20 tips to reduce bounce rate

20 Ways WordPress Users can Reduce Bounce Rate

Ebook

Overview Does your WordPress blog suffer from a low number of visits or struggle to gain loyal readers? In the time sensitive, aggressive market we call the blogosphere, it’s difficult to stay competitive.

One reason you may not be gaining any traction is because of your high bounce rate.

You may not have trouble getting new visitors, but how do you keep them there upon arrival?

If you’re having trouble getting your bounce rate grounded, AdLuge thinks we can help. Whether it be fixing design issues, speeding up loading times or making your page more reader friendly, we have the knowledge and the right tools to help.

Here at AdLuge, we’ve put our heads together to come up with a comprehensive guide to the factors that are hurting your blog in our “eBook: 20 Ways WordPress Users can Reduce Bounce Rate”. By following our instructions and implementing some of our suggested WordPress plugins, you too can gain the knowledge to remedy the problem and reduce your bounce rate today.

Tyson Huggins

Content Specialist AdLuge Marketing Intelligence

02

INDEX

www.adluge.com

20 Ways WordPress Users can Reduce Bounce Rate

INDEX Introduction

............................................................................................................

05

What is WordPress?

Why Blogging?

Putting In the Time Tracking Your Blog Lowering Your Bounce Rate Speed

.......................................................................................................................

10

Design

.......................................................................................................................

12

Conduct your SEO Properly

............................................................................

14

Avoid Pop Ups ............................................................................................................

17

Turn Off Autoplay Messages and Videos

......................................................

18

......................................................................................

19

............................................................................................................

20

Streamlined for Success Great Tagline

Create Great Titles

.................................................................................................

22

Great Content ............................................................................................................

24

Natural Content

.................................................................................................

26

Provide Expertise

.................................................................................................

26

03

INDEX

www.adluge.com

20 Ways WordPress Users can Reduce Bounce Rate Keep Current

............................................................................................................

28

Turn off Related Videos on YouTube ................................................................

30

Segment Information

......................................................................................

31

Install a Search Option

......................................................................................

33

Create an Archive Page

......................................................................................

34

...........................................................................................................

35

Related Posts

Open Yourself to Suggestions

............................................................................

36

Proper Placement of Outgoing Links .................................................................

38

Mobile Page

39

............................................................................................................

All About The User

.................................................................................................

Links/Tools Mentioned

04

INDEX

......................................................................................

www.adluge.com

42 43

20 Ways WordPress Users can Reduce Bounce Rate

What is WordPress?

WordPress is a free content management system and blogging tool that allows end users to manipulate and create content to web pages. It is the most widely used blogging system and is responsible for over 60 million websites worldwide. One of the advantages of using WordPress is its adaptability. With plugins and applications for everything imaginable, it is the foundation for the look, feel and flow of your site.

It is the de facto and de jure industry standard and if you’re planning on blogging, WordPress is definitely the way to go. But why does your company need a blog in the first place? Is it essential to the success of your business?

05

INDEX

www.adluge.com

20 Ways WordPress Users can Reduce Bounce Rate

Why Blogging?

Blogging with WordPress has become the quintessential method of keeping your customers informed in the latest trends and insider intelligence within your industry. From SMB’s (small to medium-sized businesses) to the largest corporation, blogging provides businesses the control of their online brand by sharing experiences and knowledge to prospective readers. But what many businesses are unaware of is that in addition to these educational and communicative benefits, a WordPress blog can help you: Improve your SEO results Build links to your website Receive immediate feedback from target audiences Gain trust of potential leads Build network of industry leaders Express yourself and brand identity in a more informal accessible way It is becoming more than apparent that not only do blogs give you a competitive advantage, but that they are now a vital tactic in maintaining a positive internet presence.

06

INDEX

www.adluge.com

20 Ways WordPress Users can Reduce Bounce Rate

Putting In the Time So having a blog is crucial, but how do you guarantee that your blog can garner positive results? Many websites establish a WordPress blog and expect to reap the benefits instantly, but this simply isn’t the case. Blogging isn’t something you can approach with a set it and forget it mentality. It’s a process your business needs to undertake with dedication and diligence. Once you’ve accepted this and allocate the time and energy to your blog, you can begin to yield amazing results.

Tracking Your Blog There are many methods to track your blog and analyse your success. One of the most useful of these is a tracking method called bounce rate. Bounce rate is a simple equation, essentially it is the number of readers that visit your website and then leave (bounce) without viewing another page on your site.

