It was awfully nice for Google to give us an update heads-up this time. Its being called Page Experience, and may drastically affect your rankings. But Google is constantly updating its algorithm, why does it matter this time? The new updates include bounce rate and website usability as the key metrics. You are probably saying to yourself, “but that was already a part of their metrics wasn’t it?” Yes and no. Bounce rate has always been there, but not really a tally in the way that Google shows results to searches online. What is Bounce Rate? Bounce rate is essentially someone coming to your site and leaving almost immediately. So if your bounce rate is 100%, everyone who comes to your site leaves. According to Google, bounce rate is categorized as someone coming to your site and visiting at least 1 secondary page. You obviously want to have the bounce rate as low as possible, which shows that people are staying on your site and engaging with it. If they aren’t that just tells Google that your site is not what users expect after they click on it. Maybe its spammy or just doesn’t match the description of what its supposed to be. Top factors that can affect bounce rate are:
Dead links and grammatical errors are something many business owners aren’t even aware of that may be affecting the experience potential customers are going through when they land on their main page. Many just “set it and forget it” which is not the mentality to have when it comes to a business website. Ongoing updates and new content must occur monthly in order to stay relevant in the eyes of the search engines gods. Ways to Improve Bounce Rate
Now that you’ve realized that bounce rate is significant for customer experience, but also for site ranking, what can you do about it? There are some basic tips you can put into place today to bring down your bounce rate dramatically.
As you can see, these are simple improvements you can make quickly to prepare for the upcoming Google algorithm update. View your site from the perspective of a prospective customer and it will make more sense. For instance, adding a catchy video to your intro can help provide more information and keep users on the page longer. What is Website Usability? Another huge part of the update is overall website usability. These can be simple things like a pop-up blocking a key piece of material on your site. Or an inactive button or dead link in the footer. Pay attention to the details and compile a list of improvements you can make, or contact a reputable digital marketing agency for a free review. Usability can cover different aspects such as:
As I mentioned, if you are unsure of any of these aspects, its best to bring in the big guns, a professional marketing company that can do a full review as well as fix the issues quickly for you. But if you choose to take it on by yourself, run an SEO diagnosis here. Google will continue to update its algorithm for years to come, so its something we need to work with, love it or hate it. Google is the largest traffic highway on the internet, so in order to get high quality traffic for searches, we need to put our best SEO foot forward for our websites. As with anything in business, if you don’t keep up with the latest changes, you will be left in the dust by your competition.
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