HIGH bounce rate?!?!?

Probably the grey design is not appealing and the large amount of empty space (on my screen).

Thanks for the tips! Anyone else?

Ok good to know. I don't get too much traffic yet so it's hard to tell really how it's affecting my adsense click rate. Thanks!

I think it's more important to keep people from bouncing than it is to make sure they can get to all your articles from your home page. Put some welcoming text on your home page instead of just a list of articles. If you don't know what to say just use your best, most representative article and put a welcoming paragraph at the beginning of it.

Then, below the article, put a list of Related Articles. This works well to lower bounce rate. Don't worry too much about how "related" they are; in a way all your articles will be related to each other because your site covers a particular topic.

Between your Most Popular list in the sidebar, and your Related Articles at the bottom, you should be able to have a lot of internal links.

Make sure all your pages have Related Articles at the bottom. Don't worry too much about people being able to reach everything via your home page. Each article needs to stand on its own. They will all draw search traffic directly to themselves. You may find that your home page is not your most popular page at all.

Also I agree 60% isn't that bad for a bounce rate.

Thank you guys a bunch! These tips are very helpful and I plan on implementing them tomorrow!

I don't know how your finding it but on your homepage having so much in your right sidebar I would think not many people scroll down your screen which would also affect your bounce rate. Try a free account from MouseFlow to see live and their screens how people use your homepage.

Maybe take out some of the ads on the right on just the homepage and follow some of the advice from the other posts above.

Really depends what your main goal with the homepage, and where you would like to funnel people to.

Just updated it so it shows my recent posts and changed the publish date of an article that is relevant to the keyword. I think this will help the bounce rate tremendously and get more clicks!

I still have the article page linking to the rest of my pages but it is not on the home page. Thanks for all the tips and let me know what you think about the new setup!

Some videos always keep people attracted and interested in what your site has to offer, try that.

You should get rid of the "reverse chronological" blog order... and set a static homepage with an article called "Facts About Dreams" The problem is...right now people land on the page and don't know where to go - there is too much going on (too many posts)

WHen you build a single page... you can control the eye much better. On that page... include "Facts About Dreams" and then list links to all your inner pages

I'd say it's the look of the blog.

It's what made me give you 1 more bounce. lol

I'd pay for a theme built custom for your site by one of the members in the for sales threads.

It's not that expensive, and if people are bouncing, it's because they don't like what they see.

Ok thanks guys will consider these. I do think videos are good but it makes the adsense harder to see. I will look into changing the theme... I didn't think it was that ugly but I guess it is. Think i will keep all the posts there but a couple links on the bottom is a good idea. Before it was ONLY links so I think it will already have a much lower bounce rate.

Really appreciate all this. Thanks!

62% is not a bad bounce rate for a content site...You've got to remember that most people are on the net in a semi-hypnotic state (induced by 'information fatigue'), looking for one info fix after another.

Unless you are providing something that breaks this zombie like internet viewing, you'll lose potential eyeballs.

Maybe experiment with the use of red text in places, as it is known to draw the eyes towards it. Perhaps, you might even go a bit further with a couple of RED arrows...this works on content sites...not just sales pages.

I hope that helps

ps - I'm not a fan of the massive expanse of grey...it just says to me...dull!

I would change the theme of the website to give it a more warm feeling and try to eliminate as much as empty space as possible. Other than that you site looks good!

I like your site, but there is too much gray. Please make background black and white for body copy. Also, use color more. Add a few pics. To lower bounce rate - the back arrow.

Please add a few you tube movies. That will grab the eyes.

To lower your bounce rate you could add a videos after the text. Just go to YouTube and find one or two videos that support the text of the article and embed the videos.

I'd also change the background to be black text on a white background. It's still the best way to go because it's easier to read.

Many of the ads in the right column have nothing to do with dreaming. Maybe blend in some subliminal audio and learn while you sleep links.

Wow thanks guys I agree with all of you! Definitely will look for a new theme! And ya red text/arrows could help. Will look for videos.

First off all, there are way too many advertisements, nobody likes a site filled with ads. I realize ads are how your site lives and keeps adding fresh content, however, the ads are colorful and they are more attractive then the content. There is also about the same amount of content as ads, therefore, the ads take over and people don't like that.

Secondly, there is way too much blank space with no content. The design is not too appealing either, I would suggest changing it into something better as there are many other marketers who have the same niche as you that have much more appealing websites and have more features than yours.

Just improve on the small things, and sometimes look at the big things, and your site will look great .

Ben

1 less advertisements
2 try to add relevant articles, so that people will jump to the next one
3rd best way to learn is do some research with good blogs and try to find out why they are different than you.

Ok all this should be enough to get my bounce rate a good bit lower. Thanks for you guys' time. Really appreciate it!

I'll give it a shot, I work for a large SEO company and the first thing I do when looking at websites is think "hmm, what needs changed" - lol

1. The advertisements on the right are too distracting, they're brighter than the site itself. I'd recommend removing them and just putting ONE horizontal banner. Plus, you're repeating many of the ads two times, this makes it look like you've got no relevant content to add so your'e just filling space. Remove them completely, OR just add one square ad (bigger) or one horizontal skyscraper
2. There is no real call to action that I can see, you should add an opt in form in the top RIGHT (or in the header) offering people a free course on dream interpretation for their name and email address
3. The theme is too plain, the gray is rather 'blah' and over all it's rather boring. I mean no offense by this, just telling it how I see it Try experimenting with different colors or even different themes.
4. Change your adds INSIDE the content to text ads. Make sure the color of the title is the same as the color of your links, and make the REST of the font the same color as the rest of your text. These will get higher clicks and blend better with the site.
5. On an SEO note, add a link to the homepage from the FOOTER with the anchor text 'facts about dreams' - that will help with the internal SEO
6. Your banner in the top right has an alt tag of "insert title" - you might want to change that to something more appealing, plus it makes it look like it's not finished.
7. Actually, I think there are too many ads on the site - try JUST using adsense and remove the others, make sure the adsense is text only and go with my above suggestions for how it should look. The site is too busy and removing/changing some of the ads, and removing the 8 or so ads on the right banner should help with this

That's all I've got off top of my head, but I Hope this helps. Over all, your drop rate is not HORRIBLE - but hopefully these recommendations will help improve it

If you have any more questions, let me know, I'm not a web designer and I know there are some more suggestions others can make - but these are some of the things that first stood out to me.

Take care
Jeff

This is a timely question for me too. One of my sites has a 67% bounce rate, I thought it was because I created an html site opposed to wordpress. I then changed it to a wordpress template and noticed an almost 50% drop in just one day.

Thanks for all the suggestions.