How to Reduce Bounce Rate; e-Commerce Strategy

When it comes to website metrics, your primary goal as an eCommerce website owner is to lower bounce rate, increase link juice, improve user experience, and so on, in order to ensure that your site ranks higher in SERPs. But what if your visitors abandon your site and never return?

This article explains what bounce rates are and how they affect your eCommerce site. In addition, we've included a few pointers to help you keep potential customers on your site for a little longer!

Getting a Glimpse of Bounce Rates

Because of its impact on rankings, the use of bounce rates has grown in popularity in recent years. Webmasters can use bounce rates to determine whether site visitors leave the landing page and go to other pages, or if their engagement ends at the landing page.

If a visitor only visits one page and then leaves, the session is considered a bounce, which is a big no-no for the vast majority of websites on the internet. During a bounce, only one request is sent to the Analytics server, and no other requests are sent during that session.

Because no further requests are sent to the Analytics server, they are unable to calculate the duration of the session, so 0 seconds are recorded for that session.

So, if a percentage of your site's visitors bounce, but your primary goal is to redirect them to more important pages, your website may be underperforming.

Bounce Rates and eCommerce

If you have a single-page website, a high bounce rate should not be concerning. If, on the other hand, your site is for an eCommerce business, you should be concerned.

The homepage is where most eCommerce websites' potential customers land; from here, they will navigate the website through the reviews, blogs, product pages, and, hopefully, the checkout page.

However, if your site has a high bounce rate, it may indicate that the potential customer lost interest while still on the first page. If this occurs, you should begin analyzing your landing page and considering why the potential buyer left your website.

Bounce Rates: What Causes Users to Leave a Website?

If you're wondering, "What would contribute to a low bounce rate?" the most common answer is to increase visitor time on site. But wouldn't that be difficult? It would, indeed. But it would be well worth the effort.

There are two reasons why visitors abandon your eCommerce websites: technical reasons and content and design reasons.

Top Reasons Users Leave Your Website

• Slow loading – this is the most common reason for a user to abandon your website. A person's average time spent waiting for a web page to load before leaving is 3 seconds!

• Video/Audio Auto Play – When a user visits a website, this is a major annoyance. Video/audio landing pages were once very popular, but they are now extremely out of date.

• Poor design – Everyone wants to land on a visually appealing and modern page. Having a visually appealing website is an important part of keeping the user engaged.

• Poor usability – Don't squander a well-designed website by making it difficult to navigate. Ensure that everything on your website is easily accessible, with clear navigation and call-to-actions.

• Inadequate content – Inadequate content can range from poor spelling and grammar to boring content. To engage the user, your content must be both informative and interesting. Also, always proofread your content before publishing it on the web.

• Outdated content – Not only will outdated content turn off users, but it will also turn off search engines. It is critical for all websites to keep their content fresh and up to date.

• Poor layout – The content must also be visually appealing. Your website's content must be properly formatted or you risk confusing your visitors.

• No "About Us" page – Having an "about us" page allows the user to see who you are and what you do, which aids in the development of trust. People dislike dealing with businesses about which they know nothing.

• No clear contact information – This may seem obvious, but you'd be surprised at how many estate agency websites lack clear contact information. A contact page should include the following information: the company name, email address, office address, phone number, and a contact form.

• Not mobile-friendly – If your website isn't clear and easy to use/view on a mobile device, you may find that many people leave it quickly if they are viewing it from a mobile device. If you don't have a website that is clear and easy to use on a mobile device, the user is likely to leave and go to a competitor's website that is easier to use on a mobile.

For e-Commerce You Can Click on This Title Below

Internal Linking and High Quality Content:Tool for Bloggers & e-Commerce

Using Anchor Texts to Reduce Bounce Rates

The majority of internet users are looking for useful information. If your site has high-quality and trustworthy content, visitors are more likely to stay and explore it further. In addition to quality content, visitors must be able to navigate the website easily.

So, how does anchor text impact user experience and, as a result, your bounce rate?

Curiosity

Because their color differs from the surrounding text, anchor texts can already draw a visitor's attention. You can engage users by using anchor texts because they want to know what they will see if they click the link.

Clickability

Using interesting anchor texts is essential to ensuring that visitors do not leave your site. For example, if you're talking about cars on your page, an anchor text like "car maintenance tips" would be more effective than just using any word that doesn't relate to the topic. When the user clicks the anchor text, a signal is sent to Analytics, indicating that the session will not be classified as a bounce.

Predictability

Users won't have to guess what's on the other side of the link thanks to anchor texts. Using clear anchor text will result in "confidence clicking."

So, using proper anchor texts should be one of your top priorities if you want to ensure that visitors do not leave your site immediately.

Increase User Engagement

Lowering your site's bounce rate is a simple task if you follow common expert advice. However, it will not be accomplished overnight. You'd have to put in the effort to ensure that you're on the right track. Changing designs or content, reducing and properly positioning pop-ups, and creating a mobile-friendly version of your site are just a few of the steps you'd have to take to maintain user engagement.

Remember that the amount of time people spend on your website reflects how they feel about it. If users abandon your site right away, something is wrong with your eCommerce site, and you need to fix it right away. Single sessions recorded on your website increase bounce rate, lowering conversions and, ultimately, profits.