Over 85% Bounce Rate - Something's terribly wrong

Hey Sagar --

First of all -- I'm not sure how long you've been running GA on your site and whether you've noticed this as a change?

Second of all -- we live in a sound-bite world, and consequently people assume an immediate cause-effect. For example -- "I have a high bounce rate, therefore my copy is bad."

Having spent over 20 years doing software, I've spent a lot of time looking at problems (aka "bugs") and coming up with what was causing the problem. A lot of times it requires stepping back and looking at assumptions.

For instance, I recently wrote a salesletter that, after the initial launch, got zero sales. Yikes! There were still lots of people coming to the sales page. Did that mean the copy was crappy? NO! During the initial launch and affiliate promotions there were anywhere from 2.7-10% conversions. What happened was that the download page was not protected, and the link was put up on a warez site. So the visits to the sales page weren't even from potential buyers -- only potential thieves.

For instance -- you say you've stripped off the subscription form. I'd first want to check your opt-in form. Did you actually check it? Did you make sure that the opt-in process actually works? Getting NO opt-ins sounds suspiciously like something is broken in the opt-in process, not problems in the copy.

But I can't check that because you've stripped out the subscription form.

(I'm not sure about the text that says "form goes here").

Also -- I'm less certain of GA, but I do know that seeing a high bounce rate can be the result of improper configuration in statcounter. I'm suspecting there may be some issues with that with GA, as well. I do use GA with clients but we do have channels and goals set up, and while statcounter doesn't have goals and channels, it's the lack of something similar that can cause an inordinate and incorrect number of bounces to show up in the stats.

If you can put up the original page, maybe with a different name (therefore should show up differently in GA) to check things out, that would help.

Live JoyFully!

Judy Kettenhofen, Profit Strategist/Copywriter
NextDay Copy

@Judy:
Thanks for your replies

My subscription form is working just fine. You signed up to the correct list, as intended. When I posted the articles to EZA, I got some good traffic since they were on the homepage. I got 35-40 sign-ups easily, without any issues. But yes, I'm guilty of not tracking stats for my Confirm and Download pages.

Judy, if I'm not wrong, the bounce rate means visitors who navigated away from the page divided by the total visitors multiplied by 100. Is that correct?

The added the "form goes here" to mark the location of the subscription form on the actual page. That page is the homepage of the website. Should I put the same page up with a different name?

@Gerry:
Thanks for your input

You're right about tracking traffic on the Confirm and Download page. I need to delve deeper into GA and learn how it works. It has intimidated me for a while now!

About half of my traffic is from search engines (Google & Yahoo). The other half is divided between EZA and the link to the squeeze page on my personal website.

I see where you are coming from on the $37/$27/ Free part. I didn't like it myself when I was writing it too but somehow, that was the best I could come up with at the time (ignorance, I know and am sorry now ).

I'll add the GA code to the other pages.

Regards,
Sagar

Sagar,

Start split testing it with Google optimizer and test different layouts. You should be able to get much better results fast.

Put the tracking pixel from google in your thank you page for your ad words. Content network and site placement with banners converts better than search.

Make sure the lead in to your page is as relevant as possible and make it easy for people to know what to do.

Try video versus text and some obvious graphic prompts.

Looks good overall, consider adding your opt-in form at the top of the page because many people don't even scroll down on the page, and also add a major benefit directly above the opt-in form.

Consider adding a story -people love stories due to emotional connection

Good luck, hope this helps

Hi!

When I look over the page, nothing grabs me. When I read "I feel your pain," I wanted to relate more to you (the writer) but there was nothing there to resonate with. I wanted to, but there was nothing to resonate with.

When I tried to sign up I couldn't see it doing anything, so I went to the home page and went in there. The form on the original page /copy.html is not working.

Hi ,
had the same problem could not sign in .

Hi,

My apologies for not replying here in a long time.

James: Thanks for those tips. I didn't even KNOW something like Google Optimizer exists! I've signed up just now. I'm not using AdWords at all but banner ads is something I would surely look into.

Sparkelsperson: That's an interesting point and true too. I think I will have to work on making the copy more effective - it really doesn't "connect" to the reader now that I look at it.

Thanks everyone for your input, keep 'em coming

And the form on the page I linked to in my OP is not working ON PURPOSE. I've removed it so that the OP doesn't look like an attempt at self promotion

Regards,
Sagar

Lot of good input here. I have a couple suggestions. The subscribe form should be above the fold - preferably top right. Most test show that position works the best. I would also suggest some header graphics - there are lots of templates available for squeeze pages. I would suggest dropping the prices and replacing them with a reason you're giving it away free. Use GA's goal tracking -but It's real easy to put put in the wrong page URL for your goal- so test. And you can have GA not count your presence by exlcuding your email and thus not have your own visits taint the counts. Good luck.

