website bounce rate

[andyoak]

My bounce rate is sky high.

Anyone go a mo to take a look at my landing page and give me some feedback. Sometimes it takes a thrid party to see the things that you are missing.

Not too techy as I am quite new to this website lark.

cheers

Andy

With me being new to this forum I can't post the url but my web site is called thesolidoakshop and is .com

 

[decworld]

Why do you think a high bounce rate is bad ?

If you give people all information they require on the entry page a high bounce rare could be considered good.

 

[decworld]

PS, I am defining bounce rate as users than visit one page.

 

[MartCactus]

What is your bounce rate?

Its not untypical for this to be perhaps 50% or more of your visitors, depending on the site. Many will have found your site from a search engine and when they hit it, it will be clear that its not for them.

Also there are bots that hit websites... search engine bots tend to look at lots of pages but other bots including malicious ones might not. We've seen a lot of "referrer" spam recently... bots hitting just one page claiming to have come from various different medications or porn sites... google for referrer spam for more info about why they do this.

 

[LibertyMarketing]

First of all I'd get rid of the Google ads. They should never be on a site like this, especially when they are directing your visitors to your competition!

I would also expect the images going down the centre of your homepage to click through to their product page.

Hope this helps.

 

[andyoak]

I don't want them on one page, I want them to read the info them move to a sales page and not off the site. If they just take in the info I don't make any cash!

 

[andyoak]

What is your bounce rate?

Its not untypical for this to be perhaps 50% or more of your visitors, depending on the site. Many will have found your site from a search engine and when they hit it, it will be clear that its not for them.

Also there are bots that hit websites... search engine bots tend to look at lots of pages but other bots including malicious ones might not. We've seen a lot of "referrer" spam recently... bots hitting just one page claiming to have come from various different medications or porn sites... google for referrer spam for more info about why they do this.

My bounce rate is 50.48%. I thought this was too high, told you I was new. It's just I read on the net that anything over 35% needs addressing and above 50% is worrying

 

[directmarketingadvice]

Hi Andy,

As Decworld said, some sites should expect high bounce rate - if it's a "buy or walk" site.

(e.g. a single page salesletter or a squeeze page)

However, on your site, a bounce rate around 50% is a problem.

There are a number of things you're doing that are hurting your site. However, one thing is particularly noticable: your links don't look like links.

Change them so they are underlined in blue and your bounce rate will drop.

Hope this helps,

Steve

 

[fisicx]

As already advised - get rid of those google ads, all they are doing is taking custom away from the site.

Bounce rate is page linked. You need to look at each landing page and analyse where they came from and what they were looking for. You can then tweak that page to reduce the bounce rate.

However 50% isn't so bad. But if they then click just once and leave then that's twice as bad, it means they were interested and wanted find out more but didn't like the target page.

Don't worry about bounce rates, concentrate on fixing your landing pages to entice visitors to stick around. The longer you can keep them on site the greater the chances of conversion.

But consider your site. I've just looked at your dining tables. I see a tiny little image and almost no description. If you went to a car show room and the saleman showed you a toy car, told you model name and then asked for your credit card you would probably walk out. It's the same with your site. I want to see lots of big high quality images, I want to feel the passion you have for your products, read all about the wood, the craftsmanship, the smell and warmth of the wood. Sell me a table. Convince me this product is worth every penny.

Incidentally, the light box is not good for these sorts of sites - as I can't print out the image to show my wife.

If you are getting a lot of hits on your article pages, why don't you add links and images to the article that lead to the product pages instead to an ebay shop that doesn't exist.

You have a gallery which is really not very usable. You would be much better off with simple thumbnails, a caption and a link to the product pages (whose idea was it to use flash?)

On one product you say I can select the type of handle but when I went to checkout the option wasn't there.

These are just a few of the barriers you have put in the way of completing a sale.

 

[pvcprinting]

Great feedback people
I now need to go check my bounce rate.....think it must be really poor though

 

[mannakin]

If I were you I would get rid of the google ads and the sponsored link at the bottom, not doing you any favours.

Can you not highlight images of your best selling / easily available products with links to their buy it now pages, at least on the upper section of your home page?

Also, its a personal thing, but I have a distinct dislike to the word 'bespoke'. It is a tailoring term in reference to hand made suits, not hand made anything else. So when I see it, I switch off immediately.

 

[KidsBeeHappy]

I don't think it looks like a shop website. When you go into amazon, or argos, or anyother online shop, there is always a top navigation menu with and a further LHS menu with all the different categories etc. Your navigation down the RHS isn't instantly screemingly out obviously a menu bar.

Also, the photos look a bit like gallery images again rather than sales images.

