On the Google Blog Avinash Kaushik wrote a post on Bounce Rate that begins a series called The Power of Measurement.
Lesson one is on Bounce Rate.
Bounce Rate is a very easy metric to understand. For that reason it is always one of the first concepts I talk about to my clients that need help deciphering their web analytics.
What does a bounce mean from a user experience perspective?
Bounce Rate is a very important metric because it illustrates one of the biggest problems from a webmaster perspective. It has become normal human behavior to enter a website with the understanding that if you don’t instantly see what you want then you go back to where you were and try something else.
Think about what this means to you as you leave the offending site. You weren’t able to find what you wanted. This doesn’t always mean that the site did not have what you wanted. It means that you were not able to instantly find it. If it is buried two layers deep it doesn’t matter because you are long gone. Even if the path to get there is perfectly clear, if you didn’t see it you are out of there.
What can you do to make it more likely that the person finds what they want on your site?
Well, I’ll give you a hint, pretty much every website now has conventional top navigation. Home, About Us, Services, Articles. These days the problem is seldom confusing navigation.
If it is not the top navigation then what could it be?
Well there are the typical special offers on the sidebar. We hold onto the expectation that people will read enough to decide that they want to do business with us and then go over to the sidebar to let us know. It is possible to improve the graphical appeal of side offers, or even the value proposition, but there is another way.
If you look at some of the most succesful sites on the web you will notice that many of them have something in common. Perhaps more convincingly, take a look at the websites run by people who are conversion and usability experts. You will notice one major trend:
Calls to Action in the Content of the page
Typically when you visit a website you begin by reading the headline. If the headline connects with you then you begin reading or scanning the content of the page. (Why do we expect them to stop reading and find our call to action somewhere else?) Put the call to action right in front of them where their eyes are in the content of the page. Use trigger words that correspond to the user’s motivation for coming to the site. Don’t give them too many choices.
Example of a good call to action in content:
Look right at the very post that inspired this one: At the end of the content Avinash says “check out this article on my web analytics blog”
Do you effective use calls to action in content?
Is there a reason you haven’t?
