Top 9 Tips to a Lower Bounce Rate on Google Analytics

As important as incorporating some basic keyword research and backlinking might be to landing high on search engine results, all the SEO techniques in the world will not help you if your content sucks. Before you start cranking out copy, spend some time thinking about who your target audience is and the kind of site that they are looking for. Be as authentic as possible and try to strike a tone that is designed to engage readers and lower your bounce rate.

3. Appropriate Keywords

One of the most common causes of a low bounce rate is the use of keywords that attract visitor who are looking for information that is not contained on your page. By using research tools like Google Analytics, you can find out where your visitors are coming from and what they are looking for. If you are trying to drive traffic to a site devoted to heirloom tomatoes and have a high bounce rate from visitors who are looking for more general information about tomato gardening, you need to adjust your strategy. Either

4. Internal Links

No matter how awesome you are, you can't expect every visitor to check out all of your material based on one piece of content. Include a few anchor links to other pages on your site in the body of an article so that visitors have something to do after they tear themselves away from your Top 10 Navel Gazing Tips article.

5. Join the KISS Army

Experienced developers are already familiar with the KISS principle, but it bears repeating. All websites and blogs have lower bounce rates the moment that they incorporate white and black stage makeup. Pyrotechnics and a super long tongue help too, but remember to keep it simple, stupid.

6. Lose the Autoplay

"Hello, thanks for visiting Potted Plant Forum, the premier online destination for talking about potted - hey, where ya going?" If the purpose of your site warrants an introductory video, at least give your visitors the opportunity to choose whether or not they want to play it. There's nothing quite like surfing in public and having to rush for the mute button because you happened to land on some weirdo's website who felt that setting a MIDI file of "Don't Stop Believing" set the perfect tone for his content.

7. Respectable Spelling and Grammar

I've yet to see an article that lectured about grammar and spelling that didn't come packaged with some glaring mistakes, and I'm sure that this piece will be no exception. The thing is that an intelligent writer can shred his or her credibility with a few typos and grammar errors, no matter how informative an article might be. Come back to your work once you've completed it, and take the time to edit your work with fresh eyes. By establishing credibility with your readers with well written and edited work, they will be more likely hang around and see what else you have to say.

8. Shorten the Page Load Time

This one might be a hard sell if you are working in a kitchen with too many cooks. Still, letting everyone throw their own ingredients into your site's landing page is a recipe for a exhausting page load time. A site that takes more than a few seconds to load will have visitors bouncing off faster than fleas jumping off something that fleas jump off of quickly.

9. Popups? Really?

There is a special grapefruit spoon that I have reserved for anyone out there who still has third party popups launching on first time viewers. Unless your page is devoted for a niche topic with seriously devoted followers, popups for site surveys and subscriptions are out of the question too. I'm looking at you, AC.