Do you want people to stay on your site longer? Of course! We are talking about lower bounce rates. In tech terms, your bounce rate is the % of visitors that leave only after a few seconds. You can find your bounce rate by installing something like google analytics on your website.
Your website is your digital home and in this house, we like visitors. We want people to get take off their shoes, get comfy and stay a while. We are NOT subscribing to the Martin Payne, “Get to steppin!” hosting method, funny as it may be.
So what should we do? Simplify! Anyone who has watched a promo for “Hoarders” knows that when clutter gets out of hand, it’s pretty freaking scary.
People over-stuff their websites, too. Why? They are afraid of missing out on an opportunity. So, they put everything they can possibly offer + the kitchen sink + a partridge and pear tree on their site. I get it. I don’t want to miss out either but when you jam-pack your website it leaves people overwhelmed and heading for the hills. But never fear, you can fix this…
1. Find your site’s purpose
Your website should have one main goal. Something like getting people to opt-in to your mailing list or getting them to read your blog posts. Think about a site like google, they want you to search. No question. No confusion about where to look or what to do.
“A confused mind always says no.” Marie Forelo – Tweet It out, Yo!
When they land on your homepage, people want to know:
- What you do
- How it can help them
- What to do next
If isn’t clear, then they will jump ship since the internet offers so many choices. Hook’em by giving them what they want.
Action Step: Figure out your goal and get rid of anything that doesn’t help that goal. Be ruthless. Don’t worry about missing out. If the majority of people leave your site because it’s overwhelming, you will miss out on way more than you did by removing that item. Make sure the things people want to know are front and center.
2. Get above fold
What’s the fold? It’s the area people see on your website before they need to start scrolling. All the smarty pants say if you want to increase the effectiveness of your website, get your most important content (those goals, again) above the fold. It’s where the magic happens. Boom chica boom boom!
Mail Chimp knows their purpose – To get you to sign up! The call-to-action is simple, easy to understand and above the fold. The colors are limited and the button stands out.
Action Step: Don’t bury important things in your footer. Get that content above the fold. Shorten the header height or rearrange some things on your site if you have to.
3. Don’t go color crazy
It’s easy to get carried away with color, which can once again lead to overwhelm. What you want to do is stick to a color palette. It helps with branding and it’s easy on the eyes. Choose 2 main colors and then some subtle or neutral colors. Use your bolder colors when you want your audience to do something like click a link or press a button and keep the rest simple. Derek Halpern has a great video on using colors help conversion rates. Color can help people move throughout your site. Use it wisely.
Action step: Pare down your color palette to 2 main colors and 2 subtle/neutral colors. Need help picking colors? They should go with your brand personality, see how to brand yourself for a worksheet on how to find yours.
4. Beware of the paradox of choice
It’s strange but true, the more choices you have; the harder it is to make decisions. Barry Schwartz gives you the low down in his Ted Talk, The paradox of choice (Note: This is a long video. You might want to grab some popcorn). Too many choices can led to stress and indecision. What it means for your site is that people will just leave. Instead of giving people so many choices to make up-front, give them a few options that lead to another set of choices. Make it easy for them to move through-out your site without too much soul-searching.
Banana Republic chunks their information down, with simple buttons with images, instead of overloading you a lot of text. After you click on “new arrivals” you get many more options.
Action step: Give people limited options, especially above the fold. Consolidate pages, if possible. Can your testimonials go under your “about page”? Find ways to chunk your information down, into smaller pieces that lead to more information. Creating a resource page or a “New to this site, start here” page is a good way to keep your audience from being overloaded.
So, what do you think? Have any other tips to lower bounce rates? Let me know in the comments.
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