A website’s average bounce rate indicates the percentage of visitors who click off before following any other links — either to go deeper into the site or to move to an affiliated page. With Google Analytics, you can also keep track of bounce rates for each individual page, helping to establish which pages are engaging users effectively and which need work.

If you’re still in the process of familiarizing yourself with Google Analytics’ many functions, take a quick look at this easy-to-follow analytics guide. Once you have a handle on Analytics, there are a few simple ways to begin working towards better bounce rates.

1. Site Speed

Despite being one of the most important factors controlling site usability and bounce rates, site speed is often overlooked. But if your webpages are slow to load this can mean that visitors to use site lose confidence before they’ve even begun to explore. To see what speed your website is running at try this simple site speed test. And remember that speeds can differ from page to page, so be sure to run thorough checks.

2. Quality Content

If you’re not sure about the quality of your content, try asking yourself a few questions:
• Who is your audience?
• What kind of content do they need? (Simple information or in-depth tutorial? Blocks of text or graphics and video clips?)
• How can you make your content unique? (Particularly in comparison with competitor sites.)
• Does your content fill an informational gap in your niche?
Once you have the answers to these questions, it should be clearer how to work on your content. You should also look into creating a content strategy.

It’s worth remembering that Google also values content quality when compiling search results and Google’s definition of quality could be useful to you as you develop your site.

3. Call To Action

One way to get your users instantly engaged with your site is to make content actionable. This means giving web users something to do. This could be information or tutorials to encourage users to try something for themselves — a yoga pose or a recipe, for example. Or it could be as simple as having a ‘buy it now’ or ‘try it’ button on each page, like Intuit.

But don’t overload your site with multiple calls to action, as this can be confusing. Carefully consider the style, tone, and type of call to action for your site.

4. Intuitive Navigation

Make it easy for people to find what they need on your website. Keep navigation tools simple and clear. Using familiar layouts is a good place to start, like Neve and Hawk. If it’s clear what a site can do and how to explore it, users will give it more time.

5. Engaging Design

Make sure your design appeals to your target audience. Aesthetics need to reflect both the brand and who it’s for. Keep things clean, clear and easily digestible, like Cycle Love. There’s plenty of space to be creative with links and information presentation, just as long is your creativity does nothing to obstruct a clear pathway through your site.