The bounce rate refers to the number of people who visit your site and leave without clicking on and viewing any other pages. It is important to get this number as low as possible – after all, you want your visitors to spend time on your site exploring and reading the content you have created for them. A low bounce rate means you are engaging visitors and capturing their interest, both of which are good indicators that your site is performing well.
Reducing the bounce rate can be tough. You’ll need to keep in mind what type of site you have and what visitors are looking for. It is also a good idea to look at the rate similar sites in your industry have. If a competitor’s bounce rate is dramatically lower than yours, it’s apparent that either you’re either doing something wrong or they are doing something right. Here are six ways to tweak your website design to improve engagement.
1) Organise the content
The more organised the content is, the more likely visitors will be to read additional articles and spend more time on the site. You should make it as easy as possible to browse and offer suggestions for other similar pieces that people might find interesting based on what they are reading, or what is currently popular. Organisation is key to performance and should be a central focus of your design.
2) Make the site legible
Your site should be designed so that content is easy to read and absorb. It is no use having a well written piece that is poorly presented, because people will simply ignore it. Successful web design is clear, fresh, and encourages people to click and navigate.
3) Open links in new tabs
Having links on a site is important because it makes the page seem more credible. When visitors click a link you want it to open in a new tab so it doesn’t take them away from your site. You can even have a little design touch that changes the name on your tab to encourage people to click back on it once they have visited the other site.
4) Make visitors click
An easy way to tailor your design to encourage people to click and browse further is to have larger design elements on landing pages. Big images capture the interest of visitors and they will then either scroll or click to find more content. The large images also make your site look more modern and fresh.
5) Be mobile friendly
Sites can have an extremely high bounce rate if they are not mobile friendly. More and more people are browsing on portable devices, so it is now very likely that visitors to your site will be accessing it via smartphone or tablet. If the design is not responsive, they will quickly click off and you’ll have lost them. Responsive web design is essential.
6) Prioritise loading times
Consumers are increasingly impatient and want their sites to load up as quickly as possible so they can find what they are looking for. Websites that are code heavy or feature a lot of flash content are likely to be slow and put visitors off. You should aim for your site to load within a few seconds. Modern minimalist designs support this. Our talented web designers in the North East can ensure that your site is working as hard as it should be to retain the interest of your visitors.