How to Reduce the Bounce Rate on Your WordPress Site

Bounce rate is a particular metric that tells you about the people who visit a single page on your site, but leave the website without visiting another page.

While the bounce rate depends on the type of website, a lower bounce rate is usually considered as a positive sign for a website. Having fewer bounces also indicate that the website has high-quality content that is useful for the visitors.

Continue reading to know more about the best ways to reduce the bounce rate for your WordPress site.

Speed up Your Page Loading Time

When trying to reduce the bounce rate of a website, most people assume that the problem is with the content. They ignore a simple fact that the visitors might not even get the chance to check out the page due to slow loading speed.

Since almost half of your visitors expect to load the page within two seconds or less, having a slow loading speed will frustrate your visitors, leading to a higher bounce rate. Therefore, the first attempt to reduce your bounce rate should start with optimizing your page loading speed.

Improve Readability

Poor readability is another major reason for a higher bounce rate. If your website consists of large blocks of texts, your visitors are more likely to bounce. There are several techniques to improve the readability of your blog posts. First of all, you should use sub-headings to divide the text into smaller chunks. You can use bullet or number lists to break things down into smaller steps.

Another great method is to ask questions in your content. Allow the visitors to participate in the conversation. Also make sure to use lots of relevant images, videos, screenshots, quotes, and other types of multimedia files inside your posts.

Use Compelling CTA Buttons

The main purpose of CTA buttons is to lead the visitors to your preferred direction. Using a compelling CTA button will encourage the visitors to visit other pages to check your products or services, which will result in a reduced bounce rate.

Depending on your requirements, your call to action can be a button, banner, video, or a link. Whatever it is, you need to ensure that the CTA is relevant to the page content and offers value for the visitor. For instance, if you are a software company, you can offer a free trial through a CTA button. To get the most out of your CTA, make sure you are placing it in a clearly visible location.

Target the Right Keywords

Keywords also play a critical role in the bounce rate of your website. In order enjoy a healthy bounce rate, you need to find out the special keywords that will bring the right type of visitors to your website. These visitors will engage with your content and will play key roles in reducing the bounce rate.

While there are different types of keywords, informational and commercial keywords will be the best choices to help you in this regard. Both of these types enable you to create detailed, in-depth content that will interest the visitors to spend more time on your site. Targeting these keywords will also improve your overall ranking and conversion rate for the website.

Use Internal Linking Properly

Some people will suggest you to do a lot of internal linking to reduce the bounce rate. While it might work by providing Google Analytics a proper way to measure the amount of time spent on that page, it can also lead to a confusing user experience for the visitors.

You certainly don’t want anything like that for your business website, but you want to reduce the bounce rate as well. While these two are conflicting choices, you need to find a balance between these two goals. If you think adding an internal link will complement the reading experience, feel free to do that. Just make sure that you are not going overboard with the internal linking.

Use a Mobile-friendly Layout

These days, more than half of the people are using their mobile devices to access the internet. That is why your site should have a mobile-friendly layout that loads quickly and doesn’t look ugly. Otherwise, you will experience a higher bounce rate from these visitors.

You can use Google’s mobile-friendliness tool to check out whether your website is properly optimized for mobile devices or not. In case your website is not mobile-friendly, you can use Jetpack that comes with a dedicated mobile theme. Another option is to use the WPTouch plugin to deliver a better user experience for your mobile visitors.

Ensure an Intuitive Navigation

Whether you are promoting a product or service, the ultimate goal of your website is to make the whole process effortless for the visitors. The easier you make it for them to use your website, the less bounce rate you will get in return. On the other hand, a complex navigation will confuse the visitors, and make them bounce to another site.

An intuitive navigation will provide a clear idea about the various sections on your site, and help the visitors find out what they want. Visitors are not supposed to guess and search for their desired products or services. It is your job to design and apply a clear navigation strategy so that the visitors can navigate to their desired content.

Avoid Using Popups

Most people don’t like popups on the websites, and it is an established fact. What’s more, they find the irrelevant popups annoying and distracting. However, popups also work great to grow your email list, which is essential as well. So, which way should you go – use popups, or don’t?

Well, it is always great if you can avoid using popups altogether. But, if you really want to use them, make sure they are unobtrusive and complement the visitor’s browsing experience. Nothing is more annoying than being distracted by the sudden appearance of a popup out of nowhere.

Use High-quality Images and Videos

Using high-quality multimedia is another useful technique for reducing your site’s bounce rate. There is a reason why all the leading brands invest a considerable amount of money in getting original, great-looking images for their websites. Even Google uses unique, creative images for their business tools landing page.

You can also try using videos to engage the visitors and draw their attention. This is especially applicable for business websites to show a demo of their products or to explain the services. Some people use full-screen videos as page backgrounds as well. If you do that, make sure you are keeping an eye on the page loading speed.

Final Words

Bounce rate is not a definitive metric of your website performance, but it is a vital indicator of the user experience and content quality of your website. If your WordPress site has a high bounce rate, follow the steps mentioned above to reduce the number. And if you use any other technique to reduce the bounce rate on your website, let me know by leaving a comment below.