95% Bounce Rate

[Zaphod]

I'm stumped. I optimized my site to answer questions concerning the usage of words. So when someone types in something like "sentence with diaphanous" into google, my site comes up. But apparently they just want a quick answer and nothing else, because the search engine bounce rate is around 90 to 95 percent. Overall bounce rate isn't so bad. But my main source of visitors outside of subscribers is from search engines. What can I do about this conundrum?

[Asmoday]

Great site man (then again, I'm a word nerd), really fun, great way of presenting the words.

Well, two things -- when I went to your site, I noticed that I increased your bounce rate. I read three word definitions in about 5 seconds. Enjoyed myself, bookmarked it, but only needed five seconds.

Its hard to tell without really looking at your SE data to tell if visitors aren't getting what they were looking for and closing out, or if they ARE getting what they're looking for, and just don't need to hang around very long to do it.

If its the latter -- you gotta give them more stuff to read/see/do, so they hang around longer. Lure em in. Hip-shot, one thing you can do is suggest other fun words (with taglines that draw to click), on other words.

Either way, keep it up, good stuff.

[Curtis2011]

I would say your high bounce rate is due to the fact that there aren't many links on your main page for people to click to go to other pages. You have to give people a nav bar of some type if you expect them nav-igate throughout your website.

Also - Google Analytics can tell you how long people stay on each page. If the time is several minutes, you know they are reading the material. If it is less than 1 minute then you know that something else is turning off your visitors and making them leave.

[Crushable]

I am in the same boat as you! well not 95% but my bounce rate is crazy it goes from 70-82% usually...yesterday it hit 89% (very frustrating) but my "time on site" is around 3-5 minutes...my stats are confusing. People who actually read my site love it...its just getting people to give my content a chance and not bounce.

What you can do

Add a custom logo
Add a picture of you
Make it more personal

Make the description more simple and fun maybe: "i use amazing/complicated/interesting words in a post. Challenge me! Subscribe now.

[SireneB]

Well, I know nothing about bounce rates. But I took a look at your site and have one idea for making it more popular.

I'm a Scrabble player (well, Lexulous and Wordscraper on Facebook - they use the same dictionaries). We play unusual words because they work, and often don't know what they mean. Some of the words aren't even in dictionary.com (Scrabble uses some words from languages other than English). The funny thing is, most folks who are attracted to Scrabble are people who love language and words, but we soon find out that it is really a math game and the words take second place. Many of us try to maintain our connection to the words by at least finding out their meanings, and it helps us remember the words when there is a meaning to associate them with (and pictures would help even more).

It would be great to have a site like yours where we could go learn more about our words in greater depth!

Here are some sample words, they all came up as "what does this mean" in a recent on-line tournament group I'm in - we found the meanings to these but just as a sample for you:
WAMEFOU
EVZONES
AZULEJO
BAASKAAP
SKELLUM
CRWTHS
QUOKKA
TWIBILL

I understand this might be different than your original intention, but if you could find some crossover - maybe 6 to 9 letter words that have unusual letter combinations, are in one of the Scrabble dictionaries, but are useful in regular conversation - and include "Scrabble" as a search key - trust me, you'd have word of mouth traffic to your site. If you threw in links to word lists sites, anagrammers, etc, you'd have even more. although I guess then you'd be developing a true Scrabble site.

If you do go this route, note that there are two main Scrabble dictionaries:
Official Tournament and Club Word List - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
and if you wanted to attract Scrabble players, it would make sense to identify each word by which dictionary(ies) it appears in.

This is just an idea brought on by seeing your site - which by the way, is very well executed.

Of course, if you have no interest in Scrabble you can completly ignore this!

[Zaphod]

SireneB - Thanks for the idea, but I think that might just be too far flung from what I am currently doing. My aim is more along the lines of giving people an entertaining way to learn new words. Which is sort of the same thing, but I generally don't include anything so rare that it would not be in a main dictionary. Maybe I work some anagram puzzles into my site though, that's an idea.

Crushable - I realize most blogs should be personal, but my site isn't really about myself, at all. A custom logo might do good. I'm "happy" to know you are having problems too... misery loves company.

Curtis - You're right, It could use some main directory of words. I'm not sure how to do that, other than through an archive widget, which doesn't really help the user know where he is going. Maybe I will just have to put in a "related posts" plugin.

Asmoday - Thanks for your compliment. You must be a fast reader! What I fear is that people may be set on not sticking around; if those who use the kind of search term I mentioned just want a quick answer, as you do from a calculator, they not have much reason to read other content regardless of how much there is.

[aiyori]

Zaphod

High bounce rate is NOT bad if you have adsense. People come to your site, get information, satisfied or not, then click on the adsense links to leave. More higher your bounce rate is, the higher your income becomes.

If you are planning to finance your site with adsense, then high bounce rate from SE is a good sign. Because SE users come to your site with intent, it's very likely that they'll click your adsense links.

