Top Tips to Lower Your Bounce Rates Today

Bounce rates worry most website owners and reducing the percentage can seem like an endless task of trial and error. There are some areas of a homepage that immediately deter visitors which may not be instantly obvious to the seller.

To find out why people are landing and bouncing away you first need to research a few areas. Research in these topics will provide you with incredible data that you can use throughout the entire sales process.

These include:

The psychology of your target market – How old are they, what device do they use? Where do they live? What’s their average disposable income? Do they have children? By understanding the psych of your visitors you can create a landing page that seems almost personal to them.

Your competition – As customers shopping online we have a lot of choice. When a visitor lands on your website it’s probably through a search engine. They would have been presented with unlimited options. Just one thing can prompt them to hit the back button to revisit the alternatives. You can make sure that you offer just as much if not more than your competition, so if they do click away out of curiosity, they return as they realise you have the best offering.

Of course the full solution cannot be divulged in a single blog post and the remedies are often bespoke to the type of business, but here are some ways I’ve found to lower your bounce rate instantly.

Design For The Scanner

The design of a good website is no fluke. It takes into consideration how a visitor reads a page. For instance, a visitor lands and gives you just 5 seconds of their time before they make up their mind.

In this five seconds their eyes will flick across your website and will see:

• The Top Right Corner (Does it show where to go next, contact details?)
• The Menu (Does it list what I need or do I have to click further?)
• The Centre (Is it enticing? Does it start a journey? Is there an incentive to stay?)
• The Bottom Left (Does it have a call to action? Does it lead to more content? Is it blank?)

The bottom left corner is usually ignored (try it and see how often you view the bottom left corner of a webpage). The design needs to propel an image of excellent usability while leading the customers on a very clear journey.

Scanners don’t want to investigate, they want to know just a few things when landing directly on your website. These are:

• Where is the product I came here for?
• How do I buy it?
• Why should I buy from you over the competition?
• What are the benefits for me?
• How quickly can I complete checkout and be finished?

If these questions aren’t answered in a flash, they will possibly attempt to find the content they’re looking for but will soon give up if they don’t. The sad truth is, it’s easier and quicker to click back to that search than it is to go on a hunt for what they want in a new, unfamiliar website.

The Copy That Bounces Back

Although the trend is for less copy, more action the copy on the homepage can still make a huge difference to bounce rates. Scanners will read the first lines, along with standout words from paragraphs. They will not read the copy as if it is an article, left to right. They will skim.

This is why it needs to sell.

The copy, alongside the images, should answer those questions they have as they land. It should also give very clear direction on where to go next.

Once you have enticed a customer to a product page, the description needs to fulfil a few criteria to entice that sale such as:

• Highlighting why the product will benefit the customer.
• Eliminating buyer’s guilt (Every buyer, no matter how wealthy, experiences buyer’s guilt. Unless you sell essential items such as toothbrushes or socks, nappies or babygrows, your customers will feel a little guilt for spending money on “luxury” items. You can eliminate this by letting them know what great value it is, how it benefits a lifestyle and how they’ve found a great deal. This also ensures they come back again and again).
• Displaying delivery options and showing the shortest possible time for receiving the product.
• The price (Even if you can’t be cheaper than a competitor, your delivery terms and customer service can often override this).

Other Contributing Factors

Other factors include website speed, ease of use, image load times and size of website. These can all put a customer off.

Of course, if like this proximity marketing website, you have very little content, you can analyse each and every word to see what maybe putting customers off. This is also a good example of how to start the customer journey, so the first click takes a visitor deeper into the site, lowering bounce rates instantly while reducing the risk of design or content sending a visitor back to the search page.

About the author
Martina Mercer is a freelance digital marketer and copywriter for BrandStreet.com who has written for many publications including the Huffington Post and MOZ. She won the Working Mother of the Year Award in 2014 and is currently shortlisted as Journalist of the Year, Most Inspirational Role Model in IT and Best Businesswoman of the Year.

Read More

Best Google Apps Alternative To Microsoft Office

According to a whitepaper from the Cloud Alliance for Google Apps, 31% of respondents suggested that Google Apps would allow them to reduce their investment in Microsoft Office products. But for that to happen, you need a simple way to move your data from the desktop to the cloud. Here are a few apps that can assist.

