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Are people leaving your website almost as quickly as they arrived? Bounces happen, but if you have an exceptionally high bounce rate, that’s an indication that your website isn’t functioning the way it should. Something is just not right, and until you correct it, you’ll never build a truly profitable and effective online presence.

So, what are some of the most common reasons visitors quickly bounce from a website?

1. You’re targeting the wrong keywords—It’s quite possible that you’re targeting keywords that don’t exactly match the products or services you offer. In other words, people could be searching for one thing but end up finding your website instead. For example, someone might be searching for information on “windows” for their home and end up on a website about “Microsoft Windows.” Make sure you’re really targeting keywords that bring targeted visitors.
2. Your website takes too long to load—If your website doesn’t display within a few seconds of someone clicking on it, you’re going to lose a lot of visitors. Web users are an impatient bunch. They want instant satisfaction, and if you can’t deliver it, they’ll find someone else who can.
3. Your content doesn’t deliver on the link’s promise—You see this happen a lot with PPC ads. The ad will promise one thing, but when the user clicks the link, they’re taken to a page that has almost no connection with the ad’s promise. Always make sure you’re delivering what the visitors expect.
4. They can’t find the information they’re looking for—Again, web users are impatient and want their information as quickly as possible. This means your website needs to have simple navigation, easy to scan content, and even a search bar if your website is large enough.
5. They don’t trust you—Online shoppers are very skeptical by nature. And for good reason. With so many scams plaguing the internet, you can never be too careful. So how can you earn their trust? Having testimonials helps. So does eliminating risk and ditching the spammy copy. Check out more tips for convincing skeptical customers.
6. You do something annoying—Pop-ups, autoplay audio and video, and walk-on spokespeople are just a few things that annoy me to no end. If you’re doing something intrusive and annoying when people land on your website, you can bet a lot of people will instantly back out.
7. Your content doesn’t hook the reader—You only have a few short seconds to grab the attention of your website visitors. You need to hook them in with a strong, benefit-rich headline and powerful copy that demands to be read.

What are some other reasons visitors bounce quickly from websites?

Earlier, I wrote an article explaining how to use Google Analytics, and in one of the sections I included information about joining a Google Moderator series called, Web Analytics Question “Hour” with Avinash & Nick. If you don’t know what Google Moderator is, no problem, I wrote a post explaining about it , and how you can use it yourself to improve your own blog or website.

Joining their series allows you to ask questions and offer a thumbs up or down vote on other questions already asked. The questions with the most thumbs up votes gets bumped to the top of the list. Each week, Avinash and Nick address and answer the most popular questions. While they haven’t been exactly addressing these questions once a week, they have at least been addressing them.

That said, if you’re really looking to buckle down and learn the In’s and Out’s of Google Analytics, I totally suggest tuning in to this video Q’s and A’s offered by Avinash and Nick. Here is a recap of the items that have been addressed to date.

Web Analytics Q & A With Avinash Kaushik & Nick Mihailovski: Part One

In Episode #1, published on October, 15, 2009 discussed the following items:

1. How is bounce rate calculated
2. Effect of search bots on data collection
3. Finding a benchmarking category for sites that don’t fit into any particular benchmark category
4. What is the best way to identify landing pages with high bounce rate
5. How to find new keywords to improve content performance
6. Effects of private browsing and incognito mode on data collection

Be sure to visit their blog post that goes hand in hand with the video. They include show notes and links that were referenced in this video.

Web Analytics Q & A With Avinash Kaushik & Nick Mihailovski: Part 2

In Episode #2, published on November, 04, 2009 discussed the following items:

1. Strategies for non-bounced non-converted visitors (Macro vs. Micro conversion)
2. Ways to report total number of keywords over time
3. Benefits to tracking transactions as conversion goals
4. Tracking unique visitors to specific web pages
5. Path analysis for keyword reports — why it’s bad and what to do instead
6. How Google Analytics can be used on affiliate sites
7. How site owners can exclude themselves from being tracked by Google Analytics
8. How to properly track sites that reside on different domains but use a shopping cart on a different, common, site (cross domain tracking)

You’re going to want to view the blog post that correlates with the video because they include links to the resources discussed in the video tutorial.

Once again, if you’re looking to finally gain a better understanding of Google Analytics and how the program can help you, I suggest tuning in and listening to what Avinash and Nick say in these videos. While they said they’re going to be posting new videos weekly, it hasn’t been consistent. But that’s ok! I am pleased that they are doing them. That said, to assure that you don’t miss any of their new videos, I recommend subscribing to the Google Analytics YouTube Channel. Doing so, will get you a lot of great information in addition to the videos Avinash and Nick are providing.