Busting the High Bounce Rate Myth for Life Sciences Websites

In digital life sciences marketing, hearing that your website has a high bounce rate raises immediate alarms. It’s important to understand what bounce rate means for your page’s success and how to rectify page elements that contribute to people leaving your site.

Bounce rate refers to the percentage of users who leave your website after viewing only one page. A high bounce rate could indicate that something about your website is missing the mark with visitors, such as outdated content, technical issues, or unintuitive navigation. However, a high bounce rate might just reflect the efficiency of a page in providing quick answers or solutions – though ideally, your website should aim to engage visitors further rather than seeing them leave immediately.

So, how do you know what your high bounce rates mean, and what can you do about them?

WHEN IS A HIGH BOUNCE RATE NORMAL?

In life sciences, where specialized content often reigns supreme, a high bounce rate can sometimes be normal. For single-page websites designed to provide the information users need to know in one place – such as an annual report or a product spec sheet – high bounce rates are expected, even though the website functions as intended.

User intent can also significantly affect your life sciences site’s bounce rates. Visitors may land on your website looking for specific information, such as contact details, and leave it once they find it. This will increase your page’s bounce rate because users won’t need to navigate to another page, and they’re still satisfied.

A high bounce rate could also signal a problem with the user experience. Beyond negatively affecting SEO, a slow loading speed, challenging interface, or lack of optimization for mobile devices may frustrate some users and cause them to leave your site prematurely. Though you should address these concerns, they don’t indicate that the content itself is low quality or the website is faulty.

Bounce rate isn’t a metric that provides significant standalone value or insight into a website’s success or failure. It should be considered in conjunction with other performance analytic measures, such as time on page and conversion rates, to glean a complete picture of user engagement and website performance.

Let’s look at a real-world scenario. Say a biotech company’s website features a page about groundbreaking gene therapy techniques. Researchers and professionals may visit the page, absorb valuable insights, and then leave. This causes a higher bounce rate, so the biotech marketer decides to split the content into a multipart series across three pages, forcing users to complete more actions and view more pages to get the full information.

Though this can improve bounce rate, it disrupts user experience, requiring more time and effort to access the same amount of information. Users may get frustrated and leave before accessing all the information, or they might avoid turning to the same business when they need further information.

Instead of splitting the content across multiple pages, other approaches could be taken to improve the bounce rate without disrupting user experience. Enhancing internal links to make related content easily accessible can keep users engaged and encourage organic interactions with other pages on the site. Similarly, offering downloadable content – such as detailed product guides or research findings – provides additional value for visitors in a format they can consume at their own pace. Both options could potentially reduce the site’s bounce rate by driving further interaction and exploration in a user-friendly manner.

HOW CAN AN UNDESIRABLE HIGH BOUNCE RATE BE REMEDIED?

If your website or webpage hinges on users viewing multiple pages to drive conversions, then a high bounce rate isn’t ideal. For these pages, a general rule of thumb is that a bounce rate below 40% is good, while one above 55% needs significant improvement.

Google Analytics is a great tool for analyzing bounce rates, but note that the accuracy of the analytics might be skewed by certain privacy settings and ad blockers. Start by viewing the Audience Overview report to find the overall bounce rate for your entire website. This should give you a broad snapshot of the site’s performance. From there, leverage the various reports available to you for more granular insights to inform your marketing strategy:

• Access the Channels report to see bounce rates for each unique channel grouping.
• View the All Traffic report to find bounce rates for each source and medium pairing.
• Open the All Pages report to view each single webpage’s bounce rate.

Segmenting your approach in this manner can help you better understand how users interact with your site and what factors drive these bounces, so you know how to effectively address them. The bounce rates for individual pages can help you tailor your optimization efforts down to specific pages that aren’t functioning or driving conversions as they should.

Bounce rates of specific channels and traffic sources can also inform your bounce rate optimization strategy:

• If visitors from paid ads leave after viewing one page, review your ad content to ensure it targets appropriate audiences.
• Users who find your site through organic search often leave once they find the desired information.
• Visitors from social media are often more casual and exploratory in nature, with curiosity driving multiple clicks or page views, even if they’re less likely to convert.

You should also measure the quality of the user experience using more human-centric methods. Soliciting user feedback through quick digital surveys, suggestion boxes on your website, or social media can pinpoint areas that need improvement from your audience’s perspective. Conducting usability testing, such as through formal studies, can reveal friction points and usability issues that analytics alone might not reveal. These approaches offer deeper insights into what users experience as they navigate your site, allowing you to directly address root causes of dissatisfaction that could be contributing to high bounce rates.

Finally, ensure that your website content aligns with user intent. Remember that real people – not search engines – are your target audience, and their needs should be prioritized over concerns like “stuffing” keywords into content for SEO. Search engines and algorithms have evolved to reward websites that provide optimized user experiences and relevant, valuable content over simply having keywords present. Content that resonates with visitors and answers questions thoroughly and efficiently will naturally lead to lower bounce rates.

Review your life sciences website to ensure all pages address the specific questions or needs that might bring users to them. Use clear, concise language and provide easy access to related content or products that can help deepen engagement, provide value for users, and encourage exploration of your site.

Other general ways to improve bounce rates for your pharmaceutical or biotech company include:

• Conduct A/B testing – where you step out two versions of a webpage or content piece and compare their performance metrics to determine which option is best – to find the most effective versions of your content.
• Routinely review and revise the content across your website to ensure it is current, relevant, and accessible.
• Regularly test the technical performance of your website. Slow loading, non-optimization for mobile devices, broken links, and more can drive users away.

Has your life sciences website seen better days? Reach out to LIGHTSTREAM to discuss how we can help you hone your digital marketing strategy and optimize website performance. We have helped many clients achieve and surpass their goals, including reducing one institution’s bounce rate by 40%. Connect with us today.