Eight Ways To Reduce Your Web Page Bounce Rates

Are too many of your website visitors bouncing away after they see just one page on your website? If your bounce rate is below 20 or 30% you probably have a very good entry page. 

In some cases you may want only a precisely targeted visitor group to proceed beyond the entry page. If not, a bounce rate of over 50 or 60% requires immediate attention.

Here are eight practical methods to reduce the bounce rates...

Improve your web page headline

Most times a wrong web page headline can make the visitor quickly click the back button. Your headline should make the visitor want to continue reading. See creating good headlines.

Add Videos, pictures or screen shots that will catch attention

Adding a nice screen shot of your product or a photo will cause visitors to give a second look. Use a good caption below the picture to grab their attention and make them interested.

Change your website design

If your bounce rates are way too high, a new web site design may help. Go for a simple, practical but decent looking design.

Improve the web page load time

Is your web page loading too slow? Remove unwanted images or optimize the images. Get rid of all unused style elements

Target the right visitors

Are your site visitors coming to your site with the wrong expectation? You may have optimized your web page for the wrong keywords or others may be linking to your site with an incorrect anchor text. Use a software like SEOLab Professional (for semantic keywords) and Good Keywords to find better keywords.

If you are using Pay Per Click, make sure that your advertisement text is precisely targeted. Try different ad combinations till your bounce rate improves.

Remove Annoyances

Does your web page have anything that annoys your visitors?

What is annoying is highly subjective. So you should have a good understanding of your target customer. A simple rule is to always make everything very easy for your visitors.

Change from hard-sell to soft-sell

Are you trying to hard-sell your product when a soft sell is more ideal? This is a very common reason for customers to leave immediately.

Your product pricing is also an important factor that contributes to a high bounce rate. The way you present your product is very important if it is an expensive product.

Provide more choices

If you have other products or services provide links to those. Add a prominent button, make a nice looking graphical banner or stamp that will catch their attention and so on.

Be careful with this though. Too many choices can cause visitor confusion and make genuine prospects click away to a different but wrong product.

Taken From: http://www.seolab.com/strategy/bounce.php