How to Reduce Bounce Rate with Surveys

What is bounce rate? 

Bounce rate is a metric used in web analytics to measure the percentage of visitors to a website who navigate away from the site after a single page session. 

In other words, bounce rate is how many users leave after viewing a single page without interacting with your website further.

4 actionable strategies to reduce bounce rate

Surveys can be a valuable tool for reducing bounce rates on your website by gaining insights into visitor behavior and preferences.

Here's how you can use surveys to help lower bounce rates:

Understand user intent

Use surveys to ask visitors about their intentions when they land on your website. For example, you can ask questions like, "What brought you to our website today?" or "What information are you looking for?" 

Understanding user intent can help you tailor your content and navigation to better meet their needs in the future, reducing the likelihood of users bouncing quickly.

Ask visitors about your content

To avoid a higher bounce rate, you must create useful content. While metrics like page visits and ranking of your blog posts are important, they don’t tell you the why behind why a piece is a hit or miss.

Real visitors can tell you what you did particularly right or wrong so you can duplicate success in the future or avoid unnecessary mistakes.

Gather feedback on website visitor experience

Surveys can provide direct feedback on why visitors may be leaving your site. You can ask questions like, "What could we do to improve your experience on our website?" or "What information were you unable to find?" 

This feedback can guide improvements to your site's content, design, and functionality.

Use exit-intent surveys

Exit-intent surveys are triggered when a user is about to leave your website. The way this works is your survey tool will detect sudden mouse movement towards the top of the page.

These surveys can ask why they are leaving and what could have convinced them to stay longer. You can offer incentives like discounts or free resources to encourage survey participation.

Choose the right tool for your surveys

Choosing the right survey tool is crucial for improving bounce rates with surveys. 

Ultimately, the chosen tool should empower website owners to gather feedback, understand user intent, and act on insights to enhance the user experience, reducing bounce rates, and improving overall website performance.

The right customer feedback tool will let you:

Segment your surveys

You should segment your audience and create surveys specific to different visitor types or sources of traffic. For instance, if you have an e-commerce site, you might create different surveys for first-time visitors, returning customers, and visitors from different marketing channels. 

You should also tailor your questions to their specific needs and expectations. A good survey tool will have: 

• an extensive question bank 
• a survey template library
• the option of writing your survey content from scratch

Act on survey insights

Make sure your survey tool has built-in analytics features. 

You should be able to easily access basic statistics like response rate, dates of responses, and, of course, the responses themselves. Great tools will let you filter those by date and content so you can get to what you need faster.

It's crucial to act on the insights gained from surveys and close the feedback loop. If visitors consistently mention issues with page load times, content relevance, or navigation, take action to address these problems. 

Regularly review and make improvements based on user feedback to enhance the user experience. 

Ensure responsive design

Ensure that your surveys are mobile-friendly and do not disrupt the user experience. A poorly designed survey that is difficult to close can frustrate visitors and increase website bounce rates.

Run website surveys on desktop and mobile browsers and mobile app surveys within your app interface.

Incentivize participation

To encourage more visitors to complete surveys, consider offering incentives such as discounts, free resources, or entry into a giveaway. This can increase the response rate and provide valuable data.

Use with caution, so incentives don’t make your surveys less reliable.

Monitor and adjust

Continuously monitor the impact of your survey efforts on bounce rates. If you see improvements, continue refining your strategies. If not, consider making changes to your survey questions, design, or placement.

By using surveys effectively, you can gain insights into visitor behavior, identify pain points, and take action to improve your website, ultimately reducing bounce rates and providing a better user experience.

We recommend Survicate as the best tool to improve your bounce rate. It checks all the requirements listed above and much more! Sign up for a free account to collect up to 25 responses a month without any charges. Then, choose one of our paid plans, starting at $53 monthly.

Importance of bounce rate

While the bounce rate can indirectly impact SEO, it's not a direct ranking factor used by search engines like Google. While Google and other search engines do not use bounce rate as a direct ranking factor, there are several ways in which bounce rate can have an indirect influence on SEO:

User experience

Bounce rate is often a reflection of the user experience on your website. A high bounce rate can be an indicator that visitors are not finding what they expected or that they are not engaged with your content. 

Google places a strong emphasis on providing a positive user experience, and websites that offer a better experience are more likely to be rewarded in the search rankings.

Dwell time

Dwell time is the amount of time a visitor spends on your website before returning to the search results. While it's not a direct ranking factor, it's related to bounce rate. 

If users are bouncing quickly from your site, it's likely that they are not spending much time on your pages, which can impact dwell time. A longer dwell time can be a sign of better engagement, potentially benefiting your SEO.

