Visitors landing on your own entry page are thought to bounce if they:
Close the window or an open tab
Types a whole new URL
Leave the web page by clicking the BACK button
Click a web link on the page that can take them to some other site.
Or the Session timeouts (generally taken as 30 mins)
Why many people are looking for ways to lower Bounce Rate?
The response is simple - The lower the bounce rate, higher the possibility of visitor browsing your website pages and converting.
Google.com analytics specialist Avinash Kaushik states:
"It is absolutely hard to get a bounce rate under 20%, anything over 35% is cause for concern, and 50% (above) is worrying."
Now, the larger question is - How to control the Bounce Rate?
Content - The content available on your website is the major factor for bounce rate. If this article is strongly related the visitors expectations the probability is that they will not bounce from your website without visiting other areas of website. For E.g. if your internet site is about IT Conferences as well as on landing page you are talking about general stuff instead of educating the visitors about the benefits of attending your conferences, then visitors are more likely to leave your website due to deficiency of desired information.
Website Load Time - Try to decrease the website load time - It's really difficult to find patient visitors. Instead of using heavy animations on the complete page that can lot of time to load, use animation only within the banner area and present text content in remaining the main page. This will make user read the information and inside mean time your animation may also load.
Flow - Provide your visitors with proper access points to find their way. Do proper linking for the internal pages that guide them to their parts of interest. Most of the visitors bounce since they were not able to navigate to relevant pages. Make your navigation flow easy to use by categorizing and sub-categorizing.
Above the fold - All your important info has to be placed 'above the fold'. This includes your 'call to action buttons'. 'Above the fold' is that section of the website which you see without having a scroll. Research states that 60% - 80% of visitors is not going to scroll your website 'down the fold', hence the best opportunity is lying 'above the fold'.
Popups - No one likes Popups, particularly when then appear as an unwanted guest. They are the biggest distraction, every time a visitor wants some important information. Even the feedback popup, sometimes annoys the visitors and so they bounce.
The above mentioned points can help you reduce your site bounce rate
We at AfterTheNet - The Web Strategy Company follow the above mentioned keyword process to supplement our clients with the most basic on the most advanced approaches for any goal they plan to reach using their website. Our step wise approach gives them the complete visibility of these website - which they are lacking very often, in absence of a trustworthy resource.