A bounce happens when a single visit is registered during your session, but the visitor doesn’t interact with your site and they quickly exit. High bounce rates are subjective to SEO malpractice and misunderstanding. A lot of people think that bounce rates result in low page performances, but at the same time, you should not confuse dwell time with bounce rate.

Long-clicks are better than short ones, but they both actually count as being bounces. You may even have a landing page that’s doing really well but still have a high bounce rate. This is why it’s so crucial that you interpret your bounce rate in the right context, as opposed to looking at it as just a vanity metric.

Slow Loading

A lot of people know that page loading is pivotal when it comes to website traffic. Visitors are high-velocity and they usually have very little time to spare. Google puts page speed at the top of the list when they are determining the ranking of a site too.

Studies have shown that just a 1 second delay can cause you to lose up to 7% of your website traffic, so you have to make sure that you look into this as much as possible. If you have any large media files then now may be the time for you to look into them, and you also need to reconsider scripts too. It’s helpful for you to run a page speed insight test so that you can make sure everything is up to scratch.

Misleading Descriptions

Bounce rate also happens when the wrong audience is accessing your page. If you are not advertising your website properly then this can work against you far more than you realise. Misleading title tags and even meta descriptions can all translate to very poor targeting. This is actually one of the many reasons why people often suffer from short clicks.

Users will also go back to a SERP so that they can find a page that satisfies all of their queries. The snippet of your site is the best way for you to win over your audience in the early stages. It should be an advertisement for your company, and it should reflect whatever is on that page. If you try and make out like you are offering more than you are, you shouldn’t be surprised if your bounce rate goes up.

Poor Content

If you invest a lot of time into your snippets in an attempt to get clicks but then fail to meet the same standard of quality with your content, then this will also work against you. You have to make sure that your content is meeting your customer expectations as much as possible. If you are unable to write high-quality content, then it is a good idea for you to invest in a copywriting service.

This way you can ensure that your content is the same standard of quality across your entire site. If you want to boost the quality of your content in the eyes of your search engine, then take the time to optimise your headings for keywords and also keep your phrases short. It’s also wise for you to use an enticing call to action, and mention any related entries on your blog to maintain user interest.

Error 404

Blank pages are a nightmare for your users and their experience. Most of the time, if a user sees a 404 page, they will bounce off and they will never return. Nobody likes to land on an error page, so make yours engaging if you can.

Give your error page a fun message and instead, guide users back to the part of your site where they may be able to carry on engaging with you. It’s also helpful for you to look for broken links in the search engine console where possible. If your site is poorly designed or if you are having these errors a lot, it may be worth hiring a web design agency to sort it for you.

Bad Links

It’s also more than possible that you have bad links coming from another site. It may be that people are bouncing because another source has misguided your users, and that they aren’t getting the result they think when they click on your link.

Website crawling is a great way for you to make sure that you find any unsuitable inbound links. If you do see some, then ask the author to see if they can delete the references for you. Disavow the link too, to make sure that the value of your site is not hurt in the process.

Mobile-Friendly Content

If you are still not mobile-friendly with your content, then you could be making a huge mistake. Mobile consumption and even distribution has peaked this year. 80% of the time, someone is accessing a site from a mobile device.

If you know that your analytics are showing pages performing very well for desktop users but not for mobile users, then it’s no wonder people are bouncing. It may be that your content is too wide for the screen or that you have links that are just too close together.

On top of this, it may be that your text is just too small to read. Google have a mobile-friendly test that you can use to make sure that your site is up to scratch, so look into that if possible.

Bad Form

If you have started to fill out a website form and then abandoned the process, then you are not alone. Everyone has done it from time to time because nobody wants to be stuck filling out seemingly endless information. If you want to help yourself, then you have to keep things short and relevant. You also need to make sure that things are easy to fill in too.

No Call to Action

If you do not have a call to action, then your visitor will certainly leave when they have finished reading. Why? Because they have no idea what action you want them to take.

If your business happens to promote a product or even a service that relates to the content then you need to connect this to your page. You also need to list your contact information at the bottom of the article if possible, as this will put an end to your bounce-rate woes.