Rb=( 07

TV Te

INDEX

)

Rb: Bounce rate Tv: Total number of visitors who only visit one page Te: Total number of visitors to your website

www.adluge.com

20 Ways WordPress Users can Reduce Bounce Rate Bounce rate is important to your blog because in essence, its the best measurement to gauge the quality of your blog. Simply put, if a potential reader clicks on your site, visits and doesn’t like what they see and exit. This is a bounce. If we look at measuring the quality of your blog in this sense, bounce rate can give us tremendous insight into how readers are responding to blog pages.

While it is a powerful method of tracking your blog, it’s easy to get carried away with the numbers. Remember, you will receive bounces, it is inevitable. Although it is perceived as negative feedback, it should not be construed with panic and alarm. For example one factor contributing to high bounce rates may be your reader finds exactly what they were looking for, right away.

This being said, reducing your bounce rates and keeping your readers engaged within your blog is perhaps the most compelling way to convert your potential leads to sales.

A low bounce rate means your readers are interacting within your site and consuming more information on their own accord. Average bounce rates for blogs can be found somewhere between 70-98%. So its a particularly tough task in the blog world to get these numbers down. So how do we do it?

08

INDEX

www.adluge.com

20 Ways WordPress Users can Reduce Bounce Rate

Lowering Your Bounce Rate

There is no quick fix to lowering your bounce rate. It takes a little time and concentration as well as arming yourself with the right tools in order to see some positive improvement. Fortunately, here at AdLuge we’re experts on this kind of thing and know how to help. Let’s get started!

By following this comprehensive guide and implementing the same exciting applications and strategies, you can reduce your bounce rate in no time. The following are 20 sure fire suggestions that we recommend adopting. In addition, we have offered our opinions on adopting an array of WordPress plugins that we think could help reduce your bounce rate. Before we get too far ahead of ourselves, it’s important to remember there are a plethora of different WordPress plugins and each one does specific things great. For simplification sake, we are going to focus on implementing some basic plugins that can really help your WordPress site. If you want to learn more about any WordPress plugins please don’t hesitate to email us at info@adluge.com.

Okay, now that’s out of the way, let’s get started!

09

INDEX

www.adluge.com

20 Ways WordPress Users can Reduce Bounce Rate

1. Speed

loading ...

Put yourself in the shoes of your average internet user. You scour the web for the right blog and you think you’ve finally found it. Next, you click on the page and wait, wait, wait. To your dismay, its taking over 15 seconds for the page to load. In your warranted impatience, you click off the page prompting a bounce.

In these fast moving times, internet users have come to expect lightning speed load times. Your WordPress blog is no exception. From the smallest business to the largest conglomerate, if you cannot meet these expectations you’re sure to be left behind.

In 2010 Google relayed that speed was now among their criteria when determining website rank. Now, not only is speed an essential component to your blog, but a required one.

So how can you increase blog speed reducing the frequency of bounces? Well you have to start out by optimizing your site for speed. Some quick tips to achieve this goal

10

INDEX

www.adluge.com

20 Ways WordPress Users can Reduce Bounce Rate are eliminating unnecessary flash applications and reducing the number of images you’re using. Plastering your site with unrequired images for what you deem as website design can only hurt you in the long run. Fortunately a variety of different WordPress plugins are available for you to achieve your speed goals.

The first of these deals with optimizing your images. We know websites littered with text only, can be dreary and unappealing to the eye. We understand you need to use images to attract your readers. If you are using images, which you should, think about using an image optimizer and resizer. One plugin we highly recommend is a plugin called WP Smush.it. Smush.it optimizes your images automatically when you upload them to WordPress. It’s a powerful plugin that you can install and the best part is, it does all the work for you.

Another one we would recommend for overall speed is called W3 Total Cache. W3 Total Cache is a performance plugin for WordPress that is designed to increase page speed. It does this by improving server performance, using a variety of caching features. This, in turn allows users quick download speeds.

Some more general tips we recommend are showing only excerpts of your posts on your blog page. This is important because it doesn’t cause an overload of information on your page. Also reducing the number of displayed posts on the homepage to no more the 8 can aid drastically.

In addition removing unnecessary widgets that aren’t utilized can speed up page times and decrease bounce rates.

11

INDEX

www.adluge.com

20 Ways WordPress Users can Reduce Bounce Rate

2. Design

Design is a broad term when it comes to your blog, we will get into some particular areas of design later. For now we want you start thinking about what the overall look of your blog is. It goes without saying that design is crucial to reducing your bounce rates.

You only get one chance to make a first impression on prospective readers, so you should not take your design for granted. Keeping your pages sleek, visually appealing and streamlined can decrease bounces by attracting readers.

