Bounce rate - an important metric in SEO

One of the most common questions concerning measurement of web site activity is what is Bounce Rate and what does it mean?

Put in very simplistic terms, the bounce rate percentage is the number of people that have visted one page on your web site, and then leave. This may be for any number of reasons, but the bounce rate metric is especially important if you are trying to engage your site visitors and want them to visit other pages featuring product / service information and promotions.

Why do people bounce from my web site?

There are a number of reasons why people might contribute to a high bounce rate. The first of which can be poor keyword choice in your SEO campaign. If you are optimising your site for the wrong keywords then your site visitors might be landing on your site and not finding what they expect.

Another reason might be poor web site navigation. Maybe they find your site easily on the Google search results, but once they hit the landing page (the page on the Google link) they cant find an easy way to view other pages on your site.

Do you offer external links away from your site on your landing pages? If so, these can be a contributing factor to increasing your bounce rate. Consider your external links carefully.

If a site visitor leaves your web page open for 30 minutes, and takes part in no further SEO activity then this can be recorded as a bounce. Even opening a new tab in their web browser can classify as a bounce. Visitors may do this if they need find an explanation of a term or phrase on your web site using another method such as Google or Wikipedia. This is a great reason for making sure you right top content for your site.

To quote Google.com itself

“It is really hard to get a bounce rate under 20%, anything over 35% is cause for concern, 50% (above) is worrying.”

Sometimes, it can be difficult to get to the bottom of why your bounce rate is so high, but in time, with some careful attention you can help to turn it around. Recently, we noticed that a client was optimising their Google PPC campaign for a huge array of keywords, and since refining them and doing a bit of keyword research they have reduced their bounce rate by over 45%.

How can I improve my bounce rate?

» Check out the content of your web page. Is it self explanitory?
» Are you optimising your site for the right keywords? Is the content on your web page relevant to those keywords?
» Can people easily navigate around your web site? Do you need to consider a new menu structure?
» Do you have external links on your web page inviting people to leave your site? Remove them!

Bounce rate is an important metric in any SEO project. eSoftware Solutions are a UK SEO Company, based in Staffordshire. For more information visit our web site or call Ian on 0845 838 8588.

Twitter is severely misunderstood!

I get alot of questions at the moment about Twitter and how it can help people to promote their business. I’m finding that the main problem is that many see it as just ‘another’ social media site and as such seems to have a damanged reputation (without having been tried & tested) based on peoples views of Facebook and My Space.

First of all - let me tell you that Twitter should be an essential part to every one’s online marketing campaign. If you haven’t yet got a Twitter account - sign up right now!

So what is Twitter?

Basically, Twitter is a micro-blogging site which allows people to easily write very short (140 characters) posts, visible to people who are ‘following’ them. You can view our Twitter feed here.

Why do people use Twitter?

Twitter is a tool that allows you to build a network of ‘followers’ (contacts) to share information. This information can be absolutely anything you want. You can tell people what you are doing (although I wouldnt recommend telling people ‘I am typing on Twitter’!), you can promote your online services, alert people of interesting blog posts and news articles and much more! Generally people ‘follow’ you on Twitter because you have something in common, so you are ‘tweeting’ to a targeted audience. The more your Twitter network grows, the wider the audience for your ‘tweets’

A simple and easy place to start is to create a simple feed on Twitter and publish all or at least some of the most interesting new pages on it. Note that the URLs will be shorterned to stay in the 140 character limit!

Twitter should become a place of interaction between you and your clients (and potential clients). It was recently reported that Dell made $3m dollars by providing discount codes for their followers to purchase computers and laptops online. With this is mind can you really afford not to spend a few minutes a day ‘tweeting’?

For more information on how Twitter can help with your online marketing and search engine optimisation, or how we can manage your Twitter account and Tweet on your behalf, contact eSoftware Solutions, a UK SEO Company, on 0845 838 8588.