Once you have managed to capture the attention of Internet users – via a promotional campaign, SEO, SEA, etc. – and they have reached your website, all that is left is to transform them into customers! To this end, the experience must be thought out throughout the journey so that your users “land”, stay on your site, and complete their purchases. In this process, the first impression counts for a lot! Also, if your pages are slow, do not respond to clicks or take an infinite amount of time to load, this is the door open to an increase in the bounce rate (according to a Google study, 1 second of additional loading time is potentially +8.3% bounces). Be aware that loading speed can play an important role in helping you reduce these abandoned visits and carts, but let’s start by looking precisely at what we call bounce rate, and what can influence it.
Bounce Rate: Definition and Trends
What is bounce rate? It is the percentage of visitors who come to your website and leave without visiting another page. It doesn’t have to be a goodbye, it can be a real farewell.
In most cases, if your website has a high bounce rate, it means that visitors are not converting into customers, which means a drop in your conversion rate , but also a loss in terms of revenue .
A bounce can take the form of different actions on the part of the Internet user:
- by clicking the back button to leave your website,
- by clicking on a link that leads to another website,
- by typing a new URL,
- by closing the browser tab or window,
- by letting the browsing session expire.
Depending on the market and the category of site, the bounce rate can vary. That’s why, while you should try to reduce it as much as possible, you should interpret this data according to your context, rather than seeing it as a vanity metric for your website.
For example, on a press or media site, the bounce rate may be high because Internet users are looking to find out about a news story, and leave the site once they have read the article. This does not mean that they are disappointed, it simply means that they have found the information they were looking for and that they are satisfied. In this case, the time spent on the page may be a more relevant metric. And what about an Ecommerce site?
What are the average bounce rates for ecommerce sites?
We conducted the survey to observe the behavior of Internet users and mobile users on Ecommerce retail sites in France. As mobile represents 64% of Internet traffic worldwide , and Google favors Mobile First indexing , we compared the bounce rates between mobile and desktop by vertical (High tech, Mass distribution, Leisure, Furniture, Fashion, Cosmetics and Children-Childcare).
Bounce rate by retail vertical Ecommerce in France
As the graph above shows, mobile users are difficult to retain on mobile sites: bounce rates are 25 points higher on average compared to desktop .
The gap is particularly clear on e-commerce sites in the fashion sector, despite a fairly low bounce rate on desktop compared to other markets.
It’s true that people often scout on mobile and then convert on desktop. However, our research reveals that they view on average half as many pages on mobile as they do on desktop , which shows that even for browsing that doesn’t result in a purchase, mobile still lags behind desktop ( detailed data can be found in our Ecommerce Retail Performance Benchmark ).
And what about conversions? Here too, mobile lags behind desktop . As revealed by a study by Contentsquare , in France, the conversion rate on desktop is 3.5% on average, compared to 1.7% on mobile. So, how can we make up for this gap?
We will see that in order to improve conversions and turnover by reducing the bounce rate, you must first be able to understand the reasons. Let’s now discuss the common causes of a high bounce rate and how to fix them.
The reasons for a high bounce rate, and how to reduce it
A slow site
If pages are slow, the user experience is poor and visitors are likely to leave the site out of frustration . In fact, 53% will not wait more than 3 seconds for a page to load, and 88% will not return if the online experience is disappointing. There is even a good chance that these visitors will convert into customers… but with your competitors! In the event of a negative experience, 43% of visitors plan to go to a competitor’s site for their next purchase.
Also, since between 2020 and 2021, 46% of French people said they bought online more often , and loading speed is an important criterion for 83% of them, you will have understood: reducing your bounce rate inevitably involves improving your loading times !
This is also the strategic choice made by Villages Clubs du Soleil. To begin its global project to optimize the user experience. The Product Owner of this travel site started from a very simple observation: the entry ticket being high, each lost sale represented a significant loss of revenue. Thanks to the optimization of the loading speed, the website reduced its bounce rate by 20% .
In addition to the quality of the experience for your users, note that loading speed is also a criterion for Google . The search engine integrates Core Web Vitals among the signals it takes into account to rank web pages in search results. These are metrics that evaluate the quality of the user experience through loading speed, and therefore have an impact on your SEO .
To help you measure your loading times and understand what’s wrong, you can rely on free online tools, some of which offer optimization recommendations:
- PageSpeed Insight
- Lighthouse
- GTmetrix
- Dareboost
- and you can also venture over to WebPageTest if you feel like digging into the technical details.
The optimizations recommended by these performance monitoring tools can concern image compression , code optimization (HTML, JavaScript, CSS, etc.), better script management , resource caching, etc.
However, be careful not to apply them all to the letter! Ask a webperf expert for advice to ensure that the recommended optimization is in line with your needs and your technical and business constraints. Subsequently, the best solution is to automate the application of these optimizations , so that they are effective in the long term, and to relieve the technical teams.
Bad design, and poor quality or poorly optimized content
As we mentioned, the first impression on a website is crucial. It must load quickly, and it must also be easy to navigate. If, as soon as one of your pages is displayed, the browser fills up with advertisements and content that the Internet user did not come looking for, disappointment is guaranteed!
Also be aware that Google penalizes intrusive advertising , which is why you must limit unwanted interstitials to facilitate access to content that really interests the Internet user .
Let’s see how to offer a quality interface and content in a few key points.