We’ve all had the experience of clicking on a website, visiting and instantly exiting because of the aesthetics. It doesn’t even matter if you have killer content, if your page looks out of date it will not give off the impression of an industry leader and can delegitimize your brand. You don’t want to suffer from the design blues, so here are some tips that can help.

12

INDEX

www.adluge.com

20 Ways WordPress Users can Reduce Bounce Rate There are many ways of achieving a successful blog design. If you have the budget for it, we recommend hooking up with a web design team. They are easy to find and can ensure your sight is looking at its very best. The advantage of working with a team is obvious, firstly they have the experience and know how to provide you with the latest most attractive design. The second, is they can tailor your ideas towards a cohesive page that can bring your creativity to fruition. Web designers can push past simple templated themes and get you what you want, when you want it. If you have any questions about finding the right design team, please don’t hesitate contacting us at info@adluge.com.

The only problem is web design can get quite pricey if you don’t have a budget for it.

If you’re looking for a more frugal option, there are many WordPress plugins that can allow you to manage your own design destiny. One of these is a third party plugin called Thesis 2.0. Thesis is a design plugin that boasts an easy to use interface with a plethora of skins available for your blog. You can adjust your design without the use of coding and it is great for first time WordPress users.

These are just some brief suggestions as the world of design can become overly convoluted, very quickly. We will elaborate on some design specifics later on, just remember your design is the first impression you give to potential prospects. Make sure it looks great and is a proud representation of yourself and brand.

13

INDEX

www.adluge.com

20 Ways WordPress Users can Reduce Bounce Rate

3. Conduct Your SEO Properly

You hear the term SEO often, but many are confused with what it actually is. SEO or search engine optimization, is the process which a website undertakes to increase their visibility in search engine results pages. SEO is sometimes referred to as “natural” or “organic” search results, because they cannot be purchased directly.

14

INDEX

www.adluge.com

20 Ways WordPress Users can Reduce Bounce Rate They are the specific results that are kicked up by search engines after analysing their discriminate criteria for granting a search request. Some methods that SEO experts use to increase a website’s visibility are:

optimizing content for specific keywords in a targeted industry optimizing images creating specific tags and titles in accordance with SEO practices creating backlinks to your websites with partnered web pages So how do you optimize your pages for the greatest results? Again, it depends on your budget. The most certifiably efficient, tried and true method, would be hiring an agency or team of SEO experts. This is a world that is changing everyday and staying on top of the SEO game, is a full time job in itself. There are a great SEO experts all over the world but it is important to gain some perspective on whom you would be working with. AdLuge is unique to the industry in that we can measure and analyze organic search engine ranking over time.

It is a somewhat young industry and many times agencies and SEO companies promise you the world. If this is the route you’re looking to go down, make sure you read some testimonials or see some of the results from the company. Most reputable internet marketers are relatively transparent and can allow you to see the work they’ve done in the past. If you want results in a relatively short time, this is definitely the way to

15

INDEX

www.adluge.com

20 Ways WordPress Users can Reduce Bounce Rate go. Find a good, honest and transparent SEO team and watch your results rise to the top. Results can typically be seen within 3-6 months (sometimes longer depending on competition).

The second option that exists involves harnessing the power of WordPress yourself.

There are a variety of different SEO plugins that can help you get found in search engines. Many of them are very good and we could suggest a variety. For now we are going to suggest using WordPress SEO by Yoast. This is a plugin that can do a variety of different SEO tasks like suggesting keywords, optimizing images for search engines and automatically inserting link elements and meta tags.

So this all sounds really interesting right, but how can it affect your bounce rate?

Well, one example in which poor SEO can result in bounce rates is poor keyword optimization. You may be selling “eye glasses” and are targeting the wrong group.

Somebody clicks on your page as it was recommended by Google. Unfortunately, they are looking for drinking glasses and were brought to the wrong page under the pretense of glasses.

It’s an obvious example, but it happens more than you would think. Not having your page search engine optimized can mean the difference in receiving a high rate of bounce to maintaining a healthy one.

16

INDEX

www.adluge.com

20 Ways WordPress Users can Reduce Bounce Rate

4. Avoid Pop Ups

Our next piece of advice seems obvious to some but it happens quite often in the blogosphere. Let’s put ourselves back in the shoes of our user. We’ve settled in to read the blog we found on Google. We enter our desired page and all the sudden are bombarded with pop up advertising. It can seem like a good idea to some marketers, but it represents a dated form of marketing.

Interrupting audiences is an advertising tactic we can all relate to. When we watch television or listen to the radio we are bombarded with advertising messages and for the most part we have learned to tune a high percentage of them out.

