Design is Queen: How did I Reduce my Bounce Rate from %63 to % 11 in one day?
Google Analytics Reports
In september 10th, my bounce rate is reduced from % 63 to % 11. Normally, % 63 is not a bad bounce rate for big web sites and blogs, but it was high for my relatively small blog with no adsense and no outbound links. However, I managed to decrease my bounce rate. Herebelow, you can see the reports I got from Google Analytics as of September 9th and 10th respectively:
Google Analytics Report, September 9th
Google Analytics, September 10th
How Did I do that?
Well, I must confess that I am still a newbie and not an expert in these matters; somehow I reduced my bounce rate when I was still experimenting with designs for my blog.
In the last week, I have not done any changes in my blog except its design. In September 9th (just before 24:00 a.m) I switched to the dynamic views (with sidebars) of blogger. The very next day, my bounce rate miraculously reduced to % 11 (now it is even lower, around % 3).
I am still trying to figure out how a design change could affect the bounce rates and the pageviews to such great extent (Of course I know how important the design is, yet I still cannot comprehend that it can be "that important"). If content is king, design must be queen of the web. I also think people prefer clean and simple designs with little to no distractions (my previous template was too colorful and fancy).
So, the formula for my low bounce rate is= simple, clean dynamic view template + 0 outbound links. For lower bounce rates, keep it simple.
Anyone tried blogger dynamic views and observed lower bounce rates? And what do you think about the relationship between template changes and bounce rates? I would appreciate if you could comment.