Click-through rate (CTR)

The click-through rate from search engine results pages (SERPs) to your website is an important SEO metric. If your page has a low CTR and a high bounce rate, it may signal to search engines that your content is not relevant or engaging to users, potentially leading to lower rankings.

Content quality

High-quality content is more likely to keep visitors engaged and reduce bounce rates. Creating valuable, informative, and engaging content can improve user satisfaction, increase time on site, and encourage users to explore more pages, which can indirectly contribute to better SEO.

A high bounce rate may signal that your website needs improvements in terms of content quality, page design, or other factors that can ultimately lead to better rankings in search engine results.

How is bounce rate calculated?

Bounce rate is calculated by dividing the number of single-page visits to a website by the total number of visits to the website and then expressing the result as a percentage. The formula for calculating bounce rate is:

Here's a breakdown of the components of this formula:

Single-page visits

These are the visits where a user lands on a single page of your website and then leaves without interacting with any other pages on the site. In web analytics, a "bounce" is typically defined as a single interaction event, such as loading a single page or viewing a single piece of content.

Total visits

This refers to the total number of visits to your website within a specific time frame. It includes both single-page visits (bounces) and multiple-page visits where users navigate through various pages on your website.

Multiply by 100%

To express the bounce rate as a percentage, you multiply the result of the division by 100.

For example, if your website had 500 single-page visits in a given period and a total of 3,000 visits during the same period, the calculation would be as follows:

Bounce Rate = (500 / 3,000) x 100% = 16.67%

So, in this case, the bounce rate would be 16.67%, indicating that approximately 16.67% of the visitors to your website left after viewing only one page.

What is a high bounce rate?

In general, a high bounce rate is typically considered to be a bounce rate above 70%. 

But the definition of a "high" bounce rate can vary depending on the type of website and its goals. For example:

• Blogs often have a higher average bounce rate, and it's not uncommon to see bounce rates in the 70-90% range. 

This is because many visitors come to a blog to read a specific article and may not be interested in exploring other content.

• E-commerce sites generally aim for lower bounce rates, ideally below 40% or 50%. 

High bounce rates on an e-commerce site can indicate that visitors are not finding products they are interested in or are encountering obstacles in the shopping process.

• Websites providing informational content may aim for a moderate bounce rate, around 40-60%.

Visitors may come for specific information but may also be interested in exploring related content via internal links.

• Landing pages may tolerate higher bounce rates.

For a specific landing page designed for a single purpose, such as lead generation or a sign-up form, a high bounce rate might be acceptable if the primary goal is to convert visitors into leads.

It's important to use the right bounce rate benchmarks to evaluate whether a given one is too high and to consider the context and purpose of the website when assessing its performance. 

High bounce rates may indicate issues that need to be addressed, such as improving content quality, website design, or user engagement strategies.

Frequently Asked Questions

What would contribute to a low bounce rate on LinkedIn?

A low bounce rate on LinkedIn can be achieved by creating engaging content that is relevant to your target audience. Make sure your profile is complete and up-to-date, and that you are using relevant keywords in your content. Also, ensure that your website or landing page is optimized for mobile devices, as many LinkedIn users access the platform through their mobile devices.

What is a good bounce rate for ecommerce?

A good bounce rate for ecommerce sites varies depending on the industry and type of website. Generally, a bounce rate of 20-40% is considered good for ecommerce websites. However, it is important to note that a low bounce rate does not necessarily mean high conversion rates.

Why is a high bounce rate bad?

A high bounce rate can be an indication that visitors are not finding what they are looking for on your website or landing page. This can lead to a decrease in engagement, conversions, and ultimately revenue. Additionally, a high bounce rate can negatively impact your search engine rankings, as search engines may interpret a high bounce rate as a sign of low-quality content or a poor user experience.

How do you quickly improve bounce rate?

To quickly improve bounce rate, you can optimize your website or landing page for faster loading times, improve the design and layout of your website, and ensure that your content is relevant and engaging to your target audience. Additionally, you can use targeted landing pages and A/B testing to improve the user experience and increase conversions.

What causes a high bounce rate?

There are several factors that can contribute to a high bounce rate, including slow loading times, poor website design and navigation, irrelevant or low-quality content, and a lack of clear calls to action. Additionally, targeting the wrong audience or using misleading advertising can also lead to high bounce rates.

What is a good bounce rate for email?

A good bounce rate for email campaigns is typically less than 2%. A high bounce rate can be an indication that your email list is outdated or contains invalid email addresses. To improve your email bounce rate, regularly clean your email list, segment your audience, and use clear and engaging subject lines and content.

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