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Reducing Your Website's Bounce Rate

Keeping visitors engaged and reducing bounce rate may actually improve your website's rankings. If

visitors are quickly abandoning your website, search engines may see this as a negative signal.

Apparently, visitors are not happy with your site and its content. They must not be finding what they are

looking for if they are leaving so quickly. If your website is not answering their question, then why

should you continue to hold such a high spot in the search results? Here are some tips on how to keep

your visitors engaged and reduce your site's bounce rate.

Increase Site Load Speed

In this day and age there is really no excuse for having a slow website. It should take no longer than six

seconds for your website to load and even that is pushing it. Unless a person really needs to visit your

site, there's a good chance they will leave if your site does not load within two to three seconds.

Optimize your images, make use of sprites and implement a caching system to improve your page's

loading speed as you diminish bounce rate.

Get Rid of the Audio

Many websites have implemented greeting messages that make use of audio and video. You may have

even visited a site or two like this. The second you land on their web- page, a person greets you by

saying, "Hello, welcome to mysite.com," and continues on to describe the business or product.

How do you feel when you land on these types of pages? There's a good chance that your first instinct

was to close the page out immediately. It's an intrusive practice simply because the user did not ask for

the audio to be played. Whether you have one of these welcome messages, video advertisements or

video content on your website, it's best to ditch the auto play and allow your website patrons to decide

whether or not they want to hear what you have to say.

Update Your Design

The web is a visual place. Websites that are aesthetically pleasing immediately receive more credibility

and even have the potential to keep your readers engaged. Think of your website as an online extension

of yourself or your company. How you present yourself to your online audience affects their impression

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of you. If your website's design is outdated or uneasy on the eyes, people may assume that you are

unprofessional or behind the times.

Keep Content above the Fold

Content should be as close to the top of the page as possible. If visitors have to scroll down the page just

to find your blog posts or information about your company, they may just abandon your site altogether.

Add a Search Box

Allow your guests the opportunity to find what they are looking for. Some like to use search boxes

regardless of whether the information can easily be found through traditional navigation techniques.

Providing them with different ways to find pages of interest on your site may keep them around longer

and in the long run reduce your bounce rate.

Get Organized

Organization is key. If your website is hard to navigate or does not work properly, users looking for your

services will leave. It causes frustration and wastes their time. Make sure that your navigation is easy to

find and also simple to use. Try not to make your visitors jump through hoops just to find what they are

looking for. Provide them with straightforward access to the information they want.

Making sure that your online guests are interested in and digesting your content creates an overall

positive user experience. Not only is this great for SEO purposes, but it also helps you forge a positive

relationship with your visitors. Factors like a website's speed, its design and how frequently it is updated

are becoming increasingly important to search engines. Keeping visitors engaged and reducing your

bounce rate may help you keep your website's rankings in the search results.

Local Online Visibility LLC

1515 Wynkoop St. #360

Denver, CO 80202

(720) 358-2552