One of the most important metrics that can help you understand how your blog is working is the bounce rate. This percentage increases every time someone leaves your website without interacting with the content.
Whatever the objectives you want to achieve with your blog, you need the people who visit it to read the posts and click on your pages to get there. And, when this is happening, you’ll notice that your SEO ranking also improves.
Does your blog have a high bounce rate? That needs to change! The good news is that there are lots of things you can do to reduce it, and all within reach. We’re going to look at what exactly a bounce rate is and how to reduce it without deep diving into analytics. Easy peasy.
What is a bounce rate?
It’s the percentage of users that exit your website without taking any action or interacting with your content. In general, the smaller this percentage, the better. When the bounce rate is low, it means that your website meets the expectations of those who visit it.
And what is an acceptable bounce rate? There is no one size fits all answer to this, but in general, if your blog’s bounce rate goes above 60%, it’s time to take action. Some advice? Don’t despair and compare your metrics with those of other websites. You’ll be more successful if you set some objectives to improve your own results.
Let’s start with the basics
No matter how good the content of your blog is, if you use an unpleasant combination of colors, no one will stick around for long. The same will happen if it’s complicated to navigate or the user experience isn’t good. For example, does your website take ages to load? Are there ads that sometimes obscure your content? Are the posts well organized?
Sometimes, adjusting the bounce rate is as simple as fixing a cookies banner that’s not working right and is impeding clicks on your content, for example. Check your blog with a critical eye from different devices and resolve any elementary usability issues.
When it comes to design, the idea is for your blog to be a welcoming place that makes people want to stay. It’s difficult to see this objectively, especially if you designed it yourself. You know what tends to work really well? Asking for feedback in your circles. You’re sure to discover interesting things!
Good writing matters
Your blog can only work if what you write is of interest to the people who visit it. Obvious, right? Well… not always. This is something that everyone knows, but that they may not always take into account when it comes to creating content.
Knowing the people that visit your blog and providing value to them is fundamental. Don’t let the theory (in this case, inbound marketing) make you blind to the journey.
The best way to connect with your audience is to forget about SEO while you’re writing and imagine you’re conversing with them. You can optimize it later! Give them a face; write as if you were talking to a friend or family member or whoever most resembles your target audience.
The ultimate test? When you’ve finished, read your post out loud. Does it sound good? Then I’m sure they’ll like it.
And a good layout
By now, I don’t think it’s a secret that these days we all read less and less. That’s why your content needs to leap off the page right into their eye sockets.
We all do the same thing when we land on a post: we scan the title and the bits in bold, quickly seek out the images and videos, and when we finish this visual inspection, if nothing has captured our attention, we leave. This means that you barely have 2 seconds to hook your visitor.
It’s cruel, isn’t it? Hours and hours of your hard work creating content can be thrown away in the blink of an eye. It’s like cooking; 3 hours to make a lasagna that hardly lasts 10 minutes on the table. The difference is that no one can live without food, but they could live without content… You need to give them real solid reasons to stay.
They say you should structure your posts clearly, with hierarchical headings and subheadings. I would also add that it’s best to use good-sized fonts that are easy to read. This makes it easier for people to scan the content. Add some bold text and some lists too, to make it even more legible.
Another idea is to break up blocks of text by adding quotes and attractive calls to action, in different colors. This gives the eyes a break.
Now take a few steps back from your work, like the great painters. Is the important stuff what stands out? Then you’ve done a good job.
All that’s left is to add visual elements like images, videos, or infographics. They’re the most successful formats. Now your post looks like something people want to read!
Annihilate your bounce rate with interactive content
As I was saying, visual content attracts the attention of visitors to your blog. If as well as being visual it’s also interactive, it’ll really engage them, keep them on your site, and make sure they’re feeling click-happy. Which is exactly what you want. What better than interactive content to ensure interaction?!
If you’re still unsure about what interactivity means, you can get the clarification you need here. Think you need to know how to program to make interactive content? Nope!
With Genially you can create all kinds of interactive visual content in a super easy way. There are loads of templates for creating infographics or animated and interactive presentations with which to enrich the content of your blog and drastically reduce your bounce rate. You can create content on any topic, like these awesome examples:
3 little extra tips
- Always link to valuable content from your posts, but edit the links so that they open in a new window. Most platforms nowadays allow you to select this option when you add a link. This way your blog remains open and when your reader is finished checking out the content at the other end of the link, they’ll come back to your page.
- Add suggested content: include internal links to your most read blog posts or other related posts. The broader the selection you offer, the more possibilities you have of it being of interest to your audience.
- Set up a way to measure scroll depth, which is how far into each article your audience reads. This tip is a little more complex, but not impossible. And you know what? The result is really worth it! It will benefit you in 2 ways:
- If you find out at what point your readers exit your posts, you can place some striking content just before that point to catch their attention.
- Setting up this metric will mean that the scrolls of the people that visit your page count as events. Your bounce rate percentage will drop as if by magic.
Want even more ways to reduce your blog’s bounce rate? I recommend this post by Neil Patel, who is an authority on digital marketing. Let me know in the comments which tips you’ll be putting into practice!
