How do you address 95% bounce when in makes no sense?

[seoatsea]

I have a content rich site. All of the feedback I get from users is positive in nature and the content matches exactly what people are searching for. It's easy to match search keywords with appropriate content on a "how to" site.

Yet, from day one I am seeing 95+ bounce rates with time on site around 20 seconds.

There are pages however with hundreds of comments and active discussions, so I have no idea how to address this problem.  I have researched bounce rates and time on site until I am blue in the face with no luck in resolving the problem.

Can you suggest somethings that I should change or address?

high_bounce_Page_1.jpg

[EGOL]

We have been able to increase the number of pages viewed by the average visitor by posting blocks of "recommended" "related" and "most popular" articles within and beside our content.  These blocks each contain links to about six to eight related articles with an attractive thumbnail.

Visit sites like CNN and look at how they invite you to view more.  Newspaper sites make money by getting you to view lots of pages... so they are usually good at offering more content options.

If people are bouncing that means they are only viewing one page.... put some options in their face in an attractive way.

Also, I don't know what your site looks like... making the design attractive, happy, credible and inviting is important to making visitors want to stay.

[evolvingSEO]

Hi

The high bounce rate is due to a low number of pages per visit.  When a user visits one page, even if they are on it for 10 minutes, if they don't go to any other page, it still gives you a bounce.  So you're seeing pages per visit as 1.2, 1.1 etc - this means lots of one page visits, thus the high bounce rate.

See if the high bounce correlates to new visits vs return or landing on the homepage vs inner pages.  Check all your landing pages, and see if people are landing on one page (an inner article etc) and leaving.  Maybe they're coming in all on long tail searches right to a specific article.

-Dan

[AaronSchinke]

In some situations a higher bounce rate could be a good thing. This could be a sign of very relevant landing pages. Of course this all depends on the goal of your site...

[KeriMorgret]

I looked at the URL in your traffic report, and went to a random page. I chose this one on finding business accounting software. http://www.urhowto.com/business-finance/accounting-small-businesses/

The inline ads are for umbilical cord banking and baby bags, the suggested websites are for solar power, and the most recent comments are for articles on babies, fashion, and relationships. Maybe looking at making your recent comments and ads and things more related by category? If I'm in a business section, show me only comments from business?

Do you have your analytics set so you can see where people are clicking out? Are they going to the resources you're suggesting in your text? Are they clicking on ads? ie are you actually making money, even if they leave?

[Getz.pro]

If people are coming and finding what they want, they will read then leave, thus a bounce as some of your results show. I would also look into EGOL's suggestion and prompt people to click on other content.

[SEMPassion]

It doesn't appear from your original post that people are finding what they want and then living as you state your average time on site is around 20 secs.  I would tend to lean toward Keri's and Egol's comments in looking to address the problem.

[oznappies]

I noticed a lot of Adsense in prominant places on your pages, even a big banner from on-line dating. Is the site doing well with AdSense? If so, you visitors may read a little of what you offer then click through to the next site. I know if I see a site covered in ads, I am more likely to return to google and check the next option. The ads Google Adsense is applying are also quiet out of context. e.g. Imagine a big burly bikie visits your site to read about motorcycles, does he see an ad for Harley Davidson, no he is presented with ones on 'trying to conceive', how does adsense make that connection?

Also people love to see active fresh content and the dates on your entries as I click each of the top links show 2009 or 2010 articles. There is also significant time span between articles inside the one topic. As Egol says have allok at high retention sites and see what you are doing different.

If you cover such a broad range of topics, users may just be interested in the specific one they came to see.

I would also suggest to move 'recent comments' and 'recent searches' higher toward the top of the column and login further down. If you want people to click through to other article on your site then make sure they are prominent. I also see 'leave a comment' but do not see any comments just ads.

To lower bounce rate you need to

• provide information relevant to your visitor
• have fresh content
• make it easy for the visitor to find other interesting articles
• decide if you want ads or visitors

There is my quick usability study.