Any idea why my bounce rate could be so high?

[wparlaman]

In my top 10 this is what I found

For my main keywords like small business internet marketing and small business seo my bounce rate is in the 40% range.

funny thing is my most popular keyword the last 30 days is "tools" which has a 98% bounce but I do not see my site ranking for this. "tools" is in my top 10 for the past year with a 75% bounce rate.

86% for radical marketing

My bounce rate has always been in the 70% range. This is why I changed my design and home page layout. My home page used to be more of a squeeze/landing page.  So I added more links to click and cleaned everything up.

I added a video training course with 10 videos you can access from my home page ( no optin required)

[AlanMosley]

Well I guess that is good news, since tools is a keyword that was never going to convert anyhow.

Your heeading and side looks fine, nice and clean professional looking, but as i said below the actual main content looks a bit hard sell. But having said that 40% for your top keywords conflicks with the spammy idea.

as for radical marketing, well i can see that getting some wierd sorts of clicks, It may be you have nothing to worry about

[wparlaman]

Well those keywords are kind of the low hanging fruit when you run an SEO consulting firm. Trying to rank for SEO, SEO consultant, SEO firm is tough.

Maybe I can try to soften up the content a bit.  I'm also going to add a video this week.

I am on the first page for my keywords but my concern is Google knocking me down for my high bounce rate.  My traffic is really increasing so I know I am doing some things right.

Thanks for your help

[philipbuuck]

Hey Bill, I don't know if this sounds like something too worrisome, but something you could potentially do is look through your analytics, match the keywords getting you traffic with the landing pages, and see if they're optimized.  Are the pages answering the people's questions clearly?  Is it giving them content that would lead them to want to read more?

For keywords that have high bounce rates (besides [tools] of course) you may want to make a page that specifically answers the searcher's questions, and perhaps end the article with a call to action to another page of your site, something that will intrigue them and get them to stick around longer.  But at least make sure the landing pages are optimized for the keywords people are finding them from.

[MarieHaynes]

No solutions here, but just a few thoughts.  When I visit this page my first thought is, "Oh this is one of those sales letter pages that just exists to make me buy an ebook.  I'm probably going to get trapped by javascript when I hit the back button."  Personally I think this style of page may have worked well a few years ago, but it's become abused by too many people.

With that being said, I think bounce rate is a metric that's hard to compare.  My top performing site has a bounce rate of 89%.  This is because people visit the page, get the info they want and then move on.  I've decreased it a bit by enticing users with tools they can use and similar pages they can visit.  But I don't think my bounce rate will ever be 50% or lower.

If I had your site I may consider trying some A/B testing with totally different kinds of designs and see what attracts and keeps the visitors best.

[ShaMenz]

Hi Bill,

I assume when you say "I do email my list with each new blog post" that you are bulk emailing your established readers, to let them know you have posted since I can't see an RSS subscribe button on the site.

The fact is that established readers for the most part don't need to read anything more than the post you are telling them about in your email. They have most likely already read any other material on your site that interests them.

It is well known that blogs with significant numbers of subscribers often have high Analytics bounce rates for this reason. The data to focus on is sources of your traffic. Do you have a large proportion of referral or direct (type-in) traffic?

The thing to remember is that the bounce rate reported in Analytics is not the same as "real bounce rate" determined independently by the engines. "Real bounce rate" takes into account time on page. I would think it most unlikely that you will see any negative impact in Google or Bing with the time on page numbers you are quoting.

My most constructive advice would be:

1. Check to see exactly what percentage of your traffic is coming from search as opposed to referrals/type-ins
2. Stop messing with things to try to fix what isn't really broken - sooner or later it will hurt you.

The other comments here about the "look" of the site are probably valid - the style does bear a resemblance to some "sales letter" type sites, but on the other hand, you do have a lot of content and it sounds like a good number of happy readers. I would think carefully about any changes you make.

Hope that helps,

Sha

[wparlaman]

Thank you Sha for your feed back. This was really helpful. I am working on a new lead gen give away and moving away from the ebook. I will be doing a video course. So maybe this will help. Most of my readers are direct response marketers so they would expect a two step lead gen offer. Thank you for your time.

[wparlaman]

Hi Marie,

Thanks so much for your feedback. I am glad I posed this question as the ebook and look of my page has been mentioned so I got to get to work. Like I said above, I am changing my ebook offer in exchange for a 7 page video training course. This might change the look and feel of my page. Thanks so much.

[MarieHaynes]

You've got a great attitude Bill!  A while back I asked some peers for feedback on my website and they gently told me a few areas where it just didn't look professional.  I ended up doing a site redesign and ended up tripling my traffic after a few months.  It pays to be humble!

[wparlaman]

Oh sure. Suppose I asked for feedback and then I argue with you? Not too smart. You learn the most from your mistakes. Thanks again for all of your help.

[ShaMenz]

Glad to be of help

One of the things I worry about most in SEO is changing things for the sake of change ... I've learned the hard way to take a breath and think before reacting. It's a hard lesson to learn, but it can be really satisfying when you discover that you made the right decision.