Browsing the internet is a far more interactive and user controlled experience. The web experience is so compelling because essentially, users are in control of their own destiny. Your readers are coming to your blog to gain perspective and knowledge. It is unwise to interrupt their experience as it can cause frustration and in consequence bounces.

17

INDEX

www.adluge.com

20 Ways WordPress Users can Reduce Bounce Rate

5. Turn Off Autoplay Messages and Videos

Building on the concept of avoiding interruptions, bloggers should think about steering clear of autoplay messages and pop up videos. Even if you think the message is great content and targeted towards your audience, it can take the control out of the users hands and create a pattern of bounces.

In addition, many blog readers listen to music while browsing the internet. Having an autoplay message or video can be extremely annoying. If your reader is listening to music in their headphones and click on your page to read some relevant information, they might be turned off with a loud advertisement that can add distractions.

18

INDEX

www.adluge.com

20 Ways WordPress Users can Reduce Bounce Rate Remember, readers are looking for experiences that they can control. The internet offers users the autonomy to customize their browsing experience, taking away that freedom can be a dealbreaker for potential readers.

6. Streamlined for Success A reader visits your blog with the intention of gaining insight to a specific area of expertise. After reading one of your excerpts they are compelled to act, with interests in buying your product or service. How can you make it as easy as possible for users to act? Well one method that can increase sales and lower your bounce rates is using a landing page.

A landing page is a specific page on your website where traffic is driven to, often from outside sources. The primary function of a landing page is to provide the user with enough information for them to make a decision without travelling to another page.

The goal of a landing page is to convert your leads into sales. You may be familiar with landing pages where you have input an email address and perhaps a name. With a landing page that is easily clickable and designed to fit your blogs aesthetics you can convert your readers to customers or clients quickly. This in turn can lower your bounce rate and provide your readers with what they are looking for quickly.

19

INDEX

www.adluge.com

20 Ways WordPress Users can Reduce Bounce Rate WordPress themselves provides a landing page creator plugin, called WordPress Landing Pages, surprisingly! It gives you the ability to create sleek, attractive landing pages with lead tracking capabilities. Another helpful feature with this plugin is its ability to run A/B split tests. This means you can test variations of landing pages and see which one performs best. In addition, you can also choose from a variety of themes to make sure your landing page fits within your visual desires.

If a landing page is too much work, the addition of a simple form in a sidebar or widget is a great idea to further lower bounce rates. It gives readers another option to continue browsing through your pages instead of licking away. Furthermore, using landing pages or adding forums will not only help reduce bounce, but should help your sales and conversion rates too, by collecting more leads.

7. Great Tagline Another way to create interest and prevent bounce on your website is creating a great tagline for your blog. A tagline is a short concise sentence that allows people to know who you are and what you do quickly. In the lightning fast information age it is vital to get your brand identity out there as quick as possible. If your message and mission are unclear, it will cause readers to become confused and in turn exit your page. Let’s take a look at some of the great taglines across all media, to give you an idea of what you should be looking for. Here are some:

20

INDEX

www.adluge.com

20 Ways WordPress Users can Reduce Bounce Rate A great tagline goes a long way in keeping a reader’s attention.

Nike:

M&M’s:

YouTube:

The Consumerist:

“Just Do It.”

“Melts in your mouth, not in your hands.”

“Broadcast Yourself”

“Shoppers bite back”

Each of these gives us both, insight and grabs your attention. Establishing your blog’s tagline can be invaluable for your readers. Just a small suggestion, some people think

21

INDEX

www.adluge.com

20 Ways WordPress Users can Reduce Bounce Rate it’s rather clever to hone in on keywords and litter your tagline with them for SEO purposes. It can work and if it flows and sounds natural go for it, in other cases it can seem a touch too overzealous and confusing. The important thing to remember is to avoid stuffing in keywords simply for SEO purpose. Look for something that is catchy and represents who you are over strictly a SEO advantage. It may help you in the short run, but in the long run it is better to create a tagline that speaks to your audience, not search engines.

8. Create Great Titles Another way to attract readers and keep their well earned attention is by creating great titles. Just like a great newspaper headline can attract readers the same goes for your blogs. As Brian Clark of Copyblogger once said “On average, 8 out of 10 people will read headline copy, but only 2 out of 10 will read the rest.” That’s a compelling statistic and a red flag that if you aren’t putting the right amount of time into perfecting your titles, you may be left behind.

Writing a good title can be a difficult process so here are a couple of things you should keep in mind to create attractive titles. Firstly, it’s good to take a different stance towards using keywords with titles than on taglines. You have a little more room to play with in a title and it’s only representative of a specific article. Again, you should avoid

22

INDEX

www.adluge.com

20 Ways WordPress Users can Reduce Bounce Rate

stuffing your keywords as you want it to sound and flow naturally.

