I got the bounce rate blues

loudog · #**1 I got the bounce rate blues** 05-08-2008, 02:46 PM

My site has been reviewed before but recently my bounce rate has been hovering above and below the 60% mark.

I am currently planning a redesign that will probably help with it but in the mean time if there is something I can do to keep my users from bouncing I would like to do it. Obviously I don't want to spend any money on development with the redesign an all but maybe there is some content things I can do.

Here it is again: NutshellRealty.com

Thanks everyone!

dylan · 05-08-2008, 03:04 PM

Do you have a lot of Spammers visiting your site? I get a lot of Spam leads and I think this is one of the reasons that my bounce rate is high.

RESteve · 05-08-2008, 03:10 PM

Since you do have Google Analytics, you can do a really neat analysis of what keywords are really causing your high bounce rate. Click on traffic sources, and on the bottom right you'll see your list of keywords driving the most traffic to your site.

Assuming organic keyword hits like this are your main source of traffic, individually click each keyword and look at at the bounce rate for each one.

Keeping it below 45% is a hassle, in my opinion. I still struggle with it myself. However, you will occasionally find a keyword you've optimized for that far under-performs the rest in terms of bounce rate.

Can you pinpoint this to be one of the causes of your bounce rate problem? See any keywords on that top list there that has an unusually high bounce rate compared to the rest?

loudog · 05-08-2008, 03:52 PM

Awsome insight Steve, I am going to look right now!

loudog · 05-08-2008, 04:02 PM

Whoa! I think I am in serious trouble.

I went into my keywords list in GA and ordered by bounce rate. Obviously, there are some real longtails that are at 100% but they are only responsible for 1 to 3 visits a month so I re-ordered by visits (default) and found that there were a few keywords that were pushing 80+% but get this . . . the keywords were versions of my company name. Nutshell, Prudential Nutshell, NutshellRealty.com, etc.

This is telling me something isn't it?

RESteve · 04:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by loudog

Whoa! I think I am in serious trouble.

I went into my keywords list in GA and ordered by bounce rate. Obviously, there are some real longtails that are at 100% but they are only responsible for 1 to 3 visits a month so I re-ordered by visits (default) and found that there were a few keywords that were pushing 80+% but get this . . . the keywords were versions of my company name. Nutshell, Prudential Nutshell, NutshellRealty.com, etc.

This is telling me something isn't it?

I would say so. The traffic you're unintentionally targeting may not be real estate consumers, especially since consumers (according to NAR) are looking to search for properties first and foremost.

You'll see consumers behind keywords (in other words, searching with keywords) like city real estate, or city homes for sale, things like that. Someone searching for your company (keyword = company) is either a) a SUPER hot lead or b) someone looking to join your company or a competitor checking you guys out.

I'd go with it being b) which is why you're bounce rate is so high. People go there looking to find things about your company, but end up finding a site to search listings and real estate information instead.

Focus on improving your main keyword search engine rankings and long tail for relevant keywords (____ real estate, ____ homes for sale) and I'm confident your bounce rates will improve and so will your incoming leads.

PS. After re-reading your post, answer me this: What are the top three keywords driving organic traffic to your website? Sorry if what I said above isn't really relevant; I assume you were saying the keywords driving the most traffic to your site were company keywords not "real estate" ones.

loudog · 05-08-2008, 04:38 PM

I think it is all relevant and I appreciate your feedback. I PM'ed you my top 3 keywords. If it is people looking for info about my company, maybe I should see if I can capitalize by adding some recruitment content or company info.

@Dylan, how can I tell if I am getting spammers?

dylan · 05-09-2008, 10:10 AM

I'm not really sure, I just know I get them because of all the "viagra" type spam registrants I get.

Portland Real Estate · 05-09-2008, 10:10 AM

One of the things might help clarify what's causing this it to add some filters to Google analytics to exclude your own IP address and your companies IP addresses.

I know that my own search habits are totally different than my users (monitoring keywords) and would skew my data if I didn't remove them. Here's the instructions on how to do this:

http://www.google.com/support/google...n&answer=55572

Also, if you want to see the unfiltered data and filtered data separately, then you can setup a second profile for your website in your analytics account so you can compare what effect that has (if any).

Portland Real Estate · 05-09-2008, 10:11 AM

Also, to clarify, when you talk about bounce rates, are you talking about your total bounce rate or are you talking about your bounce rate just from google or for certain pages?

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