90% website bounce rate - What am I doing wrong?
-
(Also not getting any comments on any of my articles)
Hi, everyone! I'm very new to the community here, but I'm honestly at my wits end.
I've run an affiliate marketing site for about 8 months now, and I've consistently had issues with bounce rate. I've tried to look into it myself, but I can't seem to determine what the issue is.
A couple things, though - One, a lot of my traffic currently goes to two articles which don't actually have any intent to convert. I didn't even write those articles for the sake of conversion, they were just for fun and I thought they'd be useful to people who stumbled across them. So that could be one reason my bounce rate is so high, but I'm not sure.Anyway, I've asked a LOT of people in the past (I was part of an affiliate marketing community at one point - I asked the founders, friends, strangers, and other successful affiliate marketers about this) if there's anything wrong with my content, etc. The answer has always been no, that it's good.
I'm sorry. My thoughts are a bit scatterbrained here. I just don't know what to do here. If all my content for 8 months has just utterly sucked, I'd feel pretty demotivated, but at least I could know what to improve going forward. That's what I need help with from you guys.
Here's my website, though I'm not sure if links are allowed: http://cheapgamesguru.com/
My latest articles aren't really getting any traffic at all yet, so I'm not really concerned with them. Specifically, ignore my Future of the HTC Vive, Crusader Kings 2, and World of Warcraft articles. Those are part of my "fun blogs" where I just write about games and such with no real intent to convert. If they start getting traffic, then I'll go and add some more internal links or CTAs.
However, a couple articles that I AM having issues with are here: http://cheapgamesguru.com/top-5-best-mid-tower-cases ; http://cheapgamesguru.com/top-5-computer-case-fans-the-best-case-fans-for-your-rig ; http://cheapgamesguru.com/what-is-the-best-micro-atx-case-for-gaming-top-5-best-micro-atx-cases (The links on the Micro ATX article are currently broken - This could very well be one of the reasons! However, this trend of high bounce rates started quite some time ago, so it's still an issue)
Could it be as simple as a performance problem? I haven't checked my pagespeed recently, not since I switched to a new (Faster) host. I know users are far more likely to leave if the site doesn't load within 3 seconds.
Another possible reason is referral spam, of course. I've tried my very best to eliminate it as much as possible, used filtering tools, etc. but I can't seem to completely eradicate it.
Thanks in advance! Ask me for any details you might need.
-
I have to agree that the first thing to consider (well, after fixing those broken links) is how your content ties into your conversion funnel. What compels me to stay on your site once I've found the answer I'm looking for? For example, if I'm just looking for recommendations for fans and I land on your post about them, once I've read, why wouldn't I click right back to Google?
Out of curiosity, what constitutes a conversion for you? If a visitor doesn't bounce away, what would you prefer them to do?
-
What exactly is your question?
You experience high bounce rate on the articles aimed at converting visitors to buying affiliate products? And other (non-converting) pages do get way more visitors?
Because those are two different things: number of visitors (people arriving) and high bounce rates (% of people leaving again after visiting).
So…
- is not getting traffic to your converting your problem?
- or are visitors going to the wrong pages?
- or is just plainly not conversing your main problem?
Because when you're able to pull in audience with some pages, then the problem will be mainly content related (in my opinion). That content does resonate. Other content doesn't. Maybe it is due to the nature of your content (e.g. game reviews may be more popular than hardware reviews?) or the way you present your content (your tendency in writing different kinds of articles).
Or perhaps there is more competition for the targeted subject? Or there is far less traffic for the targeted subject.
Do you have an idea of the total volumes for the targeted audiences and what your SERP results are on the targeted keywords?
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Search Analytics update in Google Webmasters Tools? Where can we find search queries bringing traffic to website?
I just got up and see Search Analytic's being updated today totally. Their is no option to see old reports. As Search Analytics only share 999 keywords.
Search Behavior | | csfarnsworth
Whats next now?
How can a webmaster finds all search queries bringing traffic to his website?
Any paid or free tool?
Google Analytic's > Acquisition > Search engine optimization > search queries will this area helps? Whole question revolves around. Any good tool that will help you find all the queries bringing traffic to my website?0 -
My satellite website is ranking better than my actual site. Why and what to do?
This is our website: www.sauspiel.de and this is the satellite website. As the satellite site has a better ranking for the keyword "schafkopf" since two or three weeks we wonder how this could happen and what would be best to change it or improve the situation. Shall we take down the satellite site, redirect to the "real" site or try to downgrade? And what would you consider to be the (strongest) reason? Any suggestions? Thanks a lot for your help and assessment!
Search Behavior | | sauspiel0 -
Visual Website Optimizer vs. Optimizely vs. Conductrics
I've always done my own A/B testing and haven't used a software package. I've heard a lot of good about Visual Website Optimizer. However, I like that Conductrics uses statistical modeling where the others don't. So what do you see as being the really big pluses? Note: I need to find a platform so that we can do testing faster and for more clients at a time... I just don't have the time to hand build and track each client's multivariation test. Thus the need for software. Therefore, ease of use, quick integration, and good analytics are important in my decision making process. Thanks in advance!
Search Behavior | | SteveTheWoodsman2 -
Bounce Rate and Time on Site
What would be the best way to decrease bounce rate and increase time on site for a Real Estate Website?
Search Behavior | | bronxpad0 -
Better click through rate in 2nd position?
I'm digging through my Google Webmaster tools and found something really odd. On one particular keyword phrase Google is reporting a higher CTR on the 2nd position over the first. A lot higher. Per Google the 2nd position is getting a 31% CTR. Has anyone else seen this?
Search Behavior | | Thos0030 -
What is a Achievable SEO Growth Rate?
Hi Mozzers, I have a question for you today. What is the achievable SEO growth rate (non branded SEO) for a typical job portal style site if you are also taking into consideration there is a blog with a lot of useful content being produced on a daily basis? How has your SEO growth rate been? Is it normal to think that the non branded traffic can grow by 1000 visitors or more a day each month? if I hit 1000 visitors per day this month, then 2000 visitors per day next month, 3500 visitors per day the month after that and so on? I know it's difficult to give numbers like this. Assuming it's a 1000 visitor growth, that mean it's a 50% or more SEO growth each month. it will be interesting to know how your growth rate has been. Thank you.
Search Behavior | | jombay0 -
Spam like visits to website
I am having a problem where I'm getting an enormous amount of unique visitors that bounce from a small area in Oregon even though we never market there. It appears to be some type of ping. It messes up our tracking and inflates the bounce rate. Is there a way to block this? I'm OK with any type of block because our reach is statewide in Florida. ANy feedback?
Search Behavior | | marksierra0 -
How do you address 95% bounce when in makes no sense?
I have a content rich site. All of the feedback I get from users is positive in nature and the content matches exactly what people are searching for. It's easy to match search keywords with appropriate content on a "how to" site. Yet, from day one I am seeing 95+ bounce rates with time on site around 20 seconds. There are pages however with hundreds of comments and active discussions, so I have no idea how to address this problem. I have researched bounce rates and time on site until I am blue in the face with no luck in resolving the problem. Can you suggest somethings that I should change or address? high_bounce_Page_1.jpg
Search Behavior | | seoatsea0