Bounce rates and page load times...is there a connection?

Published: Wed, 05/30/18

Here it is: If a visitor (especially a first-time visitor) hits your homepage (or any page, for that matter) and has to wait more than 2 seconds, he or she may bolt.

That's a bounce.

And if your bounce rate is 90 or near 100%, that means people are hitting a page on your site and not visiting another.

One of two things is happening (it could be both, but not at the same time, of course):

Your content sucks. It's not interesting. Nobody wants to go past the first page they see because, "Meh."
Your page load times are L-O-N-G.

In all honesty, it's most likely #2. There are a lot of reasons your page load times can be long. Here are a few:

Slow web host. Get a better host. A2 Hosting is good.
Too many images. Too many images that aren't optimized for the web. Make them smaller before you upload them to WordPress.
Too many external page calls. Sometimes, for example, if you're running Google AdSense ads on your site, it can take a few seconds to pull in the relevant ad. No bueno.
Code bloat. Don't to that. Get a good theme.

The above is just a sampling of all the things that add up to make a slow website.

Read this case study to find out more. It's really good and has a bunch of good ideas that brought one website's bounce rate from nearly 100 percent all the way down to 10. MOST of the issue was page load times (over 10 seconds).

Ain't nobody got time for that!

Bill

Freedym -- All-you-can-eat buffet of sales & marketing training material
HIGHLY recommended webhosting--A2 Hosting
Need a domain? Try Namecheap

Verbiage from Lionel Hutz: Some links I mention in my emails are to resources where I'm an affiliate. When you click and decide to buy, I earn a commission. You don't pay more. I'm proud to recommend those resources I've purchased, reviewed, or personally use in my own business. You should always perform your own due diligence before buying anything from anyone, including me.