My Bounce Rate Sucks! Where Do I Begin?

[Planet13]

Hi ya, Everybody:

don't know if this is a anaylytics question or a content management question, so I will post it here.

The bounce rate on my ecommerce site is PRETTY DARN HIGH. Some pages it is almost 90%, according to google analytis.

So how do I figure out what to add / change to make people like it more?

Those pages aren't particularly slow. They don't seem to have any major formatting errors.

They just don't seem to be able to capture the imagination of the page visitors.

any suggestions on how to analyze why the bounce rate is so high on a page by page basis would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[netmeg]

How are people coming in to the pages - via search? direct? some other referrer? If search, what keywords are they using? Are the keywords reasonable ones for someone who is wanting to BUY what you are SELLING, or are they overly broad, or more informational?

You always always always have to think about user intent.

[Planet13]

Thanks for the response.

How are people coming in to the pages - via search?

Overwhelmingly by google organic search, probably about 90%.

I would say that at least 70% of total visitors are US based (my target region) and found us through google organic.

Are the keywords reasonable ones for someone who is wanting to BUY what you are SELLING, or are they overly broad, or more informational?

that is the question. they do tend to be broader rather than long tail. And my conversion rate is atrocious: only .22%, so obviously they aren't buying.

You always always always have to think about user intent.

Any good tips / sites that you can recommend for this?

Of course, with google now obscuring about 35% of the keywords visitors use to find my site, it makes google analytics that much less user friendly. Combine that with the fact that the $ Index is gone, and it really seems like optimizing is something of a shot in the dark.

[enigma1]

For ecommerce, 90% looks very high but for which content? What's the bounce rate of your important pages (like product pages, checkout, cart etc)?

[Planet13]

Hi there, enigma1:

For ecommerce, 90% looks very high but for which content?

Just to clarify, that 90% is the percentage of visitors who come in via google organic search, not the bounce rate.

As for bounce rate, when I look at my most popular CATEGORY level page (which happens to be the most popular page on my site), the overall bounce rate and the bounce rate specifically from google organic is 75%. (The exit rate is 61%). Average time on page is 1:31

My second most product CATEGORY page has a bounce rate of 67% (google organic bounce rate is a little lower at 64%) and the average time on page is 00:51. The exit rate is 46%

(gotta take the kid to school - will post bounce rates for checkout / basket pages in about a half an hour)

[netmeg]

It sounds like you are attracting tire kickers and/or information seekers, and not buyers.

[Planet13]

It sounds like you are attracting tire kickers and/or information seekers, and not buyers.

Yeah, it does look that way. I wish I knew how to attract more buyers.

I take it that it requires more than just add the word "Buy" to the page titles of my Red Widgets pages...

[Planet13]

Taking a little closer look at bounce rate and time on page when viewed as a LANDING PAGE:

For my ecommerce Category and Product Pages:

Bounce Rate: 65%
Site Avg: 75.46% (-13.55%)

Pages Per Visit: 2.3
Site Avg: 1.83 (+25.80%)

Avg. Visit Duration: 00:01:08
Site Avg: 00:01:02 (+10.20%)

so I guess that my metrics ARE better for my ecommerce pages than for my informational pages (which are primarily there for link bait and building "authority", I guess, because they never really seemed to convert visitors into buyers).

when I look at my informational pages (when viewed as a landing page), the metrics are significantly worse:

Bounce Rate 85.47% Site Avg: 75.46% (13.26%)

Pages/Visit 1.36 Site Avg: 1.83 (-25.72%)

Avg. Visit Duration 00:00:55 Site Avg: 00:01:02 (-11.10%)

~~~~~~~

Maybe that brings up the question of whether I should have those informational pages on my site in the first place?

Positives:

- They DO attract links (which I can then flow the page rank to my ecommerce pages)

- They DO attract visitors

- Google might be giving me some kind of an "authority" boost to my site by having them on there.

- People seem to appreciate them (they get lots more facebook likes than my ecommerce pages)

Negatives:

- The visitors they attract rarely, rarely ever buy anything.

- Because the user metrics for those pages are worse than the ecommerce pages, they MIGHT be giving negative user signals about my site to google, which MIGHT be affecting for my ranking.

- Despite getting facebook likes, they don't get ANY comments from visitors (using wordpress and the default wordpress commenting system).

[enigma1]

Traffic to the info pages isn't the important part for ecommerce sites. I mean other than wasting b/w and connections from your server.

What's the bounce rate of your shopping cart and checkout pages?

Product/Category pages 65% (avg 75%) bounce, that's where you should concentrate in my view and figure out why most of the visitors leave early. Try to bring it down to less than 40%.

[Planet13]

Thank you, enigma1:

Product/Category pages 65% (avg 75%) bounce, that's where you should concentrate in my view and figure out why most of the visitors leave early. Try to bring it down to less than 40%.

Do you have any suggestions on HOW to do that?

When I look at my competitors sites, I think that my site is pretty useful in terms of layout and functionality. There are no banner ads, popups, or anything like that.

(ok, the design is maybe not the most beautiful, but it certainly isn't ugly.)

Also, when I look at the keywords that are used to land on the page, they seem (for the most part) quite relevant. Occasionally google sends traffic to some of my pages for keywords that are totally irrelevant, but I have not idea how to stop that.

Any suggestions on how to figure out why the bounce rate is so high is greatly appreciated.

[enigma1]

Hard to tell specifics without seeing, in general make sure no errors are show on GWT, increase the product page focus, meaning relevant content and links in the categories/product pages (best related sellers, alternative products instead of common navigation), add more incentives to visitors who land on the product/category page (coupons, special deals etc), simplify product option selection if it applies.

In terms of marketing see if prices or other costs is the bottleneck. Make a short-lived special offer see if visitors respond. If they don't, it may indicate they land on your pages while searching for something else.

[Planet13]

Thanks again, enigma1.