The Best Google Apps Plugins To Help You Transition From Microsoft Office To The Cloud

• If you’re using Microsoft Exchange or Outlook...

  Use GAMME for large-scale migrations. It’s a free tool provided by Google to help you migrate email, contacts, calendar, and Public Folder data from on-premise and hosted Microsoft Exchange servers. If you’re transitioning a small number of users from Microsoft Outlook, GAMMO performs the same task. Check out this helpful guide to learn about all of Google’s official data migration tools for Google Apps. Both GAMME and GAMMO are focused on email and contact management services—so if you need to move something else, keep reading!

  We have to give a shoutout to The Gooru, which is one of the best resources for companies that are going Google. This tutorial on Google Apps migration for Microsoft Exchange provides a structured checklist for your migration. That way, you won’t miss any important details.

• If you’re using Microsoft Visio...

  Use Lucidchart. It’s a third-party diagramming app that allows users to easily integrate with their Google Apps domain. Once that’s done, it only takes two clicks for your users to access the program; just click the App Launcher and select Lucidchart. As a Visio alternative, one of its most attractive features is Microsoft Visio import and export, which allows you to upload legacy files to Lucidchart. They remain editable, of course, but now you’re able to collaborate on your diagrams, publish them online, export to Visio format, and more.

  

• If you’re using Microsoft Publisher...

  Try Lucidpress; it’s made by the creators of Lucidchart and offers a similarly intuitive experience. Just drag and drop your objects onto the canvas for truly easy publishing. Although it doesn’t offer Publisher import (yet), it’s the top-rated app of its kind in the Google Apps Marketplace. Like Lucidchart, it offers a free premium trial so you can experiment with paid features before committing to a subscription. After trying several Publisher alternatives, we think Lucidpress is your best bet for making flyers, brochures, posters, and other design and layout projects.

• If you’re using Microsoft Project...

  You’re in luck. In our opinion, the best project management software out there, Smartsheet, offers Microsoft Project file import (along with import for Excel files and Google Spreadsheets). Aside from importing old documents, you’ll be able to share files, set deadline alerts, and create documents specific to project management, like burndown charts and Gantt charts.

• If you’re using Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint...

  Try Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides; they offer file import for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, respectively. It’s hard to beat Google’s built-in products for basic business needs, especially if you want a comprehensive software package. For 80 - 90% of users, Google Docs and Slides work just as well as Microsoft’s offerings. Power users of Excel may be disappointed in its Google counterpart, since Sheets lacks features like Goal Seek, add-ins, and keyboard shortcuts for formats and filters. But Sheets partially makes up for it with powerful collaboration and ongoing product development.

  Another consolation prize is Google Forms, for which there’s no real Microsoft comparison. This program comes standard with Google Apps integration and lets anyone create and analyze surveys for free. Use it to collect information in a far more user-friendly format than a mass email.

• If you’re using Microsoft Lync...

  Use a combination of YouCanBook.Me and UberConference. Used together, they allow you to schedule appointments and make conference calls in record time. YouCanBook.Me integrates with your Google calendar and is perfect for setting job interviews and team meetings. We’ve even seen users schedule individual feedback sessions with product testers—all with the click of a button.

  UberConference is also easy to use. Created by the makers of Google Talk, this audio conference software offers smart features like earmuffs, audio recording, and no-PIN dial-in. The visual interface shows you who’s talking at any given moment, which is nice for crowded calls.

• If you’re using Microsoft OneNote...

  Try EverNote. This is the only recommendation that doesn’t integrate with Google Apps, but for good reason: EverNote is a fantastic note-taking app that happens to be a personal tool rather than a team one. It does, however, import OneNote files in a few simple steps, allowing you to transition previous work to the cloud. The program also supports integration with Gmail accounts.

Do you have a favorite Google Apps program that helps users transition from Microsoft Office? Share it in the comments!

About the author
Eliza Wright is a marketing manager at Lucid Software. She enjoys writing about tech, dissecting the latest digital marketing trends, and learning how to be a leader. Reach her at eliza@lucidchart.com.

Read More