Next, thinking about what you’re trying to say in your specific article is key. If you’re trying to write about a “how to...” process be direct and mention it in your title. The same goes for “top 10” lists or “best of”. Mentioning them directly in your title can be extremely popular and helpful for your users.

Providing your blogs with great titles is so important to preventing bounce rates.

Creating intriguing insightful and desirable titles can keep your visitors navigating pages within your blog and immensely reduce the rate of bounce.

23

INDEX

www.adluge.com

20 Ways WordPress Users can Reduce Bounce Rate

9. Great Content The crux of any great blog is simple. Killer content. It’s not hard to explain or understand. If your blog is no good, it doesn’t matter about its look, its SEO or its titles.

It will suffer from high bounce rates and ultimately fail. It’s easier said than done, write well and write often.

So quality content is vital to any blog, but how do you achieve this and lower your bounce? The first thing any blogger should do is place themselves in the reader’s shoes and ask themselves a couple of questions.

1. Is this something that would draw the readers attention?

2. Is this a site that could be revisited as a source of information that is important to the reader?

They are two extremely vital questions that all bloggers should consider. Creating content can be extremely frustrating. One approach is hiring a content or blogging expert. If you’re not the strongest writer or don’t think you can allocate the time needed for your blog, this could be an option.

Again, if you’re looking for something a little more financially feasible, you are probably looking to undertake the blogging process on your own. There are some obvious

24

INDEX

www.adluge.com

20 Ways WordPress Users can Reduce Bounce Rate advantages to this option. Of course it gives you the control to say what you want, when you want to. This ensures that your voice can be heard clearly by your customers and you can position yourself to an area of expertise, gaining the trust of potential leads. Just remember, blogging is time consuming and dedicating yourself to a blog takes a lot of diligence.

The number one suggestion we can give for improving your blog content would definitely have to be reading other successful, well oiled blogs. Blogs have a certain writing style to them. Somewhere between formal and informal, a strange mixture that can take awhile to master. Read your competitors, see how some of the great internet blogs are penned (or keyed in this day and age). It can only increase you propensity to write effectively and entertainingly, in turn decreasing your bounce rate.

There are so many aspects to creating great content that we could probably create an entirely different eBook on this subject alone. The important thing to remember is to provide your readers with useful information that can aid them in their day to day lives and keep them coming back. In the interim; read, read, read and read!

25

INDEX

www.adluge.com

20 Ways WordPress Users can Reduce Bounce Rate

10. Natural Content So you’ve come up with this great idea to stuff your entire content with keywords to get found easily on search engines, good idea! Your a genius right? Wrong. In addition to great and interesting content it is important to use natural, flowing content. This can be achieved by focusing on writing and not ranking for SEO In addition, the guys at Google and other search engines are pretty clever too. It’s these kinds of sneaky processes that can get you in the bad books of search engines.

Take your time and place your keywords in relevant thought out places that don’t raise any eyebrows and flows properly. The free SEO tool mentioned earlier, “WordPress SEO

by Yoast” can aid the process by helping you develop keywords and implement them naturally within your blog.

11. Provide Expertise Providing expertise is an overarching concept that can only come together by following a number of our steps. As we’ve mentioned previously, readers are in search of the real McCoy especially when it comes to blogs providing services and products.

Providing expertise and establishing your website as an authority and educational resource is vital to your success.

26

INDEX

www.adluge.com

20 Ways WordPress Users can Reduce Bounce Rate You may be thinking, how can this possibly determine bounce rates? Well, the answer is simple. Your tone, knowledge and professionalism is decided by the average browser within the first 10 seconds of populating your page. Coming off as under budgeted or informal can lose the attention of your reader and once again increase bounce rates.

Another thing to think about if you’re going to be responsible for writing your blog, is to check rigorously for grammatical errors and spelling mistakes. Although you may not find it critical or even necessary, an educated public is out there on the blogosphere. Ignoring this requirement can create bounces and damage your validity quickly.

Installing a plugin such as the fabulous Jetpack (with features that go far beyond spellchecking) can offer you with smart, intelligent work checkers that will run through both spelling and grammar.

Again, if you’re undertaking the blog writing and are good at what you do, providing expertise is not hard at all. You know your business, if you have a passion for helping your clients or customers and providing great service, the expertise is already there.

You only need to harness it in your blog and convey your acquired knowledge.

27

INDEX

www.adluge.com

20 Ways WordPress Users can Reduce Bounce Rate

12. Keep Current Latest Blog

We’ve mentioned it throughout this eBook, blogging requires a certain level of diligence that many are unwilling to commit to. Think about the newspaper for a minute, would you renew your subscription to the New York Times if they only pushed print once a month?

