What the heck is Bounce Rate?
Bounce rate is simply the rate at which people/readers land on your blog and leave your blog.
It can also be defined as the measure of time spent by people on your blog. The longer people stick around your blog, the lower your bounce rate and vice versa.
I believe you now have a rough idea what a bounce rate means.
Having a high bounce rate shows that people hardly stick to your blog, it means that people bounce off your blog as soon as they land on it and this is not normal.
There are two sides to this situation,
- You are doing something wrong; you are doing something that is pissing people off and making them to leave.
- You are not doing anything to keep them glued to your blog. You are not offering them something that makes your blog worth sticking to.
Having said that, you may be having some questions rumbling on in your head and one of those questions will probably be: How do you check Your Blog Bounce Rate?
Checking your blog bounce rate is quite easy, bounce rate stats is part of Google analytics features and you can easily check this by logging into your Google analytics account.
Now that you know that high bounce rate means that people don’t stick around your blog, you should know that the perfect solution to getting lower bounce rate is to get people to stick to your blog whenever they visit.
So, how do you get people to stay longer on your blog? Don’t worry, that is what I will be showing you how to do. Without much ado, let’s see how to reduce your blog bounce rate.
Table of Contents
1. Write Quality Content
Don’t be fooled, there is no substitute for quality content.
The only reason, I repeat the only reason why anyone will visit your blog is because of your content and the only thing that can keep them from leaving is still your content.
No one is interested in your looks, swags, or style, people don’t have any time to waste; so once they land on your blog and your content looks crappy, they don’t think twice before they hit the close button on their web browser.
If you provide quality contents that are worth their time, your readers will surely stick around your blog. If you want to learn more about writing quality contents, you can check out my post – What Exactly is Quality Content.
2. Display Related Posts on Your Blog
Most people will reach your blog via one of your blog posts and after reading that post they may want to of your articles and this is where related posts display comes to play.
Displaying related posts beneath your blog posts gives your visitors options of articles to explore on your blog and this will keep them from leaving as soon as they finish reading just one article.
Related posts will surely be related to the content they just finished reading, that is why it is called related posts and it will naturally tempt them to read more of your post since it will enhance their knowledge about that topic.
There are lots of you can use for related posts; my favorites are Yet Another Related Posts Plugin, SEO ALRP and nRelate. They are all FREE WordPress plugins that you can use.
3. Interlink Your Blog Posts
Interlinking your blog posts simple means including links to other articles on your blog in new post.
Interlinking wont jus help you to reduce your blog bounce rate, but it will also help to increase the amount of knowledge to be gained by your readers.
So, if you have not been interlinking your blog posts, I will advise you to start doing this and do it consistently. This will draw readers to your other posts and keep them longer on your blog and you will in turn get lower bounce rate.
Tip: You can use plugins for automatic linking of your articles, a few are: SEO Smart Links, SEO ALRP, and SEO internal links.
4. Improve Your Blog Load Time
One of those things that piss people off is a slow loading site; people don’t have the patience of waiting for a site that is taking forever to load. Gone are those days of slow sites.
In this era, people want everything fast; they want a fast car, fast PC and the same goes for websites they visit too.
If your blog loads sluggishly, then you will lose your readers even before they land on your blog and your bounce rate will start rising.
There are a bunch of things that you can do to improve your blog speed/load time; you can start with using a cache plugin on your blog, Compressing Images and using a good Web Host with a good server response time.
5. Avoid Annoying Pop Ups
To be sincere, I am a fan of pop ups, because pop ups are great for getting more conversions. I use pop ups on all my blogs, but I use it wisely.
The most annoying pop ups are the ones that appear immediately a reader lands on your blog. Most people will hit the close button as soon as they discover that your content is blocked by a pop up even before they land on your blog.
If you are using pop ups, you need to use it wisely. I usually recommend setting a delay time of at least 3 minutes before your pop up comes out.
This time delay would have given your readers a chance to take a look at your content and your blog which is their main reason of visiting your blog.
So if you want to improve your blog bounce rate, get rid of those annoying pop ups or better still, set a delay time before it appears.
6. Reduce Your Adverts
Sometimes I land on some blogs and I will be like WTH is this a blog or an advert display site? I am sure some of you too might have seen such blogs before.
We know you want to make money blogging but while attempting to make money from your blog, don’t inconvenient your readers.
