Analytics are a tricky thing. You may see a bunch of glowing green indicators telling you that page views are on the up and up or that you\u2019ve got more new visitors than last month, but those numbers don\u2019t mean much if you don\u2019t dig deeper.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019ve got a high quantity<\/em> of visitors coming to your site, but they\u2019re jumping ship within a matter of seconds without engaging, there\u2019s something wrong quality<\/em>-wise. Today I want to discuss how your website\u2019s content and design may be the source of the problem and offer\u00a0a number of ways you can go about lifting your visitors\u2019 on-page time and dropping your site\u2019s bounce rate.<\/p>\n Imagine you had a brick-and-mortar shop and people were always walking by the front window, looking in, and then walking on by. Or, even worse, imagine that people were stepping inside your shop, taking a look around, and then immediately leaving. This is exactly what happens on your website every time it registers a bounce.<\/p>\n Visitors to your website should be excited to learn more about you and your business after catching that first glance. However, when they \u201cbounce\u201d off your site without taking any further steps into other pages or engaging with the elements on your site, then you\u2019ve got a big problem.<\/p>\n When it comes to design, there are a lot of factors that may cause visitors to hightail it out of your site:<\/p>\n While I can\u2019t say exactly what may be the cause of your particular site\u2019s pain, I can give you some guidelines to follow when assessing and fixing what\u2019s wrong with it.<\/p>\n While the time your visitors spend on the pages of your website isn\u2019t the only statistic you need to keep an eye on, it\u2019s a good indicator of their overall interest. And with more time spent on-page, more pages visited, and a lower bounce rate, it\u2019s safe to assume that your visitors will be more likely to convert.<\/p>\n Here are some ways to drive this engagement.<\/p>\n Every website should tell a story. And by \u201cstory,\u201d I mean there should be a clear problem-and-resolution that visitors notice when looking through your site.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re not sure what story your website tells (or if it even has one), it may be time to rethink your website\u2019s design and content for a stronger, more cohesive message that captures your audience\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n Solution:\u00a0<\/strong>Tell Your Story<\/a><\/p>\n If you find that your visitors commonly deviate from the pre-determined path you\u2019ve established for them, then your navigation may not be as straight-forward as you think.<\/p>\n If there is related content that visitors are missing out on, a redo of your site\u2019s navigation might not be such a bad idea. It would also give you an opportunity to better clearly tell your story by placing pages in a logical order within the menu.<\/p>\n Solution:<\/strong>\u00a0Give Your Menu a Redo<\/a><\/p>\n There\u2019s a tendency in this day and age to overshare \u2013 to tweet our thoughts, Instagram our meals, Snapchat our adventures. When it comes to websites, though, think of them like the 140-character restriction on Twitter. Say as much as possible in as little space as you can.<\/p>\n This is why minimalist design is hot right now; it forces visitors to focus on the most important parts of the site and not get distracted by the rest.<\/p>\n Solution:<\/strong>\u00a0Communicate More Effectively<\/a><\/p>\n Images are an essential part of web design. They establish a tone, set the pace, and can even tell visitors a lot about a business. When talking about \u201coptimizing\u201d images, the first thing that comes to mind for developers is photo compression. Optimization can also pertain to making the most of the images used. High-resolution imagery is a must. Unique stock photography is good, too. Even better would be using your own photography.<\/p>\n Solution:<\/strong>\u00a0Optimize Your Photos<\/a><\/p>\n A lot of consideration goes into the images, colors, and placement of a website, but what about the font? If you\u2019ve ever relied on the default font selection of a theme, you know that those choices aren\u2019t always ideal.<\/p>\n While there may be other issues giving visitors a difficult time reading your content, a quick switcheroo may be enough to hold their attention.<\/p>\n Solution:\u00a0<\/strong>Upgrade Your Font<\/a><\/p>\n The key to appealing to the masses is to go with a simple and classic solution. In terms of content, consider breaking it up in the following ways:<\/p>\n Solution:\u00a0<\/strong>Simply Revise Your Content<\/a><\/p>\n You may not realize it, but your calls-to-action (CTAs) may be standing in your way. It might be because the wording seems too much like a robotic command (like \u201cRead More\u201d or \u201cClick Here\u201d). Or it might be due to the colors, placement, or size of the button. Regardless, if you\u2019re not getting as many clicks as you\u2019d like, you need a way to better manipulate an urgent, emotional need to click.<\/p>\n Solution:\u00a0<\/strong>Improve Those Clicks<\/a><\/p>\n\n Websites go stale very easily if left alone for too long. That\u2019s why it\u2019s important to blog, blog, blog\u2014and make sure that the ongoing push of new content through the pipeline is relevant and useful for visitors.<\/p>\n The goal then is to create regular blog content that drives readers to stay on the page until they get to the very end. That\u2019s where they\u2019ll find your helpful suggestions to take an action or read other related content.