The most valuable statistic produced by Google Analytics for your website may also be the simplest.

Google Analytics measures your “Bounce Rate,” which is simply the percentage of visitors that go to your default page (typically your home page) and don’t go anywhere else. They simply “bounce away.”
 

Many business owners spend hours anguishing over how to get more customers and more website visitors when unbeknownst to them there are large amounts of prospects banging on their door right now and their website doesn’t let them in.

It is not uncommon here at Sales Growth Group to see bounce rates at 80% or higher on some of the websites we evaluate here at SGG. Think about that. Imagine if you were a restaurant and 1,000 potential customers walked up to the front door, looked in, and then walked away. It wouldn’t matter how delicious the food was, or how courteous the staff was because the prospect walked away before he experienced any of that.

Your website may be just like that restaurant.

So if your bounce rate isn’t a statistic that is top-of-mind for you, it should be because almost everything else you’re spending your time on concerning your website is largely irrelevant if your bounce rate is too high.

Here are top 3 reasons we at Sales Growth Group see high bounce rates when we evaluate website designs:

1) The navigation isn’t aligned around the visitor’s purpose. Let’s say most people come to your site to find where you are. If your address and map are on your “contact us” page and that is the last element in your navigation, then you are making it too hard for that visitor to get what he wants. Determine why people are coming to your site and give it to them quickly and clearly. Don’t trap yourself into a traditional navigation scheme (your first link or tab is “about us”) just because everyone else is doing it.

2) The opening page has a splash graphic or flash animation that is high on artistic value, but low on meeting the visitor’s needs. Don’t design your website for artistic or creative awards. Design it to give a potential prospect the information they are seeking.

3) The visitor is paralyzed by too many choices. The conventional wisdom used to be that you should list every possible option a visitor might want or every service you offer, no matter how popular, on your home page. The result was a home page with 20 or more possible choices for a visitor. Today, that freezes and disconnects a visitor that is coming to your site. You need to create a path that you want a visitor to take with your navigation. If you leave the visitor with a multitude of equal choices, they will typically choose none of them.

So, if you’ve ever spent a sleepless night worrying about how to get more customers or more website visitors, rest easy. There may be some as close as the homepage of your website. Simply work on making it easier for them to walk right in.