You can only make money blogging if you have loyal readers and good readerships for your blog so don’t piss them off before you even make a cent.
Try to minimize ads on your blog and make the content area clean and visible. Make sure your content can be easily found and this will keep your readers glued to your blog.
Use Content Slide Out
What is a Content Slide out?
Content slide out is a way to display related posts or random posts (depending on your settings) at a corner of your blog pages in form of a slide out when a readers scrolls down (usually 80% of the page).
Content slide out are great for getting people’s attention to your other articles. I used to use it on my blog but stopped using it due to some personal reasons but I still use it on my other blogs.
There are quite a number of bloggers who are using content slide outs on their blog and I know it will surely help improve your bounce rate.
There are a few plugins that does this very well, but the two that I will recommend are Upprev and nrelate Fly out. These two plugins are free.
Conclusion
I hope you have found this post helpful. I believe that if you implement all the steps I have shared in this post, you will surely reduce your blog bounce rate exponentially.
Don’t forget to hit the sharing buttons to share this post with your friends and also drop a comment below, I will love to hear your views about blog bounce rate.
Wait! Before You Go, Read:
How To Stop Worrying About Blogging Success And Actually Achieve It
How to Use Pinterest to Drive Traffic to Your Site
Digital Events: Which Metrics Should You Monitor?
What Is a Gravatar and Why You Should Use It (Plus “Add New Default Avatar” Plugin)
Find Hiring Staff A Chore? You’re Probably Doing It Wrong
Know How Your Website Structure Can Impact Your Business Sales?
Start Monetizing Your Blog with SeedingUp : Interview with Johannes
Getting Rich Quickly – Forget About It!
5 Link Building Tips for 2013
How to Create a Successful Blog in 12 Steps
How to Get More Leads and Convert Them into Sales With SharpSpring Free CRM
The Importance of Having a Positive Relationship With Money
5 Best SEO Tools for Bloggers – They Will Help You Get More Traffic For Your Blog
How To Reuse Your Content – Social Media Recycling Guide
3 Digital Marketing Tips for Professionals Selling their Services
How to Stalk A-List Bloggers Until They Publish Your Guest Post
The Biggest Benefits of CFD Trading
XOVI: All-In-One Marketing Suite (Alternative to SEMRush)
How to Make Your Blog Popular?
13 Common WordPress Mistakes to Avoid
Hi Joseph,
Excellent. I had a buddy re-do my theme and remove plug ins to improve load time. Night and day. People get what they want quicker so they stick around.
All are good tips. Good content keeps people on your blog for a bit and linking up keeps em there longer. Use a related posts plug in to pique their interest and lengthen their stay.
It is key to create with the end in mind. Serve reader’s needs with your content to prosper.
Thanks,
Ryan
Hi Ryan,
Improving load time is really important, good to know you have a buddy who could help you with that.
Glad you liked the post and thanks for commenting.
Excellent post Joseph. I have found that interlinking your own posts is a great way to reduce the bounce rate of my blog. Quality content is key, but a high bounce rate could also indicate that your marketing needs to be improved as you offer your content to the wrong readers.
Hi Apollo,
Interlinking really works, though it takes a bit of time to do it, but it is worth the time invested.
I have improved my bounce rate too by interlinking, I highly recommend it.
Thanks for commenting.
Hey Joseph
Nice writing mate. The related post is a great move indeed!
Nowadays, writing is all about capturing the heart and eyes of your readers. The right one will help you increase your traffic multuple times. Wrong one and see your bounce rate drop like no tomorrow.
Thanks for sharing buddy!
Hi Reginald,
its nice to see you here. Related post is indeed important, and a lot of readers usually click on them to read more of your blog posts.
You are also right about capturing your readers attention, it is highly important!
ya, definitely all points are exactly noticable. Moreover, if you link your previous posts to your present post, then it may also increase your online time and thus it can also reduce Bounce Rate..
By the way i must appreciate your knowledge and experience..
thanks for sharing such a valuable article among us..
Hi Nitin,
Glad you liked the post and thanks for commenting.
Good to see you here Joseph,
You’ve shared some outstanding tips. I’m glad I impelemented them all. I’m a little bit hesitant when it comes to installing a new plugin but I’ll try to see how content slide works.
Some two cents that might come in handy to NPI readers.