<\/p>\n Solution:\u00a0<\/strong>Share Related Content with Ease<\/a><\/p>\n Flat, minimal design is good\u2026 but that doesn\u2019t mean that animations and other forms of entertainment or interactivity are bad. In fact, they may do a better job at holding your visitors\u2019 attention and propelling them through your site.<\/p>\n Sliding animations, creative calculators, and infographics can break up page-after-page of copy and give visitors a reason to stay engaged.<\/p>\n Solution:<\/strong>\u00a0Make It Interactive<\/a><\/p>\n Luckily for us, exit-intent technology is alive and thriving and can save many a visitor from abandoning a site without at least giving up an email. That being said, some websites have gone a little overboard with their pop-up messaging, rendering the exit-prompted pop-up useless.<\/p>\n So if you choose to go the route of pop-ups, ensure that they\u2019re used in the right place and the right time.<\/p>\n Solution:\u00a0<\/strong>Make Your Pop-Ups Count<\/a><\/p>\n For those of you who aren\u2019t experiencing issues with bounce rate, but are still dealing with a lack of conversions, your shopping cart or intake forms may be the problem.<\/p>\n If there\u2019s anything to learn from the tips above, it\u2019s that your visitors expect a simplified experience. This may mean you need to cut down on the number of fields in a form or break your shopping cart out into multiple pages to make it more easily digestible.<\/p>\n Solution:\u00a0<\/strong>Start with Your Forms<\/a><\/p>\n For some visitors, the reason they leave is due to pure frustration. They can\u2019t find the answer to their question. They can\u2019t get a form to work. Or they\u2019re experiencing some other issue that they want a real-time resolution for.<\/p>\n By putting a live chat module on your site, you can make sure you\u2019ve got someone there to answer questions and keep visitors from unnecessarily jumping ship.<\/p>\n Solution:\u00a0<\/strong>Have a Chat<\/a><\/p>\n This might seem like a silly suggestion, but broken links are really disruptive to the visitor experience (and are bad for SEO, to boot). Rather than run the risk of annoying a visitor with one too many broken links, keep them moving through the endless chain of pages with intact links.<\/p>\n Solution:\u00a0<\/strong>Fix Your Links<\/a><\/p>\n If it\u2019s been over two years since you last touched your site\u2019s design, that\u2019s a pretty good sign that it’s in need of a change. It also may be the case that the theme originally chosen just doesn\u2019t work for your particular audience. People these days expect businesses to stay in tune with modern trends\u2014and this includes design. So if you\u2019ve tested everything else and are still struggling with getting that time on-page up or bounce rate down, it may be time to consider a new theme.<\/p>\n Solution:\u00a0<\/strong>Discover a New Look<\/a><\/p>\n Before making any changes to your site\u2019s content or design, make sure you have the following tools set up and ready to go. They\u2019ll help you diagnose any initial issues and give you a decent place to start from.<\/p>\n Remember: you want to drop that bounce rate and get that on-page time up. That doesn\u2019t mean you need to completely redo your website in order for visitors to be more likely to convert. Your goal should be to identify those smaller areas that, when fixed, will make a huge difference in the reception of your site.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When was the last time you checked your WordPress website\u2019s analytics? How about your site\u2019s conversion rate? If the two pictures don\u2019t quite sync up (e.g. you\u2019re getting a lot of visitors, but sales are in a slump), then it\u2019s time to figure out what\u2019s going on with your website. Let me ask you a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":344989,"featured_media":160430,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"blog_reading_time":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_tutorials_categories":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[263],"tags":[10089,9851],"tutorials_categories":[],"class_list":["post-160370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tutorials","tag-bounce-rate","tag-user-engagement"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/344989"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160370"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":160440,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160370\/revisions\/160440"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160370"},{"taxonomy":"tutorials_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tutorials_categories?post=160370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Why It\u2019s Time to Revisit Your Site\u2019s Content and Design<\/h3>\n
\n
Increasing Your Visitors\u2019 On-Page Time<\/h3>\n
Tell a Story<\/h3>\n
![\"relax\"](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/relax.png\")
<\/div>\nRevamp Your Menu<\/h3>\n
![\"menu_burger_1500\"](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/menu_burger_1500.png\")
<\/div>\nRemove the Clutter<\/h3>\n
Optimize Your Imagery<\/h3>\n
![\"smush-pro\"](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Smush-Pro-e1478194794857.png\")
<\/div>\nGive Your Fonts a Facelift<\/h3>\n
Break Up Content<\/h3>\n
\n
Personalize Your CTAs<\/h3>\n
Write Relevant Content<\/h3>\n
Employ Interactivity<\/h3>\n
Check Out Your Pop-Up Usage<\/h3>\n
![\"Our](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Hustle_Feature_1500.png\")
Simplify Your Conversion Process<\/h3>\n
Add a Live Chat<\/h3>\n
Fix Broken Links<\/h3>\n
![\"broken-link-checker\"](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Broken-Link-Checker-e1478195507353.png\")
<\/div>\nFind a New Theme<\/h3>\n
![\"Spirit](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Spirit-Upfront-theme.jpg\")
Wrapping Up<\/h2>\n
\n