Bounce Rate Explained: Essential Tips for Podcasters to Improve Website Engagement

This is an unedited transcript from Castmagic.

Dave Jackson [00:00:00]:
Let's talk about bounce rate. What is it, and is it important?

Podcast Narrator [00:00:04]:
Welcome to your podcast website, the ultimate guide for podcasters looking to level up their online presence. Whether you're a seasoned podcaster or just starting out, this show is your go to resource for mastering the art of building and optimizing your podcast website. From website basics to advanced SEO strategies, we cover it all. No tech jargon, no confusion,
just practical tips and actionable confusion, just practical tips and actionable advice you can implement right away.

Here is Podcast Narrator your host, Dave Jackson. 

Dave Jackson [00:00:43]:
What is bounce rate when it comes to websites? Well,it is calculated by dividing the number of single page sessions, that's called a bounce, by the total number of sessions, so visitors, basically, expressed as a percentage. So here's an example. Let's do some easy math. If 500 out of 1,000 visitors leave your website after viewing just one page, that bounce rate is 50%. So it is definitely a crucial metric in digital marketing because it kinda shows engagement in a way. And what's kinda awful about it, why I don't like this metric, but I get it, is what if I do an episode on what is a bounce rate, and somebody comes, they click on play, they hear this episode, and they're like, oh, thanks, Dave, and they leave. That's kinda one of the things I'm like, okay. I get it that if someone just comes and goes, and they leave, that's a bad bounce rate.

Dave Jackson [00:01:44]:
But if you answered their question, that's one of the things that always makes me scratch my head. So if you are having a website that has customer service or support, things like that, something that I work in, you really can't get too upset when people that land on a page because you can see what pages people come into. Like, how did you come to my website? And if it's part of your support team and it answers a question, on one end, you should be happy that you answered their question. But on the other hand, that comes up as a bounce, which, again, can kinda be frustrating in a way. So keep this in mind. What's a good benchmark when it comes to bounce rates? And according to there are couple different articles. One was from Mailchimp, another one was from CXL, and then one was from Orbit Media. And, generally, a good bounce rate is considered to be around 40% or lower, while rates above 55% may warrant further investigation.

Dave Jackson [00:02:54]:
However, you know, when it comes to these benchmarks, it can differ significantly across industries and page types. This is why again, I'm kind of showing you both sides of this. Here's an example from Semrush, which is an SEO company. Ecommerce sites typically aim for lower bounce rates, compared to blogs where higher rates might be expected as visitors often come back to read specific articles and then leave. Another example of that. So, yes, a bounce rate is an important metric for assessing user engagement and website performance. It should be interpreted, though, in kind of the source. Like, use a little common sense here with this.

Dave Jackson [00:03:43]:
Because when you understand the reasons behind the bounce rate and comparing it to some sort of industry benchmark, that can provide valuable insights for improving your website effectiveness and the user experience. So keep that in mind when you look at your bounce rate because this is available in Google Analytics. I also logged into my Fathom Stats. They show the bounce rate. What's kinda cool is when you click on it, you can see it every day, and so you can see how many visitors you had and how many of them bounced. In a second, I'll give you some ideas on how you can lower your bounce rate, and we've got an announcement. So one of the things you can do to lower your bounce rate is when you're writing a description for your episode, are there other episodes that are similar to that topic? And if so, put a link to those in the actual description. So when it's on your website and somebody's reading about this and it's like, want more information about this? Or were you also looking for information about this? And then just have the title, that really eye catching title to those other episodes.

Dave Jackson [00:05:12]:
So when somebody comes to your website, they scan your episode. They maybe click on it, but then they see at the bottom, oh, were you looking for this? Or here's more information about this topic. Check out this episode, this episode, and this episode, and they might click that, which would then lower your bounce rate. This is where episode titles really come in handy. Now if you are a person that's using WordPress, there is a plugin called Link Whisper that basically does this for you. But if you're like, well, I'm not on WordPress. I'm on Squarespace, or I'm on, you know, PodPage, whatever you're using. This would be an easy way to do it.

Dave Jackson [00:05:51]:
Also, speaking of PodPage, because, you know, I work there. If you're using categories for your episodes so let's say you're a health podcast, and some of them are about diet and other about, science, and then others are about, exercise. You could have categories for each episode and simply because you're like, well, where do I get those links? I have to go back and look at my previous episodes. You could simply go to those categories on your pod page. When you click on the episode links, you'll see those categories. And it's super easy then to just get the links to those websites. So that would be one way again to lower your bounce rate would be make it very easy for people that are on your website to see other episodes or other blog posts or other videos on your website so that they click something else. Because that's all we need them to do.

Dave Jackson [00:06:44]:
They're on the first page. We need to get them to the 2nd page so that our bounce rate is lowered, which will make us look better in the eyes of Google. Notice I'm putting this at the end. It's housekeeping. And if you've been wondering, hey, what happened to this show? Well, I did transition from working at libsyn.com to podpage.com. And what we finally figured out is we're going to rebrand this show about podcast websites to a show about podcast websites, which really means this isn't going to change a whole lot. The content is going to change a little bit because we'll be using it to update people on what happens in the world of PodPage. But in terms of just helping people maximize their impact of their website, that is not going to change.

Dave Jackson [00:07:38]:
So if we kind of stutter here a little bit, it's because behind the scenes, we're coming up with topics and continuing to give you valuable content. So as we kind of stutter here a little bit and not quite as consistent, that's because we're working on artwork and a couple other things to change things up. So I will keep you posted as we do that, and I will continue to do episodes like this as time permits. But we're getting ready to do the rebrand and keep you informed again. The goal is to help you maximize your website and the impact on the Internet. So you may see the title change. I'll let you know when it's coming. I'll put out an episode that says, yep.

Dave Jackson [00:08:20]:
Here we go. We're gonna switch. So you'll see the new name. You'll see the new artwork and just to keep you always in the loop. I'm Dave Jackson from The School of Podcasting. I help podcasters. It's what I do, and I would love to work with you over at the school of podcasting.com. Thanks so much.

Podcast Narrator [00:08:38]:
Your podcast website is part of the Power of Podcasting Network. Find this show and all of Dave's other projects at power of podcasting.com.