One of the most important aspects of digital marketing is grabbing users’ attention as soon as they land on your site. Humans naturally have a short attention span, so if your site fails to intrigue visitors from the start, they likely will not stay long enough to fulfill your site’s goal. A way to measure how well your site grabs a user’s attention is your bounce rate.

What is a Bounce Rate?

Your site’s bounce rate measures how quickly users “bounce” off of, or leave, your page after landing on it. More specifically, Google measures bounce rate by whether or not users visit additional pages other than the one they landed on. You want to achieve a low bounce rate. If someone enters your site and clicks their browser’s “back” button within a minute or so, this does not help your site achieve its goal. For example, if your site’s goal is for users to fill out a Free Evaluation Form, this is not fulfilled if users bounce off your page after a minute or so. This is why a low bounce rate is crucial for your firm’s website.

So How Can I Make Users Stay Awhile?

If you want to lower your site’s bounce rate, there are a few things to keep in mind. First, start by identifying exactly what your firm’s site goal is. We’ll continue with the example of a Free Evaluation Form. Next, think about how you can make it as simple as possible for potential claimants to complete this goal. For a Free Evaluation Form, this could mean making the form easy to spot and to quickly complete without any confusion.

Simplifying the Goal

It is crucial that the action you want users to take is straightforward and clear. If the layout of your firm’s website is confusing or cluttered, it can make this more challenging. Try to eliminate any unnecessary sidebars, pop-ups and auto-play videos. Overcrowding and clutter will often lead users to click the “back” button quickly, confused by your page and in search of a simple answer to their legal questions. Ask yourself exactly what the purpose of each page is. Why did you create this page? What type of claimant are you targeting? Ideally, what do you want users to do with this page? If the purpose is not clear and concise to you, the person who created the site, how can it be clear and concise to your users?

Along with every website’s intended user action, there are triggers that lead to this action. For a Free Evaluation form, a trigger might be a hyperlink within the body of a post that leads a user to the form. One way to steer users toward your goal is to strategically utilize physical placement. A breakthrough study by The Nielsen Group concluded that internet users typically pay most attention to the first few paragraphs of a page. For this reason, try not to place triggers toward the bottom of your page.

Final Thoughts

There are various techniques you can implement to decrease your site’s bounce rate. A low bounce rate means users are satisfied with your services and have explored to the point of, hopefully, fulfilling your goal and choosing to work with your firm. Make sure to solidify your site’s purpose, make that purpose visible and obvious to users, and strategically place triggers throughout each page. This is a great way to ensure that users not only explore your site past a landing page, but most importantly, that they complete your goal and your firm keeps its pending cases steady.