Landing Page Bounce Rate: 7 Ways to Improve Engagement

A landing page with a high bounce rate is like a party that never gets off the ground. Sure, the neighbors and close friends show up, but they only have one drink and leave soon after. No one wants to host a bad party, and no one wants to take the time and effort to build a landing page that follows an ad only for customers to quickly leave.

A bounce rate is the percentage of website visitors who load a page but don’t click on anything while there. According to Quick Sprout, a realistic bounce rate for landing pages hovers between 70% and 90%,  an achievable goal.

But the difference between the lower and higher ends of the landing page bounce rate spectrum is important when you’re trying to improve conversion rates or the reach of an ad campaign. Here are the seven ways you can improve the landing page bounce rate for your organization:

For more on how to build an effective landing page:

Identify Your Website’s Friction Points

The first thing to do is start collecting information about which pages, including post-ad landing pages, have the highest bounce rates. It’s important to note that friction points on your website may have hindered your ability to engage visitors on your landing page. Either way, data will be your best tool, so services like Google Analytics can help you determine exactly what’s going on. Identify the pages with the highest bounce rates and work your way down.

2. Make Sure Your Landing Page Is Not Deceptive

There are two types of landing pages: a post-click landing page and a standard landing page. If yours is post-click (or post-ad), make sure it matches the content of the page before it. Don’t test the trust of a consumer who clicks a link on your website and ends up somewhere unfamiliar or unrelated. They may decide it’s not worth the interaction. A post-click landing page should match the previous pages in the following:

• Imagery
• Call to action
• Headline
• Branding

3. Improve Your Targeted Traffic

If you’re not directing the right customers to your landing page, that’s one thing. It’s always possible to target better with services like AdRoll. But, if the wrong customers are being directed to your landing page, that’s going to drive up your landing page bounce rate very quickly. Know who your audience is before you create your landing page to make sure you’re giving them plenty of incentive to visit.

For more on how to create behavioral targeting and retargeting strategy:

Design Landing Pages To Work for Both Mobile and Desktop Users

Keep in mind there are more mobile-only users than desktop-only users in the United States. Your landing page might be pretty — but it also might be completely unusable on a smartphone. A mobile-friendly landing page will show that your brand takes customers’ time seriously. Improved responsiveness on a variety of devices should encourage more users to stick around, decreasing your landing page bounce rate.

Boost Your Site’s Speed

A landing page that loads quickly can be the difference between a sale and a higher landing page bounce rate in the era of shortened attention spans. Google PageSpeed can provide a benchmark for how you’re doing in that arena. One SEO company found that even a one-second delay in load time could result in 7% lower conversion rates.

6. Create More Readable Content

If you balk at the sight of a large paragraph of text with little to no breaks, you’re far from alone. That’s why this article is written in the form of a list, after all. SEO experts recommend obvious headlines, copious subheadings, and bulleted lists to draw readers in and keep them from being overwhelmed. In fact, we’ll go ahead and end this paragraph now to be safe.

7. Avoid Unnecessary Pop-Ups

It’s completely understandable to want to use pop-ups to show your website visitors all your brand has to offer. But, studies consistently show that pop-ups are one of the most hated forms of advertising. A quick and fast rule is to make sure any landing page pop-ups are as relevant as possible to your visitors and to limit their use altogether.

Last updated on August 16th, 2022.