Have a responsive layout
Open external link in new window by using target=”_blank” attribute
We must also test our blog in different browsers to see if they’re compatible
Keep it coming buddy, have a wonderful week ahead.
Hi Bro,
its nice to see you here too. Everyone is hesitant when it comes to installing a new plugin, but believe me, some plugins are a life saver! 😀
You should give the content slide out a try, if you like it, keep it and if not, remove it.
Thanks for contributing to this discussion, see you around bro.
Hi Josylad:
Very useable tips & so well explained…Appreciate All You do…..Also like how to keep the readers longer…You’re a great Guru, Mentor, Blogger, friend, etc. Gratitude, Love & Blessings!
Maria
Hi Maria,
Thanks for reading and commenting.
Hey Joseph great points – I appreciate you adding the “quality content” bit to the first, even though most people will find it annoying lol. Nothing can beat quality content in keeping people on your site – GLUED.
The second most important reason that people jump off is the site loading time. I do it a lot. WHen I see a site is taking a few extra seconds to load, I simply click the back button to find the information elsewhere! The internet is filled with so much information and is both a blessing and a curse. If we, bloggers, fail to present our content with a great loading speed, people will simply find it elsewhere!
Hi Jane,
its nice to see you here! Am a BIG Fan of Quality and I wont trade it for anything even if some fellas find it annoying!
What is the essence of blogging if you cant strife to provide quality posts for your readers, Content first before other things but most newbies want other things first (money) before content.
Like you said, site speed too is very important, i have been working hard on improving mine too.
Thanks for commenting and contributing to the discussion.
hello
This post is really conceptual if you link your previous posts to your present post, then it may also increase your online time and thus it can also reduce Bounce rate …………
thanks
Nice article Joseph,
Quality is always the first thing i concentrate on. Writing is getting on the next level those days, you have to share some thing really informative (like your post) and so that you can maintain your reputation and increase your traffic also.
Thanks for your sharing.
Hi Stephan,
quality is indeed very important and that is what I tell people whenever they ask me for tips, readers need quality contents and they will stick around you if you give it to them! Glad you provide Quality too.
Thanks for your contribution.
Hi Joseph,
I wanted to stop by this post and check it out to see if there was anything new on here that I wasn’t yet familiar with.
Like Gail, there is another way to reduce that bounce rate but she’s already shared that with you and I really found that tip very helpful. Mine went down drastically.
Aside from that we definitely want to find things that will help people stay on our blogs longer and everything you shared here is how to do just that.
I personally don’t like the pop-ups or the slide outs but the slide outs at least still let me read the darn post. The pop-ups interrupt my reading and then I just get frustrated.
The interlinking it pretty big and I didn’t start doing that until probably last year. It did make a big different along with the related post plugin.
Thanks for this share and great information. Have a wonderful rest of your week.
~Adrienne
Hi Adrienne,
Its great to connect with you here,
Gail’s method is quite cool, I will give it a try too.
About the pop ups, I think a lot of people hate pop ups, but I dont know why I kinda like it! I think why most people hate it is because it has been abused! My own pop up for optins don’t come up until after 3 mins and its usually for visitors that have visited at least once which is kinda cool.
Interlinking works well, though its a bit tedious and I am trying so hard to do it too.
Thanks for commenting and have a great week!
Joseph, thanks for the share, just wanted to ask a question, the code Adrienne shared on her blog about reducing bounce rate-do you have an idea on how it does the actual reduction?
I Love inter-linking between blog post-apart from droping bounce
rate, it also help increase your search engine ranking. Because, google feels you an authority on that topic.
This is strategy sites like Copyblogger and Problogger use.
When I started interlinking posts, I noticed a marked difference in my bounce rate. Another way of decreasing bounce rate is to use a plugin to show your posts and content in side bar. I agree with you on the pop ups. They are really annoying for a reader.
Hi Ankur,
good to know that interlinking works for you too., I like the idea of a sidebar display too, especially the display of popular posts in the side bar.
Thanks for commenting.
Hi Ankur,
Interlinking really works, Thanks for commenting.
hi Joseph,
Bounce rate is very important,but i have also problem with bounce rate.I have quality contain articles but still bounce rate is stick on high.Hope your ideas will give me some low bounce rate gift.
Hi Sameer,
Try out my ideas, and I believe your blog bounce rate will surely reduce. Dont forget to drop your testimonial about it.
I agree with all the points Joesph !
