Your website designer needs to look at all the relevant data when looking to run a successful website.
A key factor that a lot of marketers, web developers and website owners often overlook is the bounce rate.
If you notice that your bounce rate is higher than expected, it is highly likely that there is a problem with your web design.
You may have problems such as HTTPS mixed content warnings, bad navigation, problems with mobile usability etc. and this may be leading to visitors leaving your website.
Here, we bring you 15 ways in which a website designer can reduce bounce rate of your website.
#1 Stop Using Popups
There is a lot of controversy around whether you should make use of popups on your website.
As per a survey, 70% of the people polled, considered irrelevant popups as annoying.
At the same time, popups have also been found to lead to drastic increases in conversions and in getting more signups to your lists.
So, what should your website designer do?
Well, just bear in mind that if people find your popups annoying, it will increase your bounce rate. So, your website designer may consider showing the popup after a few minutes of users’ arrival on your website.
#2 Fix HTTPS Mixed Content Warnings
You get Mixed content warnings when the website is supposed to be running over HTTPS but also serves files over HTTP.
Have your web developer fix this issue to prevent users from abandoning your website when they see such warnings.
#3 Make Your Website Load Faster
If your website is slow, the users may get tired of the waiting game.
They are likely going to go to some other website if your website designer fails to take steps to improve performance of your website.
#4 Improve Website Navigation
If your website has poor navigation, the visitors have no reason to continue after landing on the first page and this is likely to result in a bounced user.
Follow website design best practices to improve navigation.
Recommended post: 7 Tips to make your website’s navigation look great
#5 Responsive Website Design
Do make sure that your web developer builds your website with a responsive design.
Mobile users are likely to bounce if your website does not render properly on their mobile devices.
#6 Internal Linking
Ask your website designer to have enough internal links to keep the visitors engaged on the website.
This will help not only in decreasing the bounce rate of your website, but it will also enhance your website’s rankings on search engines.
#7 Fixing Broken Links
Ensure that your web developer is taking care of broken links as part of website development and testing.
Not only do broken links lead to a negative impact on web performance but they also increase your bounce rate.
Recommended post: 7 Easy tips to keep your website healthy
#8 Utilize 404 Page
No matter how careful you are, you may end up with broken links that you have not had a chance to get to yet.
The users see a 404 page in such cases. Make sure that your website design provides for a great 404 page (with a search to help the users find what they are looking for or show a sitemap on your 404 page) so that the users do not immediately bounce from your website.
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#9 Proper Color Contrast
Have your website designers use proper color contrasts so the users find the site soothing.
Minimize distractions as they are likely to drive your visitors away.
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#10 Robust Search
Have your web developer create an awesome internal search.
If the users can find what they are looking for on your website easily, they are likely to spend more time on your website.
#11 Browser Compatibility
You do not know what browsers the visitors may use when browsing your website.
Make sure that your website design takes care of cross browser compatibility. The users are likely to bounce if the site does not work properly on their browser of choice.
Recommended post: 5 Benefits You Get When Your Web Developer Does Cross Browser Testing
#12 Readability
Your website designer should make sure that there is enough space between lines, appropriate padding and margins so that the text looks beautiful and clean.
Users are likely to bounce if they cannot read your site contents easily.
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#13 Don't Overuse CTA
Your web developer should make sure that there are not too many Call to Actions (CTAs) crammed on the same page.
This leads to confusion in the users and makes them more likely to bounce.
#14 Short Paragraphs
Your website design should have the contents presented in short paragraphs that are easy to digest so that your users can read the content quickly.
This helps them easily get to what they are looking for instead of having to wade through long paragraphs which makes them likely to bounce.
#15 Open External Websites In New Tab
Your website probably has links to other websites.
You want to keep the visitors on your site as much as possible while allowing them to navigate to the other websites you link to.
Your website designer can do so by opening external links in a new tab.