Guide to Reduce Bounce Rate and Improve Conversions of Your Online Store
One of the biggest hurdles in an online store’s conversion rate optimization is a high bounce rate. Yet very few online store owners focus on this trouble area. According to Oberlo, the average bounce rate of online retail stores is between twenty and forty percent. It does not only increase your ad spent but also lowers your store’s position in search engine rankings.
As an online store owner, you probably spend a lot of money, time, and effort on advertising, social media campaigns, and SEO efforts. All these promotional activities are intended to bring visitors to your online store, which is pointless if your potential customers bounce off your website. So, it would help if you find ways to lower your bounce rate. Before we discuss that any further, let us understand what bounce rate is and how it is calculated.
What is Bounce Rate?
Google says, “Bounce rate is single-page sessions divided by all sessions…” The bounce rate is the total number of people who bounced off or exited your website (single-page sessions) divided by the total number of visits (all sessions). In simple words, the bounce rate is the metric used to measure user engagement, which is detrimental to the success of an online store’s collective promotional efforts. So, if you drive traffic that is bouncing off your website without engaging in it, then you need to find ways to fix that.
Tips to Reduce the Bounce Rate and Boost the Conversion Rate of Your Online Store
A high bounce rate increases your online store’s ad spend and lowers its online reputation. It does that by indicating lower engagement and inferior user experience to the SERPs. Therefore, online store owners must control their store’s bounce rate. To make that easier, below mentioned are some quick tips that you can implement in no time.
By Using the Best SSL Certificate
SSL certificates are designed to encrypt the data exchanged between the client and the server through cryptographic keys. So, you may wonder how installing one on your web server can help reduce the bounce rate. If so, you are probably unaware of the wildcard SSL certificate, which goes a step forward. While all SSL certificates secure data transmission, wildcard SSL certificates such as AlphaSSL Wildcard Certificate validate your domain and save the cost.
It will help build more credibility by indicating that the online store is genuine and trusted. So, your customers will trust your site and won’t bounce off. Also, Google is hell-bent on making the virtual world safer and has included HTTPS as a ranking factor. So, picking the right SSL certificate for your online store can help you build more credibility, rank better in Google searches, and reduce ad costs.
Improve Your Website’s Readability
We live in times when bite-sized content is a lot more popular than long-form content because attention spans are reducing. Unless the content on your online store is easy to read and navigate, your readers may get bored and bounce off your website. So, make sure that your USP is clear within the first two lines of your product descriptions. It is always better to have the rest hidden behind the ‘read more’ button with bulleted points mentioning the product’s specifications.
Reduce Your Bounce Rate with Exit-intent Pop-ups
Pop-ups may be annoying, but exit-intent pop-ups can reduce your website’s bounce rate by almost 53 percent. In the case of eCommerce websites, offering discounts and other perks to those subscribing to a free newsletter can prove useful. So, the exit-intent pop-ups give your visitors a reason to stay and can also be used to grow your email subscription list.
Page Load Time Does Matter
According to a study, every three seconds of delay in loading a webpage can lead to a 32% increase in the possibility of a visitor bouncing off. So, resist overloading your website with a ton of graphics and stick to a simple or minimal design. Also, using next-gen image formats and lazy image loading plugins can help reduce your page load time.
For deeper insights, you can use PageSpeed Insights, Google’s free tool that shows you if your website is fast enough. If not, it lists out device-specific flaws that need to be fixed.
Your online store’s page load speed is a critical ranking factor that Google and most other SERPs consider. It is the very reason why Google ranks websites that use AMP higher than the rest. AMP is an opensource HTML framework that optimizes a website for mobile devices. Since most online shopping enthusiasts tend to access online stores from mobile devices, it is essential to optimize it for all devices.
Provide Region-wise Translation
Online stores often cater to customers across larger geographies as compared to the brick-and-mortar stores. So, it is vital to strike a chord with your audiences by reaching out to them in their language or dialect. Let us assume; your online store sells products all over Europe. In that case, your website must be understood in languages such as Spanish, German, French, Dutch, Croatian, etc.
As your potential customers in certain parts of Europe may not be fluent in English, you need to offer your content in a language they easily understand. You can do that by using WordPress plugins such as Weglot, Babble, or WPML to translate your online store’s content. This localized approach makes it easier to connect with international audiences that are not quite comfortable with English.
Conclusion
Back in 2019, when one could go out and shop without worrying about COVID-19, online stores in the US generated over 343 billion US dollars in revenues. That highlights the enormous potential of online stores and gives you a snapshot of what the future beholds.
So, if you own an online store, it is time to put in extra effort to get the most out of it. You can start by following the abovementioned tips to reduce the bounce rate of your online store and gradually increase its conversion rate.
