SEO And High Bounce Rate Options

Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Sunday, 22 of June , 2008 at 8:26 pm

Search engine optimization can see your pages listed highly on the search results pages, this can result a decent flow of traffic. If this traffic is landing and disappearing quickly - delivering a high bounce rate - then there are several options available to remedy this problem.

The first issue is whether or not users are finding your pages using the wrong keywords. If your site is designed to promote “holidays in Florida”, then perhaps users are finding your site based simply on the term ‘Florida’. If this is the case you will need to tighten your search engine optimization of the keywords.

You may be able to get a closer targeting simply by increasing the number of times your keywords appear on the page. This does not mean to spam the page, rather you need to look at increasing the number in small steps, first by only two or three more occurrences, perhaps using bold to further highlight them. Search engine optimization is often a matter of fine tuning, not all out war.

If keywords are not the issue then your landing page may be the problem. You can have several landing pages designed and then over a period of several weeks, try each one out to see if there is any marked difference in bounce rates. If your site is a sales portal, checking the conversion rate of visitors during this time can be a real eyeopener as well.

If you cannot test different landing pages, look at your current landing page to see what tweaking is required there. Is your call to action prominent? Does your landing page invite the visitor in, or does it throw ads and distractions at them? Often, a little tweaking in the placement of the various components on your page produces very effective results.

Search engine optimization can get you to the top of the SERP’s, can your page effectively utilize the traffic that flows from that optimization. Lack of sales is often not the fault of the search engine optimization consultant, it is a problem with the page design and the number of steps required to close a sale. Bounce rates can be an indication of poor keyword choice or poor site design.

                      Category: SEO