 

[deniser]

I agree with all the other posts plus:
1. I would delete the references to Ebay which make the shop look unprofessional
2. The menu needs to be along the left hand side not the right


3. the menu needs some work and dividing into categories eg:

• Bespoke Oak Funiture Home -} these two should be somewhere different or differentiated in some way from the furniture sections - maybe across the top? Maybe just call this HOME.
• Gallery [-}

Then you have a block of links to the types of furniture - be consistent in the use of "oak" either put it in all or take it away (the former is better for SEO):

• Oak Bedroom Furniture
• Sideboards and Chests
• Small Oak Tables
• Kitchen Items
• Decorative Oak items
• Oak Mirrors and Frames
• Dining Tables
• Floating oak shelf

Then the next categories need to go with "Home" and "Gallery"

• Contact us
• Recomended sites

The next one should be accessible from the furniture pages:

• The dovetail joint

The next one doesn't really belong if you are a serious shop so either delete it or hide it somewhere.

• 5* Holiday accommodation

Hope that helps.

 

[andyoak]

Thanks everyone, that lot will keep me out of trouble for a while.

 

[OldWelshGuy]

I have had a quick glance so here goes.

1. A professional selling shop shouldn't have Adsense on it. EITHER it earns moeny from adsense, or it sells products. As for the sponsored ads in the footer, well that is so sad. You are selling OAK products, oak is seen as solid and dependable, yet you have made your site flakey by having google ads and a lousy Google search box on it.

2. Why is the top paragraph aligned centre?

3. Why have you underlined headings when they are not links? If you underline text, it should be a link (this is just standard net practice)

4. You have WAY WAY WAY too much information on your front page, little wonder people are leaving. The front page is a welcome page it should invite people into your site . If you are going to list stuff as you have, then the text shouldn't tell them anything really, it should be there to encourage a click into your site.

5. Get rid of the first heading 'welcome to the oak shop' it isn't needed and spoils the flow, they are past your header area and into the body copy.

6. Make image links meanigful. I clicked on the image of the oak winerack on the front page, expecting to see a larger image, and what do I see? I see a 3' oak sideboard and some other stuff in your shop. That is lousy and would have seen me leave the site.

7. Image quality is poor, the images don't show close ups of the goods, you are going to struggle to sell items with those images. As already stated, most household purchases are solo researched, yet jointly decided. Having a print friendly site is crucial.

8. The 5* holiday thing is the final nail in your coffin. If my wife wanted to have breast enhancement surgery, I might consier 'Dr Jones Plastic surgeon', but Dr Jones Plastic Surgeon and Drains unblocked' is an absolute no no.

I could go on and on, but you really didn't ask for a website review, and this thread has turned into one.

So back on track... IMO to slow down bounce rates, you need to have your front page enticing people to click on stuff that takes them into your site. So the sections you have, have as obvious clickable links, and have a page for each section. Cut down the text to something like

We sell oak furniture, and here are our most commonly asked questions, and here are our products.

BIG PICTURES!!! You are not selling £5 impulse buy items.

 

[andyoak]

"I could go on and on, but you really didn't ask for a website review, and this thread has turned into one. "

No I didn't but thats fine, you guys have helped loads. I am sure things will get better once the changes have been made. I have just been in and made a few, the rest will have to wait till later.

thanks again

 

[An Oasis]

It is a question that I have yet to have answered to any degree of satisfaction, however, I did copy and save the following, which may help.

Retail sites driving well targeted traffic 20-40% bounce. (One vendor told us anything above 33% should be a flag)


Simple landing pages (with one call to action such as add to cart) I've seen bounce at a much higher rate, anywhere from 70-90%.

Content websites with high search visibility (often for irrelevant terms) can bounce at 40-60%.

Portals (MSN, Yahoo groups etc) have much lower bounce rates in our experience 10-30%.

Service sites (self service or FAQ sites) again usually lower 10-30%.

Lead generation (services for sale) 30-50%.

 

[An Oasis]

Should have said would be interested to hear more learned members opinions of the above stats and their accuracy/inaccuracy. I can vouch for this example as being true.

" Content websites with high search visibility (often for irrelevant terms) can bounce at 40-60%."

 

[pvcprinting]

My Bounce Rate is 51%

Is that good bad or indifferent?

what exactly is a bouncerate

 

[Matt1959]

For me, the main problem on the home page is the images. Small insignificant images on a "smart" bespoke type site kind of contradict for me and then when I click an image and see a price that certainly isn't Ikea level I feel a bit confused and think the items are expensive. Actually I know its good because I know a fair bit about furniture but you appear to be drastically underselling it. So as I said - smart site makes me think nice stuff. Images make me think not so good. Prices make me think, well perhaps it is good but theres too many mixed messages and I'm left confused. All a laymans point of view btw

 

[Chris.Sanderson]

One thing to add, "Bounce Rate" is based on people exiting the page without even clicking on Google ads or other exit links, they arrive, they do not see what they want and they either click back or type in a new URL.

With that in mind you do need to review where the visitors are coming from, what keywords did they use, what part of the world are they coming from and how long did they look at the page before bouncing out.

From this you can work our whether the landing pages are targeted towards the kind of visitors you are getting, whether people are for some reason finding your site through an odd combination of keywords that doesn't match the visitors needs or that you just need to work on a better presentation.

Once you've made sure visitors are targeted towards your site , then you need to look at navigation, make sure people know where to click next, don't leave them guessing else they will click that exit button.

Some great advise already posted above in terms of how to make your site more retail focused.

Cheers

Chris