Florida SEO Web Analysis–Part I–Bounce Rate

Florida Web Analytics Bounce Rate

This is the first of a multi-part series describing Florida SEO web analysis and the steps that can improve the organic significance of your website with the search engines.

Web Analytics In Place

I can only assume that you already are working with a program that will analyze your web pages and web traffic. If not, take the time now to setup a Google Analytics account. The analytics program provided by Google is quite comprehensive, provides tons of information and best of all it’s FREE.

If you’d rather pay for a program to dissect your website visitors habits, here are a couple of good ones:

Webtrends – Webtrends has been a staple of the internet community since 1993 and has been the benchmark of analytic statistics
Clicky – Clicky is one of the new web analysis programs for SEO and is particularly popular in Florida. They specialize in all analytics but focus on touch devices and provide some insights not available through other web analytic software.

Analytics Bounce Rate Definition

Defined by Google (and pretty much accepted universally), “Bounce rate is the percentage of single-page visits or visits in which the person left your site from the entrance (landing) page” – Google Answers.

More simply put – it is the percentage of people who spend one page (or less) on your website when they enter it.

Bounce Rate Significance

To see the Bounce Rate for your entire site in Google Analytics, click: Content >> Site Content >> All Pages – make sure that the reporting dates in the upper right corner are set for the times that you want to see.

What Are The Important Factors?

Bounce Rate For Entire Site – If this rate is too high, you should examine webpage load times first, then check out how many scripts are loading, image sizes and overall website message. Is there a clear definition and call to action for what you are trying to accomplish on the site? Google Webmaster Tools is excellent for giving you information that might effect your bounce rate.
Bounce Rate For Individual Pages – Often one or two pages or areas of you website will have a higher bounce rate than others. By clicking on the “Bounce Rate” heading of the columns, you will see which pages have better or worse bounce rates.

How Do I Use This Web Analysis For SEO?

Many factors relate to optimizing for the search engines but one of their most important areas is the significance of your website to search terms that are being typed in. If your site is measured to be low in “Avg. Time On Page” with little interaction beyond the first page that visitors arrive on (Bounce Rate), it could hurt you in your search engine rankings for the particular search inquiries. Here’s what you want to do:

Examine high-bounce web pages for load time (can be done through Google Webmaster Tools) and other factors that would encourage abandonment. Is there a common thread that discourages prospective clients or no obvious call-to-action (CTA) for further interaction?
Look at the pages that have a low bounce rate. What is the message and CTA on these pages that encourage visitors to proceed forward on your site?

By utilizing SEO web analysis for bounce rates (good and bad) on your site and individual pages, you could optimize your web presence in Florida as well as other areas. Implement the good practices described above to increase web traffic from search engines organically … the way that we all want to.