I've Improved My Bounce Rate By Almost 80%
Bounce Rate Struggles
When I started my blog a few years back I had no clue about any of this stuff, but I do know I had consistently high bounce rates and terrible session durations. My problem was not knowing my target audience.
Believe me, I wanted to know them. I just didn't have a super refined niche. I was a "mom blogger". I blogged about this and that...advice, recipes, and other random things. I thought I had a clue. I really didn't. I was wasting my own time making content that no one cared to read.
My bounce rate stayed at a high of 80% - 90% always and I never noticed a change. I talked to other bloggers who told me they had the same problem and not to worry....so I didn't.
Traffic Grew...Still Had A High Bounce Rate
So over the years, naturally my traffic grew from my social media efforts and organic traffic combined. My bounce rate was still hovering the 80% mark and I really never even payed much mind to it. I knew it was high, but I was getting traffic..so what!
Something Happened
My website was SO slow. It hit all of a sudden like a ton of bricks. Horrible page load times and Google wasn't too happy with that. I found that almost all of my URL's were registering as "bad" because of how slowly they loaded.
I Began Optimizing
I resized all of the images on my website, removed plugins and widgets that weren't necessary. I essentially took away ALL of the clutter. Then a light also switched on in my head that told me...what is my best content? What do people like to see from me?
I Interlinked All Of My Popular Content
I decided to also interlink all of my popular content on each post I made recently. I had always interlinked content, but putting super related content together was a HUGE benefit. In just one week of time after doing all this....BOOM my bounce rate went way down and session durations went way up!
Making Progress
I only have been able to really work on my blog in a serious manner for the last 4 months and things have really been progressing. Coming back to WA was a great stepping stone as well. I had been gone for a little while due to work and other things. I am hoping to make even more progress soon!
All the best,
-Shyla
Recent Comments
29
That's great bounce rates, Shyla. 🤩Thank you for sharing your tips.🙏
I will declutter my website. My bounce rates are still around the 80% mark.
Cheers,
Ferra
Great post! I loved how you trouble-shoot your website and found what the culprit was for your high-bouce rate. I also liked the fact you put 2 and 2 together and immediately saw how to become more efficient with your website. Way to go! Thanks for sharing.
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Thanks for sharing Shyla! Picked up some useful insight from your post. Keep up the good work!
Cheers!
-Hon
Thank you! Glad I could help!