It is absolutely vital that your blog remains relevant and timely. There are several reasons this can reduce your bounce rate as well. First of all, when a reader arrives on your page and selects your latest post. What are they suppose to infer about your ability to keep up to date if your last blog is from 6 months ago? It is important to create a need for readers to return to your site. Blogging frequently, even twice a week, can make a big difference.

28

INDEX

www.adluge.com

20 Ways WordPress Users can Reduce Bounce Rate Another great strategy is evergreen content. Evergreen content differs from content such as news-jacking. Where a news-jacked post may garner more traffic over the short-term, evergreen content is focused on long-term (search-based) traffic. A piece of evergreen content will be just as relevant 2 years from now as it is today.

You may ask yourself then, how is this even possible? How could I ever produce the amount of content required to blog that much. Well the answer is, the more you blog, the easier it is, there are also a couple of tips that can help you to keep your content fresh. Firstly, incorporate thinking like a blogger into your everyday. Work your day to day tasks into your blogs and let them become part of your customer experience. This means always being on the lookout for elements you could draw into your writings.

Another tip we suggest is using other forms of media. Whether it be a funny picture or video relevant to your industry, or in some cases even not. Providing your prospective audience with a variety of different media can help get the conversation started and create returning visitors, but most importantly keep them engaged.

Lastly we suggest spreading around the fun! You don’t have to be the sole contributor to your blog, if there are others within your company, it’s great to share the load. That way you can get a variety of perspectives and avoid burning out. Just be mindful of overlapping content as 3 blogs on the same industry trend with the same insight can be redundant. In addition, guest blogging with other vertical companies can do wonders for getting your blog seen and help improve your SEO.

29

INDEX

www.adluge.com

20 Ways WordPress Users can Reduce Bounce Rate

13. Turn off Related Videos on YouTube As we previously mentioned in the last segment, embedding a YouTube video or posting a funny, interesting picture can be a great way to reduce your bounce rate, but there is one thing a blogger should remember when embedding videos.

It’s crucial for your bounce rates that you turn off related videos on YouTube. As you may have experienced after you watch a YouTube video embedded on a site, a list populated by similar content will appear and suggest to the viewer that they should check it out. When users double click on these websites it can bring them directly to YouTube’s page and play the video for them on their site. This, if it’s on a landing page, will cause a bounce.

30

INDEX

www.adluge.com

20 Ways WordPress Users can Reduce Bounce Rate Disabling this feature is easy, simply add “&rel=0” to the end of the copied URL you’ve selected and it will turn off this feature. By doing this you can ensure that your readers can enjoy the video and not be tempted to leave your site.

14. Segment Information Segmenting information goes a long way in not inciting bounce rates. Just think of all the times you have stumbled upon a page with no paragraph breaks. It looks overwhelming and time consuming to read and simply as a reader unattractive.

We know It’s just a simple formatting issue and maybe even a little elementary to mention, but think about your readers initial reaction to seeing your posts. If the information looks too tedious, it may cause readers to exit.

Segmenting your information is also a good design practice and can apply to the overall aesthetics of your page. Try to shy away from not only text walls, but also from throwing up too many widgets and images. It can be confusing to a reader and acts against many of the points that we’ve previously raised.

31

INDEX

www.adluge.com

20 Ways WordPress Users can Reduce Bounce Rate Along with segmenting text and pictures, it’s important to not overload your page with needless advertisments. We know including advertisements can help your bottom line, but it’s better to think big picture. Though the adverts can help you, they can ultimately harm your blog by not attracting long term readers. If a reader arrives at a site and sees nothing but a wall of ads it’s more than likely that they will exit. We know advertising is necessary and we are not suggesting removing it from your mix. We just want you to think carefully about your ad placement, size and also aligning advertisements that target your readers.

A useful, easy WordPress plugin that can help you develop some quality ads with strategic placement is WordPress Quick AdSense. It offers simple settings that are not to overwhelm those who are not too familiar with WordPress and coding. It also allows you to place ads wherever you would like within the post.

Placing your ads and segmenting your information is crucial to steering clear of guaranteed bounce increases. Our next option gives the user more options to move through your blog.

32

INDEX

www.adluge.com

20 Ways WordPress Users can Reduce Bounce Rate

15. Install a Search Option search

Installing a search function at the top of your page is another interesting option to reduce your bounce rate. If we follow the path of our hypothetical user, let’s think about them landing on a page and having trouble looking exactly what they are looking for. Frustrated, the user exits heading back to a search page query for a more targeted results.