As a newbie , my blogs bounce rate was very high and after i installed related post plugin and interlinked all my posts , my blogs bounce rate decreased dramatically . Thanks for sharing the info .
-Pramod
Hey Joseph,
Great content is extremely important, after all people won’t stick around to read the article if they don’t find it interesting.
I have thought about using a pop up on my site, but haven’t done it because I personally don’t like them.
Although I agree that when they don’t load right when you land on the page, it’s a lot better. If I encounter a site that has a popup as soon as I visit their site, I usually leave, especially if it’s my first time there.
I may have to implement your method and have it wait 3 minutes and see if that works out. Thanks for sharing these tips and have a great day.
Hi Susan,
Everybody have their own views about pop-ups, it is somehow annoying but believe me, it is less annoying if you add a delay and your readers wont mind it as long as you offer great contents.
You may give it a try susan, and feel free to let us know how it goes.
I leave the blog because of pop-ups. I hate seeing pop-ups
Hi Joseph,
Great post.. I have few questions..
1. How is header bar as compared to pop-ups ?
2. Should related posts be used with fly in?
Waiting for your reply…
Hi Prabhat,
Header bar is cool and Pop ups too, the important thing is to experiment with both of them and use the one that works well for you. I like header bar and it is okay if you want to use it.
for the related posts, there is no problem with using it with fly in, i even prefer using the two together because it will increase your chance of keeping people long enough on your blog.
I hope these answers helps you.
My site bounce rate has improved, but I have been interested in doing better. The related posts plugin is a great idea. I also need to start interlinking more. Thanks for the tips. Very useful information.
Useful post to reduce the bounce rate of a blog Joseph 🙂
I agree with your views and am following most of the ways which you’ve listed here. Will try to follow the missed ways too.
Out of the points, I feel that the blog which contains valuable information would certainly have a low bounce rate.
Glad you liked the post Nirmala,
It is very true that blogs with valuable information should have low bounce rate, people will stick around great blogs with little to no persuasion.
Thanks for commenting.
Hey Joseph,
Amazing post mate. Bounce rate is one of the most important things about a blog. I have found out that Interlinking the blog posts and displaying related posts widgets have worked out great for me in reducing the bounce rate below 40% and now I am trying to get it below 20%. Hopefully I will achieve that too soon.
Hi Arbaz,
Interlinking really works and good luck with your 20% target.
thanks for commenting.
Hi joseph,
Website loading time is one of the important factor that enhance our bounce rate. So carefully choose the theme. Using a cache plugin is really a good idea.
Interesting tips here. I for one do not experience a high bounce rate. Currently my bounce rate is around 20% with about 100 daily visitors. I was really surprised to see that my bounce rate is so low. I was expecting it to be way high, but it keeps going down everyday. Nevertheless, thanks for sharing the info, I will keep all this stuff in mind. One thing I can add is that having quality, helpful content will definitely lower your bounce rate.
I do not allow popups on my blog. I feel readers will get annoyed quickly if they are constantly being bombarded with popups while trying to read through an article.
Great article btw lots of good information in here for new bloggers.
Hi Joseph
I agree with your points to reduce bounce rate between image size also need to be considered of using standard if the image dimension is more which can take time to load and having image slider too need to be avoided
Hi Shameem,
glad you agree with me and you are right about images size,.
thanks for your awesome contribution.
I am doing a good job interlinking my post, however I have some work to do. I like sharing my post on stumbleupon, but the site increases my bounce rate.
I think I write pretty well and so far it seems like readers are engaging with my content.
I enjoy your content because it relates to every niche.
Thanks a lot.
Nice post but what is a good or bad bounce rate. If I go to Alexa I find mine is 44.4% but daily time on the site is 9:15. How do you judge these times?
Heads Up; Paragraph 3, second paragraph typo “jus” shoud be just.
Hi Steven,
my advice to you is that you should not by any means got with alexa’s data, you should use Google analytics to track anything site statistics on your Website.
A good bounce rate will surely be below 30%.
If you can achieve a bounce rate of below 30%, you are good to go!
Hey Joseph: Thanks for the insights. So 44% is not bad but 30% is the goal. I will look at Google Analytics as a more definitive tool than Alexa. I know many think Alexa is not worth too much. Anyway thanks for the follow up.
Page speed is something that people are still not giving the attention it deserves it can make such a difference!