t kill you, and you can use your bounce rate as an indicator of how well your changes are being received by site visitors. If your bounce rate improves (decreases), you know you’ve done something right.
Don’t let your marketing efforts go to waste by ignoring valuable website analytics. Metrics like bounce rate provide great insight into how visitors use and perceive your site. Keeping an eye on the data is an ideal way to monitor your site’s performance, especially as you make changes to improve information and increase your website’s retention.
