Tag: Tips

Posted on

What to Do About a High Bounce Rate Part One

Bounce rate is determined to be high if it is over 75%, however there can be acceptable reasons for a high bounce rate, but a high bounce rate does  require careful review.

What is the Bounce Rate?

What's your page bounce rate? Is it too high?
What’s your page bounce rate? Is it too high?

The bounce rate is recorded for you in Google Analytics by page in the Behavior section > Site Content section, and as a site average on the overview page.

 

Several years ago the average and target bounce rate for a good website was 46.9%. Now with more users on mobile devices, the bounce rate has skyrocketed.

Google states that this drastic change to bounce rate is due in part to the fact that mobile users may start a search on your site and move to a desktop to finish up a review or purchase. Page views have also decreased in this same time period from over 3 or so pages viewed per session to now about 1.5 pages per session – all driven by mobile activity.

Identifying a High Bounce Rate

To address a website’s high bounce rate, knowledge is power.  First, it is important to understand what causes a high bounce rate.

  1. You’ll get a high bounce rate if the page content does not engage the reader. This is a good flag to review your page and consider additions, video, additional links to other information.
  2. You’ll get a high bounce rate if the content is not what the reader was looking for. This is a good flag to review your content, your meta tags, and your paid advertising.
  3. You’ll get a high bounce rate if you supplied the content the reader wanted and they had no need to go further. It is not uncommon to see how bounce rates on articles and blog posts.

What Should You Do Next?

You’ll want to look at the pages that have a high bounce rate score and identify if changes should be done to the content. Check out my Wednesday post this week for the continuation of this article.

 

Posted on

Drift – Much More Than a Messaging App – Part Two

Continued from Wednesday.

The Drift messaging app for websites is on target with my needs.
The Drift messaging app for websites is on target with my needs.

Implementation of the Drift code on my website, to enable clients to use the app, took under five minutes, as I use header includes.

As I have tested out the application, I have found that it sends emails to the user to remind them of their appointment with you and also saves their email in the Drift application.

So, my concern with getting the prospect’s phone number in the initial conversation with the bot is moot. As the appointment approaches, I  can directly contact the client and make calling arrangements on my own. I can even communicate using the email link for appointment confirmation via the Drift app to ask for the phone number.

Drift has a mobile app which allows you to respond to website messages while you are out of the office and on the go. Talk about instant communication!

Once the appointment is scheduled by the prospect, within seconds the appointment appeared in my own Google Calendar. I was even able to select my own Google category for incoming calls so they would be marked and colored properly in my calendar.

I have to say that the Drift app has some very nice new features that I have not seen before in other calendaring or messaging apps. I do like some of the automation features and the ability to interact with prospects immediately when they really have a question while they are sitting on my website.

I do recommend that you check out the free version of Drift. At the very minimum, you will have a really nice website chat app and if you upgrade, you will get some really nice features that are unique to Drift – like the bot, team settings, and auto response functions.

 

Posted on

Your Smartphone Needs Firefox Too!

I Don't Want to Do AdWords!
Have alternatives to Google apps when you travel.

This is my last post on travel tips and lessons I learned from my 17 day trip to India. I had only Google Chrome installed on my smartphone. I had removed the Samsung browser before I left the office to streamline my applications. Here’s why you need more than just Chrome on your smartphone.

In Amsterdam, I could not get on the airport’s free Wi-Fi. Even though I had a VPN app, Chrome would not open the second screen which would allow me to accept the terms and so I could not use Wi-Fi.  Google decided that it simply did not like the security of the connection and so decided for me to lock down my access. Thanks Google. 🙁

To solve the problem, I downloaded Firefox for my smartphone later in my trip. Firefox let’s you be in charge of your own security and so it allowed me to login and accept terms on my return trip through Amsterdam. Then I could be connected to the free airport Wi-Fi and then allow me to choose to turn on my secure VPN app to surf, email, and work securely. You’ve just got to love the flexibility of Firefox!

The lesson learned is don’t depend solely on Google products and Google apps when you travel. Google can lock your access down, choose not to show Wi-Fi login screens, and in general restrict your Google.com, AdWords, and Gmail access. Make sure you have an alternative browser and secure VPN app to get online and stay secure when you travel.

Posted on

Tips on Keeping Your Laptop Secure on Hotel Wi-Fi

Opera VPN
Opera VPN is now available in the Opera browser.

Traveling to India for pleasure and trying to check in with the office and stay secure was a challenge. Here are some lessons I learned from my last trip.

First, make sure you have two browsers installed on your laptop. One for use and one for backup. I found that Google and Google Chrome sometimes did not like an insecure connection and would lock me out of all Google properties.

I downloaded Opera as a browser half way through my trip when I found out that it had an integrated VPN.  NordVPN, a standalone subscription services, which I thought I would use for secure access on my laptop, before my travel was crashed my Wi-Fi repeatedly and the software had to be removed before I left my office for my trip.

Limping along with my smartphone I was able to securely do some work. Using Opera as my browser for my laptop finally allowed me to work securely even over unsecured hotel Wi-Fi and even on networks that Google locked me out of using Chrome. To enable the integrated VPN, open Opera, go to menu on the left, then settings, then privacy and security and then tick to enable VPN.

Before I found Opera’s integrated browser VPN my smartphone was the most secure way for me to be in touch and even do work while in India. But it is hard to really do work on a smartphone.  You can download Opera for your own laptop and next trip by visiting this link to the Opera.com site.