Are people abandoning your website?

August 2008

Well, of course some people will be, because they were simply not after whatever it is you sell … they are in the wrong place! What about the others, what's happening to them? You can look at bounce rates to help you understand whats happening.

Are you measuring your bounce rates? These are the visitors who are landing on your site and are leaving without making a second click. Bounces are like a negative statistic – your website failed to engage them and they did not give you a second look.

Average Metrics Produce Average Results

Your web statistics reporting will give you an average site-wide bounce rate but the overall bounce rate is just that – an average. If you want to know where the problems really exist you will need to dig deeper.

Not all pages are equal

Which pages are people leaving from? Find out which are your top bounce pages (the pages most people abandon your site from) and try to analyse why visitors are bouncing off them.

Not all bounces are equal

Take a look at where your traffic is coming from. Analyse how people are getting to your top bounce pages. Consider

• Did they get what they expected ?
• Do you have links and calls to action to move the visitor beyond the page they landed on?
• Is your navigation available on the page they landed on?

Web analytics are great at reporting what happened but you need to consider why.

If a source indicates people have almost accidentally landed on your website then don’t be concerned about bounces from that page.

If people click on a link or search for a keyword that is specific to what you have to offer then this indicates they are interested in your product or services. High bounce rates from these pages and traffic sources are a concern therefore it is worth doing some analysis of the pages and traffic sources to improve your conversion rates and decrease your bounce rate on those pages.

Bounce rates are just one small aspect of the information your web statistics offer you. Using this information gives you the opportunity to grow and develop your website into a truly remarkable working tool for your business.

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