High bounce rates are a common problem for many small business websites. According to Kiss Metrics, common reasons include bad content structure, boring design, bad navigation, and poor site legibility. It is important to design your website accordingly to minimise user frustration and maximise customer retention.
Apart from focusing on the appearance of your site, it is also important to consider the following tips to keep your visitors browsing for much longer:
The Readable Content
Make your content more readable by focusing on the format and adopting a few techniques. Make sure to cut the paragraphs so they consist of no more than five sentences. It is also important to use subheadings to break up the content into sections.
Other tips include adding bulleted lists and italicising keywords and phrases. While these techniques seem simple, they make a website easier to engage with and reduce bounce rates.
Provide Relevant Internal Links
You can keep visitors browsing for much longer by adding internal links to related pages throughout the website. Keep in mind to structure them with the aim of helping readers find information that will interest them. Present readers with multiple content options that they will like.
Avoid using links as an opportunity to keyword-stuff your link with plenty of SEO phrases. Search Engine Journal and Nu Studio suggest making the content interesting and finding a way to insert relevant links naturally.
Persuade the Readers
Ask your visitors to do something for you if you want them to stay on your site longer. Recommend suggested posts on your website or ask them to leave comments on your blog post. You could also provide links to free and interesting videos on your site.
It is also important to perform an investigation of your site’s analytic data. This is to determine the causes of your website losses and how you can prevent them.