As you look to improve the user experience of your website, consider these strategies to reduce bounce rates:
1. Keep your navigation straightforward
Make sure your navigation is simple and intuitive, right where people expect it . This will help visitors find what they're looking for and reduce bounce rates.
You'll notice that many websites, especially retail websites, use the same website design and layout for the most part.
This well-crafted website from Polar Seltzer Water is a good example of a straightforward navigation bar :
Polar Seltzer Water Navigation
Image via Polar Seltzer
They placed their navigation bar where you would expect it: running along the top under their logo. And they kept paytm database the navigation options simple.
That doesn't mean you can't play around with the navigation bar to meet the needs of your audience. Take this Education.com website for example.
Educational Websites Navigation
Image via education.com
We have worked in the ed tech space and spoken to many teachers. We can tell you that the main thing teachers are looking for online is printable worksheets.
Education.com knows this too . That's why it has put worksheets in a place of honor: at the top left of the navigation bar. Followed by online games and lesson plans, two other very popular categories.
Rather than giving teachers a list of subjects or grades in its navigation bar, which would be pretty standard, Education.com has broken down their most popular categories to save teachers time from scrolling through categories and subcategories.
2. Make the search bar obvious and easy to use
No matter how intuitive your navigation is, you will still have a few people who can’t find what they’re looking for. If you don’t want to lose these visitors and increase your bounce rate, you need to ensure that your search functionality:
Is prominent on all your pages
Is easy to use
Gives your visitors the most relevant results possible
We used Digiday to conduct the research for this article. Its search feature is in that sweet spot again, in the top left. It features a very simple but very standard magnifying glass icon and appears in the same place on every page.