Web design tips to reduce your bounce rate
Published: July 2020
Web design tips to reduce your bounce rate and keep customers engaged
If you check your website’s Google Analytics regularly, then you will be familiar with the term “bounce rate.” Your bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who arrive on your website and leave without visiting any other pages.
People can land on any page of your website – not just your homepage. That’s why it’s important to have a user retention strategy that encompasses every aspect of your web design.
Bounce rate is more than just a vanity metric, it’s a vital part of your web design approach. The longer your visitors stay on your website, the more engaged they are. A lower bounce rate will lead to more website conversions and better customer advocacy from the outset.
Don’t worry if you’re not sure where to start with reducing your bounce rate, keep reading to discover five handy web design tips to keep your customers engaged, no matter what page they land on.
Strong call-to-actions
Without a clear call-to-action (CTA), your customers won’t know what you want them to do. If your landing pages include too many CTAs, you risk watering down the message and confusing your visitors even more.
We recommend placing one clear CTA above the fold on your website homepage, services/product pages and landing pages. This way, your website visitors can see exactly what you want them to do. On your homepage, you may choose to include several CTAs, but make sure that the messages don’t conflict with each other.
Tell a story
All great copywriting is about the reader, not the writer. Keep your visitors engaged with copy that tells a story – and position them at the forefront of it. Many businesses invest in beautiful web design and then treat copywriting as an afterthought, but if the quality of your writing doesn’t match up to your design, then your visitor will soon get bored and bounce.
The easiest way to ensure your copy is interesting to your reader is to consider what problem they have, and how you can solve it. Why does your product or service appeal to them and why should they choose you? Don’t fall into the habit of simply listing your key features, instead you should highlight why those features are important to your visitor. Cap it off with a strong CTA and you’ve got yourself a powerful lead generation tool.
Keep it relevant
Your homepage is a vital part of your web design, however, without dedicated landing pages, your visitor might not immediately find what they are looking for. Landing pages are particularly important for SEO, as your visitor might land on your website from a quick Google Search. Your landing page must provide the customer with the answer to their search query, and then go onto explain why you are qualified to provide this information and how they can find out more.
If you don’t create highly optimised landing pages, your visitors won’t find the answers they need and will head elsewhere.
Always test
You might think that you know best, but that’s not always the case. Ask some of your existing clients to provide feedback on your website – what do they like about it? What do they think could be improved? When you are working on a web design project every day, it can be hard to see the wood for the trees. So, your customers can give you some invaluable insight into how your website could be improved and what would keep them engaged for longer.
Optimise your site speed to help reduce bounce rate
Users are impatient and if they have to wait too long for your website to fully load, they will bounce. All web designers know that site speed is important, but did you know that 40% of users will abandon your website if it doesn’t load within three seconds? We also know that if your website is a notorious slow loader, it will affect your Google ranking.
There are plenty of quick fixes to improve a slow website, such as compressing images and tidying up your plugins. To find out more about improving your loading speed, check out our blog post all about speeding up your website.
