The bounce rate is one of the most influential factors in determining the search engine ranking of a WordPress site. Maintaining a lower bounce rate is one way of keeping the website as per Google algorithms.

Before diving straight into the process of decreasing the bounce rate, it is important to comprehend what it actually means?

What is Bounce Rate?

Bounce rate is a term used for internet marketing for analyzing the web traffic. It is the percentage of visitors who enter the website and then leave it, without navigating the other pages of the site. Essentially, it implies single-page sessions divided by all the sessions. It is also considered a good indicator to find out the relevant content as per the user needs. Use tools like Google Analytics for calculating the bounce rate of WordPress sites.

It is extremely important not only for boosting user engagement and experience but also for boosting search engine optimization ranking.

The bounce rate is one of the serious issues faced by many websites, but they’re so many ways to deal with this problem.

Below are some tips and strategies to keep your visitors engaged with your WordPress site:

INCREASE WEBSITE SPEED

There is no user in this world who would like to tolerate slow loading websites. The only situation in which you can afford to ignore the loading speed is when you’re the only provider of a particular service, goods or content. Or else, it is time to improve the loading speed of the site, as no user will bother to sit around and wait for your website to load.

OFFER QUALITY AND INFORMATIVE CONTENT

Provision of quality and informative content is without a doubt an elixir for the website success. Poor and duplicate content is not only going to hype the bounce rate of your WordPress websites, but also make you lose the credibility among the users. A user who visits a site and does not get what he wants, there are full chances that he might won’t turn up again to your site.

BREAKDOWN LONG CONTENTS INTO PARTS

Give your customers what they are really looking for i.e., an easy, concise and informative content. It is crucial as people do not want to unnecessarily read irrelevant and long content. Therefore, break down your content into a well-structured format and highlight main points. So, that a visitor can easily find what he is looking for and stay around to build further curiosity in the content.

DON’T USE TO MANY POP-UPS

It is true pop-ups are good for boosting conversion and subscription rate, but it is also equally true that it also involves a tremendous risk of annoying visitors. There are many people who immediately shut pop-ups and navigate away from that site. So, use a considerable number of pop-ups on the website.

ENHANCE MOBILE RESPONSIVENESS OF THE SITE

There are significant numbers of a visitor who access the internet through smartphones and tablets, so make the WordPress sites according to small screen sizes. You can easily handle this problem by choosing themes that are mobile responsive. There is no need to spend big bucks for this, as hundreds of free themes available on the web.

WORDPRESS SITE DESIGN AND USER EXPERIENCE

The design of a WordPress site is of great consequence and should be well taken care of. A clean and pleasing website is more important in situations like when content is imperfect or as per the need of the visitors, to encourage visitors to stick to the sites and check out the other content on that.

INTERNAL LINKING

This is another way to keep user stick around the sites. In spite of attaching external resources all the time, try referring to the content of your own site. A plugin like YARRP is good for doing internal linking without any stress. Even though the need for good content is irreplaceable, but you also need to focus on such strategies to grow the visitor’s interest in staying more on your site.

RETAIN FEW ADS ON SITE

It is well understood that for generating revenue, it is important to run ads on the site. But you need to do this prudently otherwise, it will cut down the revenue and decrease the number of users and their time spent on the site.

If possible, try to avoid ads completely or else keep a few ads on the homepage of the sites. For most pages, arrange your ads in text format, so that the visitor does not confuse in finding out the ad and the real content.

IMPROVE NAVIGATION PROCESS

Provide clear navigation path through the site for visitors, or else they won’t spend a single minute and will move to another website. For WordPress sites, create clear and understandable navigation in the header area. Make sure the navigation is crystal clear, quickly accessible, and not confusing to the user.

INCORPORATE DIFFERENT TYPES OF CONTENT

Another way to increase the website readability is by incorporating different types and forms of content in the site, as opposed to only textual content. Creating video content is better than the plain and simple copy of the content, in easily engaging and grabbing attention more. Try to insert high-quality images to hold the user’s attention and potentially lower the bounce rate.

CONCLUSION

It is imperative to note the decreasing bounce rate is not an overnight process. It is a continuous gradual process and requires the proper implementation of the above strategies to cut down the bounce rate. Therefore, follow the above strategies and notice the difference in your Word Press site ranking.