Blog Software Comparison

Today I received an email from a client who was concerned about their bounce rates which ranged between 80% to 90%. No one wants to put in the effort on a blog and find that it's not sticky... so what's a blogger to do?

Before I even start to take action, one of the first things I compare is how the bounce rate is tracking from week to week - is it increasing, decreasing?

How is your bounce rate comparing to your search engine traffic? Typicallly, if you're reaching a larger percentage of search engine users, your bounce rate percentage will also increase. It's natural when you're casting a wider net, that many of the fish won't make the cut.

If bounce rates remain consistently high, I review the following:

Am I targeting keywords that are truly relevant to my business? At Compendium, for instance, we target a lot of blogging terms. Since we're a business blogging platform, it's natural that some of the audience isn't going to be relevant.
Am I writing relevant content? Bad content sucks and makes people jump fast. There's nothing worse than leaving a first impression with a bad blog post. Are you writing about your business? Your customers? That's why people are visiting you! Stay on target.
Do I write Post Titles that are truly relevant to the content within the post?
Am I writing content that gives back to my readers or wastes their time? If you want readers to engage and read more, you need to put some bait on the hook to get them to nibble. (Not that you guys are fish... I'm just using a simple metaphor).
Do I link to my other related posts within my content with informative anchor text?
Do I have previous posts from my blog listed in my sidebar?
Do I have engaging Calls To Action that make someone want to click through because the CTA is relevant to the content and leads the person to want additional information.

Lastly, of course... is the question no one likes to answer:

Do I suck at writing?

Some people really do suck. In that case, hand off the baton to someone else in the organization who keeps the readers engaged. You may be surprised by who the talented folks are within an organization when it comes to writing compelling content.

Don't give up if you're a young blogger, though. Sometimes it takes quite a bit of time to get into a rhythm and hit a few home runs.

I would not hesitate to contact ghost bloggers, as well. Great ghost bloggers can learn your business and write compelling content on behalf of your organization, or even better, interviewing and sharing stories about your customers.