Thanks everyone for your input.

James, you have a new subscriber Some great information on your blog!

Another suggestion I'm seeing here is to keep the opt-in form above the fold. Time to make different versions of the page I think

@Precious - You're right about the traffic. It's quite low at this time. There hasn't been steady traffic to the site but rather small "bursts" of traffic. Could that be leading to the bounce rate?

Regards,
Sagar

Hey Sagar,

You have issues with your copy too. When I read your title, "How to Build a Niche Website in Just ONE Day Without Writing a Single Word of Content" I was like, huh?

'Building' and 'Writing' are two totally different things, and your title merges them into one creating confusion.

On top of that, you say "I feel your pain", but the 'pain' is not reflected in the heading, which is critical.

Also, phrases like "and what not" make you sound like you're not too sure how your product can benefit me. People need specific benefits and value. Using phrases like, 'and what not' or 'stuff' or 'things' is bad for your copy.

You confess you're bad at copy.

Here's the thing, the people bad at copywriting are those who don't study it.

I've never written one sales page in my life, but I'm reading about it, and going over copy like yours to find weaknesses, so I'll know in future how to spot weaknesses in my own.

I could say more, but here's the thing my friend. Either learn how to write good copy, or pay someone to do it.

Keep pressing on,

JK

hi, maybe I'm missing something here but I tried to download the book without success. The download button does not function. I viewed the page source and the beginning form html is missing. There is simply a comment indicating where the form should start. the ending form tag is there but not the beginning.

You do not have a functioning form. when the submit button is pressed it refers to the address in the opening form tag , but you dont have opening form. I havent done html for a long time but I'm pretty sure this is a problem.

edit... ok ill leave what ive written unchanged , but i just read that you did this on purpose. I had thought that might be case.

Hi all,

JK:

Thanks for your reply, friend. I see where you are coming from on this. What I'm going to do is that I'll put up a whole different copy. I have the whole weekend to work on it and so I'll rewrite it - and this time I'll write GOOD copy, I'm sure

And thanks for pointing out those critical mistakes too. It really never occurred to me that those words in my headlines would mess up things like that! Thank you.

Marc:

Thanks for taking out the time to go to my site. I think I'll edit my original post and say why the form is not present.

Regards,
Sagar

No problem, Sagar. I'm glad to be able to offer any help.

I also just remembered about this - Free Squeeze Page Template Download That Gets 65% Opt-In Conversion | Strategic Profits

You may find it useful :-)

JK

First thing that strikes me is that your optin form is below the fold. Put in up and on the right side of the page and test that.

I would say that your headline is weak and needs stronger text. You should also insert some strong sub headlines with multiple calls to action for your signup.

Dean Edwards

HEADLINE.

Read Joe Sugarman, specifically about creating a "slippery slope".

Also, video in my tests improves bounce 300% to 500% on average, and that was over decent copy.

Just to let you know, I am a freelance copywriter and would be happy to do some rewrites for you.

I didn't look at your site but I'm very familiar with developing the "slippery slope" that will lead visitors deeper into your site.

And regardless of what other bells and whistles you may have on your page (video, etc) you DO need intelligent, engaging, copy. People want to read something new. They don't want the same old "how to get rich in two hours while eating popcorn on your couch" shtick.

Go to googles website optimizer and start split-testing different landing pages right now.

BTW, depending on your traffic, if you get a 25% signup rate on mainstream market products that is considered good. Then you just have to squeeze more money out of the current subscribers you get and you're right on track

Hi Sagar

Your sales page is nicely formatted, and you say you're getting good traffic from EZA. All good.

But the main problem is that you need to think much more about the mind of the prospect, or the "entry point" of the copy. The headline as it stands appeals to people who already know the benefit of niche websites, and just want help in getting one up quickly and easily. Are you sure these are the type of people arriving at the page? If that's true, then your first sentence seems to be trying to convince them of something they already know.

And overall, there isn't enough copy to say why your methods are better than others, or why it can be difficult to build a niche website. Basically, more copy, and more powerful copy at that, would be a great help. You could even try sending traffic to a longer sales letter, and then having a seperate opt-in page with bullets to condense the message.

I'd drop the price trick too. The copy isn't long enough to build up any kind of value, and so putting $37 etc, and crossing it out doesn't really give any impetus to sign up. Just say the book is free and have done with it.

Nice opt-in design, BTW.

Good luck

Steve