(Update from Raelyn: I’ve updated this article to include my current bounce rate, which has increased since I first wrote this article.)
Want to reduce your blog’s bounce rate? As of today, my blog bounce rate is 65.33%.
My blog’s bounce rate has always been a metric I hold closely to my heart. I remember being deeply concerned when my previous personal development blog’s bounce rate was sky high. I mean, who wouldn’t be deeply concerned if people are running away like their pants are on fire? 😀
From my experience, most blogs usually have a bounce rate of 60-85%. It is not odd to see a blog with extremely high bounce rates.
For instance, a loyal reader may be returning to your blog to check for any new posts, and if there isn’t any, he’ll leave the blog immediately. This doesn’t mean he doesn’t find your content engaging!
Also, the best way to reduce your bounce rate is to make your brand stand out and to create content that’s worth reading. I talk about these in other blog posts of mine.
But I’m sure you know that already.
Here are certain ninja “tricks” I employ which will help your readers navigate to different pages of your blog more easily, and hence reduce your bounce rate.
How to Reduce Your Blog Bounce Rate: Let’s Pump Out Those Ninja Tricks!
But first… What is a Website’s “Bounce Rate”?
Bounce Rate: The percentage of visitors to a particular website who navigate away from the site after viewing only one page. A higher bounce rate means more people clicking away, so a lower bounce rate is better.
1. Install the Upprev Plugin
I have installed this plugin since the birth of my blog, and I LOVE it. A little suggestion box pops up at the bottom right corner of the page when someone reads my blog posts to the 80% mark, recommending a post to them.
If you scroll down to the end of this page, you’ll see the plugin at work. It works like STEROIDS, and I have a lot of people clicking on it. This reduces my bounce rate because they just click and click and click (and never leave :P).
2. Prominent Call-to-Actions E.V.E.R.Y.W.H.E.R.E
One thing that I pride myself in doing is optimizing my website to turn any potential traffic into subscribers as much as possible. On my home page, browsers are given multiple opportunities to opt-in to my list. You see the Leadboxes on my homepage? I’m referring to those “pop-up” opt-in forms that open when you click on a button. People click on them like bees to honey. They even like clicking on my face. 😛
You can get Leadbox as part of Leadpages, which I highly recommend you to get for landing pages, leadboxes, and much more. You can learn more about Leadpages and how it has helped me so much with making $$ for my biz via my Leadpages review.
End of post call to actions, sidebar call to actions.. the list goes on. When people are happy with my website, it is my goal to ensure that they are never bored and always have an option to subscribe to my list.
3. Popular Posts Plugin
If you haven’t had a nice little popular post plugin, it’s time to install one. I use WordPress Popular Posts.
People LOVE clicking on your most popular blog posts. What I’ve noticed is that when people first hear about you from someone and end up on your blog, they go right for your popular posts first.
When people enter your site, their eyes will ROVE to your popular posts plugin. And if they like what they see there – they will click and may even open multiple tabs!
So go ahead and install that plugin and ensure that you have a list of yummylicious blog posts lined up there.
It’s all about putting your best foot forward. You can see that my readers are spoilt for choice when it comes to reading a popular post on my blog.
This reminds me of an analogy. Humans are like sheep; they love to follow other sheep 😀 Your browsers are naturally attracted to what other readers love. So popular posts work.
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4. Related Posts
If you haven’t had related posts at the bottom of every single blog post, you’re missing out a serious chance to decrease your bounce rate. Do it quick! This gives your readers another reason to stick around, especially if they have just read something they like.
At the end of every post, I offer my readers options to view related posts. They’re likely to be interested in the topic they are currently reading and would love other similar articles.
Some blogs have their related posts in thumbnails – it’s a matter of personal preference. For me, I love words more as I want my blog to appear streamlined and neat.
5. Identify & Change Your Culprit Pages With the Highest Bounce Rates
A nifty little techy trick I love is how you can use Google Analytics to view the bounce rate of specific pages. All you have to do is head to your Google Analytics Dashboard > Behavior > Content > All Pages.
You’ll be able to see the bounce rates of all the pages on your blog on one of the columns.
Picture credits: Qualaroo
Find the problematic pages and then CHANGE THEM! Some of the ways you can change things up to reduce your page’s bounce rate is to:
- Add relevant links in the blog post
- Add in more useful content into the blog post
- Add visuals and other engaging elements into your content
- Offer a free content upgrade (I wrote an article with lots of content upgrade ideas you can use).
The sky is the limit 🙂
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In a nutshell, here are the ninja tricks that reduced my bounce rate and will probably reduce yours too:
- Install the Upprev plugin
- Have prominent call to actions everywhere to entice people to join your list
- Add in a popular posts plugin
- Have a related posts plugin at the end of every post
- Identify your “problem pages” with high bounce rates with Google Analytics and change them up
I hope this helps 🙂 Have a great day ahead guys!
P.S. If you’re just starting out (like, you’re a REALLY new blogger and have not started your blog yet), check out this 4-part blogging for beginners guide where you will learn how to start a blog in 20 minutes. It’s been shared over 50,000 times and has helped thousands of new bloggers like you start successful blogs. It’s not that hard. You can do it!
xx Raelyn 🙂
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