Whichever industry or niche you operate in, there are other similar websites offering a similar product or service. Therefore, if you don't capture your online visitors' attention, other websites will. When people visit your site and leave without clicking through the pages or taking a call to action, you should be worried.
A high bounce rate can hurt your site's ranking on search engines and limit your visibility. Luckily, a few tweaks to your web design may be all you need to capture your visitors and lower your bounce rate. Below are some measures you can execute.
Minimize Clutter
Nothing sends visitors away faster than a cluttered website. Disorganized content, visual noise, overly-busy design elements, and too many ads are just a few of the things that amount to clutter. When a visitor lands on your webpage, they become instantly overwhelmed. They don't know where to go. Thus, they click away and find a better site for their needs.
Minimizing clutter and sticking to a simple design can increase the time users spend on your site and lower your bounce rate. Below are some tips on how to achieve this.
- Create more negative space to draw user attention to your content
- Go for a minimalistic design with minimal visual elements
- Ditch the sidebars if possible
- Place your ads strategically on the page
Design your site with a visual hierarchy in mind. If you have long-form text on the site, use imagery to break down the text and increase visual interest.
Prioritize Readability
Readability is not just about creating quality content. The way you present content also determines whether readers spend their valuable time on it. For example, a small font size may not be legible to people with eye problems. As you create content, maximize readability in the following ways.
- Choose a big font size that suits your potential readers
- Select a suitable font type based on the length of your content
- Contrast text and background colors for easy readability
- Use text hierarchy to differentiate headers, sub-headings, and regular text
Make use of online tools to check the viability of design elements such as site contrast and font.
Check Your Navigation
Visitors may leave your site before taking any action if they can't find their way around. Navigation can make or break your website. Thus, to lower your bounce rate, you need an easily-accessible navigation system. Place your menu in a location where visitors can easily see and access it. For your mobile site, move your menu to the bottom of the screen.
Tweaking your web design can instantly lower your bounce rate and boost your rankings. Consult a local designer for further assistance with web design.
