My bounce rate dropped from 60% to 0%!
I recently performed a test on my quote page and potential leads were leaving very quickly. I tried all kinds of things like a link to a simpler form, bigger text, bigger buttons but nothing had an impact.
Then I really thought about it and it hit me; a lot of people who are looking for a quote are time poor and haven’t really thought about what they want.
The solution was simple. I removed this overly thought out but clever button system that added pages to the customer’s quote. For example they could add home, about, services, contact pages etc…
Most weren’t doing this or they were leaving because it required too much thought to decide what pages they needed.
So, I removed it and replaced it with a box saying “How many pages would you like?” and starting it with 5 which seemed to be the average.
This dropped the bounce rate to 0%.
Why you need to constantly test and improve your site.
Hopefully the story above helps you put some of your content into perspective.
First you need to identify your worst performing pages.
Now come up with changes to fix the bounce and exit rates.
Make these changes, record the previous statistics in a calendar and give it a month.
Compare and repeat.
Sounds like a lot of work? Think about about the fact that even a 10% decrease in bounce rates is worth thousands of dollars over a years time.
7 reasons why you need to stop using Internet Explorer.
#1 – Internet Explorer (IE)has had many updates but the majority of these have not fixed major security issues.
Here is what the Department of Homeland Security’s had to say about it
“We are currently unaware of a practical solution to this problem,”
#2 – It was once very popular so hackers and virus target it.
The opposite can be said for Mac computers. They can definitely get viruses its just that a very small portion of the population use them so its not worth the hackers time.
#3 – Microsoft is quite slow to release updates and fixes to major problems. Some have been fixed 6 months later!
#4 – IE doesn’t follow the international standards which means that quite often it doesn’t display a website the same way as all the other browsers do.
#5 – IE is yet to implement automatic updates.
This means plugins, addons and other features are ripe for viruses to get in and steal your information. All the other browsers have this option, why not IE?
#6 – No synchronisation
If you use multiple computers, tablets and phones Auto Sync will automatically synchronise your bookmarks, settings and information between all of these devices. This does not occur when you use IE.
#7 – There hasn’t been an updated Mac version of IE since 2003.
Questions and Answers
Q: Will Facebook and Google+ improve my rankings?
A: Short answer, YES.
Currently it still seems to be a small factor. Experiments haven’t tied down what part of the social sharing increases SEO so its still debatable.
There seems to be a small factor in the number of times a link to your site is shared on social media so, having a link to your home page and getting lots of customers to share it helps.
It’s very hard to tell.
Part of the reason could be customers that following a link on Facebook that takes them to your site, and interact with your site, they find out more info, and finally they fill out your contact form.
Which is great, and Google will pick up on this interaction (to some extent).
This then adds to your credibility of having a great site and hence you’ll probably move up the ranks.
So using that scenario above you can see how Facebook didn’t necessarily increase the SEO by just placing the link.
Its the customer following the link.
But they wouldn’t have followed the link unless you put it on Facebook.
It very quickly becomes a chicken and then egg problem.
Best to just enjoy posting relevant information with a link to one of your sites pages, have fun and do it regularly.
Just for Fun
