High bounce rates indicate that there is some problem with your website that needs to be taken care of. Knowing the factors that cause high bounce rate can help you pin-point the cause behind the problem. Finding out the causes is the first step towards improving your bounce rates. The possible reasons of high bounce rates can be classified under three groups:
Marketing factors
Wrong keyword selection is a common culprit behind high bounce rates. Selection of unrelated keyword for optimization will result in your website showing up in search results for non relevant terms. This will bring non targeted visitors to your website resulting in high bounce rates. Mismatch between your ad copy and the content of your website can also result in visitors leaving your page immediately. Page title and meta description are displayed by search engines in search results – if these do not match with the content of your page, they can also be potential culprits.
Internal factors
Various internal factors that can result in high bounce rates include faulty web design and poor usability. It your website design is not attractive, well organized, and easy on eyes, visitors won’t stay long on your site. Usability is also critical for keeping visitors on your site. Other than these, lack of good quality and informative content, confusing navigation and technical problems can all cause high bounce rates.
External factors
Improper external referral links or irrelevant results from search engines are some external factors that can result in high bounce rates.