TAKE CARE OF THE DESIGN OF YOUR INTERFACE
The interface (UI design) of your website must be attractive, with readable fonts , sufficient contrasts, and a graphic charter in line with that of your company. The design of your pages must reflect the quality of your services or products. Since we are addressing the visual aspect, let’s focus on images. You should know that they represent approximately 50% of the weight of the pages , and must be of quality and optimized so that your pages remain light and load quickly for all your users, in all browsing conditions, even with a weak network or an entry-level mobile. Indeed, the quality of your photos also reflects the quality of your offer, but it must not be to the detriment of your loading speed. This is why increasingly efficient compression formats are emerging, in particular WebP and AVIF formats which you can easily access thanks to our engine.
PROVIDE RICH AND INFORMATIVE CONTENT
In addition to the form, the quality of the content is also essential for your users as well as for search engines. If your content is poor or does not provide enough information, you also run the risk of being penalized compared to your competitors. For example, if your product sheets are not detailed enough, your visitors will look for additional information on another website, and once they leave, they may not come back and finalize their purchase on this other site that inspires more confidence in them.
OPTIMIZE YOUR CTAS
If your pages don’t have a CTA, your visitor will leave after reading, without having browsed your site or purchased anything. Conversely, anything you can do to keep your visitors on your site will contribute to a lower bounce rate, and potentially an increase in conversion rate.
So, think about taking care of your Call-To-Action, both in terms of design, content and display! Make sure to make your CTAs as explicit and visible as possible, and that they load at the right time. Poorly placed, irrelevant, or available too late, they will not be clicked or even invisible. Make the design of your CTAs attractive, and guide your visitors by adding the main keywords. They will then be impactful and will best serve your SEO strategy. Regarding display speed, know that our engine allows the content to be displayed as quickly as possible in the browser. It also allows the execution of third-party scripts to be deferred. Your CTAs can thus be visible as soon as possible, or even before other content or scripts if it is the priority content on your page.
USE PHOTOS AND VIDEOS TO ENHANCE YOUR OFFER AND OPTIMIZE THEM
On an e-commerce site, product photos are essential, and video or 360° visualization modules to put them in context are increasingly common and appreciated by customers.
Moz has experienced this on its own website: pages that mix formats and media have better engagement rates . So, mix formats and optimize them (compressed images, in particular, to keep your pages fast), or put a foot in the new shopping world by gamifying your purchasing journey or offering live shopping!
MAKE YOUR SITE EASIER TO SEARCH
Visitors have landed on one of your pages, they have partially found an answer, but satisfaction is not at its peak? Accompany them all the way: offer a search feature that makes them want to search directly on your website, rather than asking Google again. If a visitor returns to Google, it is then considered a bounce.
Errors and dead links
Error or empty pages hurt the user experience. They send the message: “the site is not working.” And who would continue browsing a site that doesn’t work? Nobody.
Go hunting for error pages with ScreamingFrog or Google Search Console : check and fix dead links and errors, and debug empty pages to avoid bounces.
If some pages are permanently or temporarily inaccessible, make sure that your error message is well designed to make your visitors want to give you another chance. Here are some examples of 404 error pages with original designs to inspire you.
Another possible reason for bounce rates: a website that mistakenly links to yours.
Using Google Analytics, check for outdated or inappropriate inbound links. You can fix them by asking the author to update or remove the reference; and you can also disavow a link that is not relevant to ensure that your website’s authority is not degraded.
A site not optimized for mobile
Are your pages slow on mobile? Is the content overflowing the screen? Are the links too close together to be clicked? Is the text too small to read? The experience will be poor on mobile, your users will be frustrated, and Google may also penalize you. So, think about making your site Mobile First !
At the risk of repeating ourselves… mobile must be at the heart of your strategy! If your pages are fast, optimized and sized correctly on desktop but not on mobile, your bounce rates increase and your conversions decrease. For some of our clients, mobile represents more than 80% of traffic, and it is unthinkable to waste marketing and sales efforts with an unoptimized mobile version.
You should know that due to the random browsing conditions, this is a more difficult device to optimize . Indeed, you do not control the quality of the network and the power of your visitors’ devices. Moreover, you must absolutely analyze your audience precisely to know which devices are most used and test the speed of your site on mobile ! Note that if you have the impression that your site is fast on a high-end mobile, this is not necessarily the case on old or entry-level devices, and you could then frustrate a significant portion of your users .
So, for a fast site in all circumstances, let yourself be guided by webperf experts! Save time and resources, enjoy the benefits of a turnkey frontend optimization solution . Your website will be fast everywhere, all the time, and for all your users.
In conclusion, reducing your bounce rates depends on improving the experience you offer your online users. This reduction in your bounce rates has a direct impact on your business since it allows you to maximize your conversion rates. There are many levers to optimize the user experience, and loading speed is central to achieving this goal. Keep in mind that if 1 second of additional loading time can reduce conversions by 20% in retail , and lead to -11% of page views, our customers have seen their conversions increase by up to 40% by speeding up their website ! These include:
- Phildar: bounce rate -10% and conversion rate +42%;
- White square: +31% page views and conversion rate +25%;
- Minelli: bounce rate -30% and conversion rate +16%;
- Mecatechnic: bounce rate divided by 2.5 – and mobile conversion rate +15%.
UX, SEO, CA: do you want to know more about the impact of loading speed on your digital strategy?
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