Installing a search option allows the user to find exactly what they are looking for within your blog. This doesn’t even have to cater to specific searches. It is entirely possible that when a potential visitor comes to your website they may enjoy your article and search for a relatable topic.

You don’t have to be a programer either, using WordPress plugins such as Dave’s WordPress Live Search or Search Everything can aid in setting up easy in site search bars. This is a great idea to try and will help lower your bounce rate in the long run.

33

INDEX

www.adluge.com

20 Ways WordPress Users can Reduce Bounce Rate

16. Create an Archive Page Creating an archive page is another great tactic to undertake. An archive page is where all of your previous blogs are laid out for your readers to view. This means after a user has browsed through your content they’re given the option to view more pieces of your writing. Another great tip to keep your readers engaged.

The best way to lay out these articles is periodically, like going through the archives of a newspaper. This means the user can view your posts month by month, week by week and day by day.

An archive comes default in most WordPress templates, however one great plugin to enable this is WordPress Smart Archive Reloaded. Smart Archive Reloaded is an easy to use plugin that will structure your posts in archives periodically.

34

INDEX

www.adluge.com

20 Ways WordPress Users can Reduce Bounce Rate

17. Related Posts

Our 17th suggestion is to link readers to related content directly from your site. This can be done using a variety of different plugins and lowers bounce by linking readers to other articles that have common themes or subject matter.

When readers visit your blog they are far less likely to exit from the first page if an option for viewing relatable content is available. It’s a great resource for lowering bounce rate as it is again, another option to give readers more choice. The more quality choices and browsing options the readers have, the more likely they are to click on a link and stay within your site.

We suggests the plugin nRelate Related Content. nRelate works by analysing all of the content on your website and actively matching words themes and relevant articles.

35

INDEX

www.adluge.com

20 Ways WordPress Users can Reduce Bounce Rate nRelate can display content in a variety of different manners including automatically displaying it at the bottom of posts or implementing a widget. The plugin is very customizable and can allow you to pick from various templated themes or design your own widgets etc. The plugin also allows for advertising options and is a good way to start earning some extra revenue for your blog.

It’s a great option to use that is sure to lower your bounce rates, as readers can seamlessly navigate through the page controlling the manner of the content they want to read.

18. Open Yourself to Suggestions It’s always great practice to keep the lines of communications with your audience. From the smallest mom and pop shop to the largest corporation, keeping your finger on the pulse of your targeted audience has always been one of the most integral pillars of business.

Your blog is no different. You’ve positioned yourself as an expert and demonstrated your value to your readers, now it’s time for you to listen to your readers. You may think, getting feedback would definitely come from revisiting users, what does this have to do with bounce rates? Well, this is an interesting viewpoint and it does have some merit but, what you are trying to do is essentially use your reader base to improve your

36

INDEX

www.adluge.com

20 Ways WordPress Users can Reduce Bounce Rate overall experience. Improving this overall experience will ultimately mean improving experience for first time readers too, and can help you reduce your bounces.

Opening yourself for suggestions can give you amazing insight. Not only are user observations on design aesthetics and flow of your blog paramount, they represent your targeted leads as well. You know that if you are writing a blog on car restoration for example, that any of your loyal followers will be fairly well versed in the subject matter and can help you understand your ideal target more clearly.

Although this strategy doesn’t yield measurable and instant results, it’s a strategy for the long term that can pay dividends when followed. It’s all about creating a greater user experience and talking to users is one of the best ways to learn how to get better.

name comments

post comments

This can be as simple as leaving a contact email where your readers can reach you.

Be sure to make yourself accessible and note that readers are welcome to make suggestions.

37

INDEX

www.adluge.com

20 Ways WordPress Users can Reduce Bounce Rate

19. Proper Placement of Outgoing Links Using guest bloggers or referencing sources can be great practice to build your SEO and get found easier on search engine results pages. In a practice called link building, vertical industries use guest blogging as a way to share blogging duties on each others pages and insert links to their own pages. This is great way to increase your rankings because search engines like Google, love the frequency of your website being referenced in quality links.

Guest blogging is becoming a prominent form of strengthening web pages rankings, but there is a method to this madness. Improper link placement can be a major cause in the fluctuation of bounce rates on your blog.

Think about a user reading through an article and seeing a hyperlink present in the first sentence of your blog. We’ve discussed the incredibly easy ways users can be interrupted. Bringing them to a related site to early in your blog may cause them to forget about your page and continue through too other web sites.

