Bounce rate down to 70% from 77%
 

Hello

I've recently started to take more interest in one of my affiliate sites and what Googles analytics is reporting.

Following a complete rebuild of the site using a responsive framework, I saw the bounce rate drop from 77% to 70%.

Since the rebuild I've also noticed Ipad users account for 23% of mobile visits but their bounce rate stands at 80%.

My question is, are the high bounce rate figures for the Ipad users something I should be concerned about and is there something I could try to lower it?

P

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/71047472/bounce.png

Re: Bounce rate down to 70% from 77%
 

Normally I would say nah.. don't worry about it...but looking at YOUR numbers... #1 I would be concerned with those iPhone #'s and then the iPad #'s iPhone is 450% of traffic over non apple product deliver and a bite over 50% in total. and iPad is 150% of traffic over non apple products. and 1/3 of overall.

I would say because there is such a defined line there something somewhere is not showing correctly or that you have "Flash" in your page something like that.

Another thing to look at is not so much the total bounce rate between the old and new.. but how did these numbers look before the rebuild? where the numbers more even? were they about the same? did Apple products spike and the others lower? that might give you a better idea of what to look for.

Hope that Helps!

Re: Bounce rate down to 70% from 77%
 

Thanks for taking the time to look at those figures and to reply.

There is no Flash, the responive framework I'm using it Bootstrap 3 so it shouldn't cause any issues. I've tested on both iphone and ipad and can't see any issues.

The before responsive figures look like this. Each chart is 30 days.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...nceDevices.png

After repsonsive figures are

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...daysBounce.png

I'm not sure if I'm allowed to link but the site is DIY Laminate Floor - Free Help and Advice on Laminate Flooring

Re: Bounce rate down to 70% from 77%
 

The numbers actually look better than before and that's a good thing. but there is still quite the gap.. what is the percentage of bounce on NON mobile?


After playing with the site a bit. the time it takes to get over to the affiliate? site is a bit excessive. Its long on a desktop.. and it is painful in mobile simulation.


I just checked the page with GTmetrix.. and it was slow to the home page.. but then you put in your affiliate link... it is showing just under 8 seconds to pull that up. I might suspect that being the issue.


It would be hard to set up a test in analytics the way things are set up. there are basically 3 links per product that go off to the affiliate page.


But again you need to get in and look at the page level to see what's going on. Bar that.. this would be one of those times that I would suggest heat / click mapping for a few days to literally see if you can figure out what's going on!

Re: Bounce rate down to 70% from 77%
 

I took a look at gtmetrix and made some changes to the site.

CSS and JS where linked to a CDN where available
Large PNG file where swapped for JPGs
Browser leverage cache was set in .htaccess
Adsense removed from the index page.

Here is a snapshot of before and after summary from gtmetrix

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...eforeAfter.jpg

Re: Bounce rate down to 70% from 77%
 

but what about the page you are linking to? thats the issue. Not your page.. but the referral page / site

Re: Bounce rate down to 70% from 77%
 

I don't see what I could change about that, other than swap to a different affiliate.

Re: Bounce rate down to 70% from 77%
 

That must be the issue with device compatibility because you can see the bounce rate for android users is quite better than others and the issue is only with ipad. Try finding any bug in JS or Jquery and if you still can't see what is affecting then start checking if any plugin or widget is causing this issue by simply using those devices.

Re: Bounce rate down to 70% from 77%
 

what does your desktop traffic look like? is it doing the same thing? is your bounce rate lower?

To be honest here, I am not so sure that flooring is such a solid mobile friendly niche to begin with. part of the process is looking at the wood finish to figure out if it is the right color etc. hard to do with mobile no?

Following that line of thought... can you stretch the images in Android and not iOS? that would be something to look at for sure!

Re: Bounce rate down to 70% from 77%
 

One of the main draws for the site is the calcutor, I'm going to move to the home page and see if the bounce rate is improved after that.

In the meantime I'll test the site on an ipad2 and iphone5s.

Thanks guys