Why Web Design Matters: Bounce Rates

A new web design is more than just a fresh coat of paint.

At Masterlink, our web designs are sleek, professional, pleasing to search engines, and welcoming to first-time visitors. But if they didn’t draw visitors further into your site (and ultimately effectively sell your products and services), the design would largely be a failure. What good is SEO-driven traffic, after all, if nobody sticks around long enough to see why you’re ranked so highly in the first place?

The way to track this is called a “bounce rate”—basically a measurement of what percentage of your website’s traffic quickly “bounces” away to other sites instead of sticking around and exploring other pages.

Here are three web design flaws that can create (or cure) bounce rate problems:

1. Navigation Confusion

There’s simply nothing more aggravating for a visitor than a confusing, disorganized website. More than likely, that visitor has come to your site seeking very specific information about your products and services. A poorly designed and unnavigable site structure will frustrate that process, and send the visitor packing.

If it takes more than a few seconds for a first-time visitor to find the information they need, it might be time to consider a redesign.

2. Plodding Performance

The web is a rapid-fire arena where holding someone’s attention for more than a few seconds can seem like a considerable feat. If your site is weighed down by heavy graphics and poor web design technique, it might load too slowly for visitors to stick around while the rest of the web is screaming for their attention.

We take website performance seriously, and employ an army of techniques to keep your site humming.

3. Colorless Content

Your business could offer exactly what a site visitor needs and desires. But if your content doesn’t effectively communicate as much, and successfully highlight what your company offers and how it stands out from the competition, the content fails. For more skeptical visitors, the content needs to be even more compelling.

This means content that leaps off the page, pulls visitors in, and whets their appetite for learning more. It may sound cliché, but content is very much king.

Contact one of our Dallas web design experts for more information. We’ll both design a site that boosts your business, and help you track your site’s performance with a full suite of analytics statistics.