We are in no way saying that you should not use outgoing links. They are important to blogs as you can share information with your readers and also build trusted

38

INDEX

www.adluge.com

20 Ways WordPress Users can Reduce Bounce Rate relationships with peers in your industry. Despite this, it’s vital that you think about where you place your outgoing links. We suggest putting them in the third quarter or lower in your articles. This way you can just be a little safer in terms of keeping your readers attention, not distracting or tempting them to navigate to another website.

Also when hosting guest blogs make sure a link to the authors home page is placed in the byline at the bottom of the article and not at the top where the authors name is first mentioned. This can be another way to lower your bounce rates as sometimes a readers curiosity gets the best of them and will navigate away from your blog.

Just remember, outgoing links are great but you want to think about your placement.

Lastly don’t overdo it. Don’t write an article that is littered with outgoing links as not only does it offer readers options to exit on numerous occasions, but it also can harm the flow and readability of your page aesthetically. Too many links have been known to distract readers by decreasing their focus and making pages harder to read.

20. Mobile Page With so many users on the go with tablets, smart phones, and personal data devices, deciding not to optimize your page for mobile devices can increase bounce rates tremendously. The problem lies in the fact that not all pages work well on mobile devices. Designing a site that does not take into account what it looks like on a mobile

39

INDEX

www.adluge.com

20 Ways WordPress Users can Reduce Bounce Rate device, is a big oversight in today’s world. On mobile, you have a short amount of time to impress and captivate your potential users. If your blog isn’t mobile optimized you can cause readers to leave instantly in frustration.

40

INDEX

www.adluge.com

20 Ways WordPress Users can Reduce Bounce Rate There are some great plugins to get your blog mobile, one that we suggest is WordPress WP Touch. WP Touch works to automatically optimize to be viewed on mobile devices such as smart phones, tablets and other smart devices like the iPod touch for example. It allows you to customize your site through it’s appearance and create a streamlined mobile option for your users.

Many people will complain they don’t like the style or feel of mobile pages and this is understandable. Users grow accustomed to the look and feel of pages and want the familiarity of their computer when browsing on their mobile device. If you are experiencing a lot of negative feedback about your mobile site, odd’s are it’s not laid out correctly! Design and layout of mobile sites are a whole new frontier, of course.

Mobile sites take on a more simplistic design, and it’s essential that the most important information is up-front, easily assessable with as little clicks as possible, and is touch friendly.

Luckily, WP Touch gives readers the option to switch to the full version of your website at the bottom of the page. This can ensure that your loyal readers have the option to customize their experience while at the same time not deterring first time readers with slow cumbersome load times. WP Touch will speed up your mobile experience and give it a sleek, streamlined look. Ultimately this can help you decrease your bounce rate.

41

INDEX

www.adluge.com

20 Ways WordPress Users can Reduce Bounce Rate

All About The User Using these suggestions and plugins as a guideline, you can decrease your bounce rates and get your blog running at it’s optimal level. It’s an ongoing process that you always have to keep your ear to the ground to improve on, and we hope that you find this guide informative and useful as a resource moving forward. Remember, it’s all about keeping informed and placing yourself in a position to succeed within the blogosphere.

Write, write, write and learn to evolve with your users. At the end of the day it’s all about the user. If you have the ability to put yourself in the browsers shoes, you begin to see options everywhere to make your blog more user friendly, thus decreasing your bounce rates.

Blogging can increase your SEO, allow you to be more relatable to your target audiences and help build quality expert networks within your industry. It’s up to you dial down the bounces and turn potential leads into ongoing loyal readers. Follow our steps and we’re sure you can get there!

For more information on bounce rates, internet marketing or blogging, subscribe to our social networks and newsletter to stay up to date on the latest industry trends!

www.adluge.com

42

INDEX

20 Ways WordPress Users can Reduce Bounce Rate

Links/Tools Mentioned WP Smush.it W3 Total Cache Thesis 2.0 Yoast WordPress Landing Pages Dave’s WordPress Live Search Search Everything WordPress Smart Archive Reloaded nRelate Related Content WordPress WP Touch

43

INDEX

www.adluge.com

20 Ways WordPress Users can Reduce Bounce Rate

Subscribe to our newsletter

to keep up to date on Marketing Intelligence from AdLuge

Want to give

AdLuge a try?

Sign-up for a 30 day

free trial now!

Tyson Huggins

Content Specialist AdLuge Marketing Intelligence

44

INDEX

www.adluge.com

20 Ways WordPress Users can Reduce Bounce Rate

MARKETING INTELLIGENCE KEEP YOUR LEADS ON TRACK!

1444 Dupont St Unit 32 Toronto, ON Canada M6P 4H3 Toll Free: 866-225-9452 Fax: 416-538-7099 Email: support@adluge.com

45

INDEX

www.adluge.com