[Karanime]

Focus more on your site's purpose and getting the right kind of visitors, as opposed to more visitors.

I'm thinking this isn't the kind of thing that should get search engine traffic. Or if it does, it should be for something else.

I can see this being affiliated with dictionary.com, or any other dictionary site, really. But search traffic? Not really.

/<3

[inverse Paranoid]

What's the benefit to me reading your site? Your tagline tells me what your site is, but doesn't do anything to convey to me why I should read it.

There are benefits to building your vocabulary. There are benefits to having a fun time doing it. Tell me about these benefits. Tell me why I should care. Otherwise I will find whatever I was looking for and leave, never to return again.

Without a "what's in it for me factor" there's no "stickiness," no reason for me to return because you haven't told me what need. Of your seven reasons to subscribe, the first three aren't sexy at all. 4-6 are quite useful and actually might make me want to subscribe. 7 is OK, but this is the internet. Interesting doesn't cut it. You need to find a way to be remarkable.

Maybe you could theme your site around different topics and add different taglines to each theme. Put a nav bar at the top with links to your home page and then specific categories that theme things around specific benefits. For example:

Home | Learn Faster | Flirt Better | Be Respected

Learn Faster - Teach me words that help me understand universal principles in new lights. If you can give me a word that explains something I couldn't previously explain, then I can know something I didn't used to know and get a grasp on an area of life previously off limits to me.
Possible tagline: "Words that help you make sense of the world. Delivered in fun and memorable ways."

Flirt Better - Teach me words that I can use while flirting with others that will both impress and lead to interesting conversations. Possibly with sexual connotations that allow me to express sexual interest in another person without coming off like a creep.
Possible tagline: "Fun ice-breakers to help you talk about sex without sounding creepy."

Be Respected - Teach me words that demonstrate I know what I'm talking about. Do it in an "instead of saying this word, say this one" fashion. Show me how a few simple word changes can really make a difference in the way that I'm heard.
Possible tagline: "Respect opens doors. Learn words that will cause people to stop and listen to what you have to say."

Those are just a few ideas of things you could do. But whatever you do, find a way to talk about something I care about, and find a way to deliver enough of what I care about so that I can't read it in one sitting and have to bookmark or subscribe to come back for more.

Best of luck, and let me know how it goes.

Suggested reading to brush up on the benefits of showcasing your benefits: Now Featuring Benefits! | Copyblogger

[Zaphod]

Aiyori - Well, I have adsense up (albeit inconspicuously) and they are definitely not bouncing away on the adsense links. I am pretty sure they are just back-buttoning. Visitors come with intent, but it is immediately fulfilled.

Karanime - My question is not really how to get more visitors, but how to make my incoming traffic streams stickier.

Inverse Paranoid - Right, I should jazz up those seven reasons. I just wrote them on the fly. There was a good TED talk on the power of "why" versus "what" in a promotional message; I think it was called "How Great Leaders Inspire Action".
However, remember that at least 95% of search engine traffic isn't clicking that link anyway. Maybe your decentralized nav bar idea would produce a few more clicks.

thanks

[dan2010]

I have been to your site, and I like to say that I like your concept, and I believe there lots of people out there, including myself who will love to continue to use your site to increase their knowledge of words.

However, for people to remain longer (which unfortunately, I didi't), you need to make it consuming. What I mean is that you need to increase the number of sections or departments on the home page for different aspects that your site covers, with short introduction linking to another page.

When peple come, and glace through the site they will find lots of interesting and valuable aspects about your site, and they will not be in a hurry to leave, but to dig into it.

You could also think of installing certain software that will make your site interactive and more valuable to visitors.

Do keep up building what you are doing, you are on the way to success!

[InterfaceLeader]

You need to make it more explorable. Have 'related words' at the end of each post, or maybe even a quick 'do you know what this word means' quiz at the end of each post with a link to relevant post.

E.g.

"Now you know what Carapace means! But how many of the following words would you recognise?

Pertinacious - is it a type of insect? A personality trait? Or a giant house? Find out if you're right!

It would be quite easy to set up maybe 15-20 revolving ones and have your blog pull them up at random.

Just a thought!

[moonrambler]

Originally Posted by InterfaceLeader

You need to make it more explorable. Have 'related words' at the end of each post, or maybe even a quick 'do you know what this word means' quiz at the end of each post with a link to relevant post.

E.g.

"Now you know what Carapace means! But how many of the following words would you recognise?

Pertinacious - is it a type of insect? A personality trait? Or a giant house? Find out if you're right!

It would be quite easy to set up maybe 15-20 revolving ones and have your blog pull them up at random.

Just a thought!

These are great ideas!

[Manomanman]

I have a 20-30% bounce rate with a 4 minute average time spent on site.

Copy what I'm doing.