Bounce Rate Explained: Essential Tips for Podcasters to Improve Website Engagement

Let's talk about bounce rate. What is it, and is it

important? Welcome to your podcast website, the ultimate guide for

podcasters looking to level up their online presence. Whether

you're a seasoned podcaster or just starting out, this show is

your go to resource for mastering the art of building and

optimizing your podcast website. From website basics

to advanced SEO strategies, we cover it all. No tech jargon, no

confusion, just practical tips and actionable confusion, just practical tips and actionable advice you can

implement right away. Here is your host, Dave Jackson. What is bounce rate

when it comes to websites? Well,

it is calculated by dividing the number of

single page sessions, that's called a bounce, by the

total number of sessions, so visitors, basically,

expressed as a percentage. So here's an example. Let's do some easy math.

If 500 out of 1,000 visitors

leave your website after viewing just one page,

that bounce rate is 50%.

So it is definitely a crucial metric in digital marketing

because it kinda shows engagement in a way.

And what's kinda awful about it, why I don't like this metric, but I

get it, is what if I do an episode on what

is a bounce rate, and somebody comes, they click on play,

they hear this episode, and they're like, oh, thanks, Dave, and they leave.

That's kinda one of the things I'm like, okay. I get it that if someone

just comes and goes, and they leave, that's a bad

bounce rate. But if you answered their question, that's one of the things that always

makes me scratch my head.

So if you are having a website that has

customer service or support, things like that, something that I work

in, you really can't get too upset

when people that land on a page because you can see

what pages people come into. Like, how did

you come to my website? And if it's part of your support

team and it answers a question, on one end, you

should be happy that you answered their question. But on the other

hand, that comes up as a bounce, which, again, can

kinda be frustrating in a way. So keep this in

mind. What's a good benchmark when it comes

to bounce rates? And according to there are couple different

articles. One was from Mailchimp, another one was from

CXL, and then one was from Orbit Media.

And, generally, a good bounce rate is considered to

be around 40% or lower, while rates above

55% may warrant further investigation.

However, you know, when it comes to these benchmarks, it

can differ significantly across industries and

page types. This is why again, I'm kind of showing you

both sides of this. Here's an example from Semrush, which is

an SEO company. Ecommerce sites typically aim

for lower bounce rates, compared to blogs

where higher rates might be expected as

visitors often come back to read specific articles and then

leave. Another example of that.

So, yes, a bounce rate is an important metric for

assessing user engagement and website performance.

It should be interpreted, though, in kind of

the source. Like, use a little common sense here with this. Because

when you understand the reasons behind the bounce rate and comparing it

to some sort of industry benchmark, that can provide

valuable insights for improving your website

effectiveness and the user experience. So keep that in

mind when you look at your bounce rate because this is available

in Google Analytics. I also logged

into my Fathom Stats. They show the bounce rate. What's kinda

cool is when you click on it, you can see it every day,

and so you can see how many visitors you had and how many

of them bounced. In a second, I'll give you some ideas on

how you can lower your bounce rate, and

we've got an announcement.

So one of the things you can do to lower

your bounce rate is when you're writing a description

for your episode, are there other episodes

that are similar to that topic? And if so, put a

link to those in the actual description. So when it's on

your website and somebody's reading about this and it's like, want more information

about this? Or were you also looking for

information about this? And then just have the title, that really eye catching

title to those other episodes. So when somebody comes to your

website, they scan your episode. They

maybe click on it, but then they see at the bottom, oh, were you looking

for this? Or here's more information about this topic. Check out this

episode, this episode, and this episode, and they might click

that, which would then lower your bounce rate.

This is where episode titles really come in handy. Now if

you are a person that's using WordPress, there is a plugin

called Link Whisper that basically does this for you.

But if you're like, well, I'm not on WordPress. I'm on Squarespace, or I'm

on, you know, PodPage, whatever you're using. This would be an easy way

to do it. Also, speaking of PodPage, because, you know, I work

there. If you're using categories for your

episodes so let's say you're a health podcast, and some of

them are about diet and other about, science, and then

others are about, exercise. You could have categories for each

episode and simply because you're like, well, where do I get those

links? I have to go back and look at my previous episodes. You could

simply go to those categories on

your pod page. When you click on the episode links, you'll

see those categories. And it's super easy then to just get the

links to those websites. So that would be one way again

to lower your bounce rate would be make it very easy

for people that are on your website to see other episodes or other

blog posts or other videos on your website so that they click

something else. Because that's all we need them to do. They're on the first page.

We need to get them to the 2nd page so that our bounce rate

is lowered, which will make us look better in the eyes of

Google. Notice I'm

putting this at the end. It's housekeeping. And if you've been wondering,

hey, what happened to this show? Well, I did transition

from working at libsyn.com to podpage.com.

And what we finally figured out is we're going to

rebrand this show about podcast websites

to a show about podcast websites,

which really means this isn't going to change a whole lot. The

content is going to change a little bit because we'll be using it to

update people on what happens in the world of

PodPage. But in terms of just helping people maximize

their impact of their website, that is not going

to change. So if we kind of stutter here a little

bit, it's because behind the scenes, we're coming up with topics

and continuing to give you valuable content. So as we kind

of stutter here a little bit and not quite as consistent,

that's because we're working on artwork and a couple other things to

change things up. So I will keep you posted as we do that,

and I will continue to do episodes like this as time

permits. But we're getting ready to do the rebrand and keep you

informed again. The goal is to help you maximize your

website and the impact on the Internet.

So you may see the title change. I'll let you know when it's coming. I'll

put out an episode that says, yep. Here we go. We're gonna switch. So you'll

see the new name. You'll see the new artwork and just to keep you always

in the loop. I'm Dave Jackson from The School of Podcasting.

I help podcasters. It's what I do, and I would love to work

with you over at the school of podcasting.com. Thanks

so much. Your podcast website is part of the Power of

Podcasting Network. Find this show and all of Dave's other projects at

power of podcasting.com.