By: Tess Rows –

Your website is the hub of your online presence, where potential clients are funneled from internet search and social media sites to find out more about you and your firm’s expertise. If a visitor leaves your site quickly after arriving at your home page, the chance of converting that prospect to a client is nil. Therefore, reducing what’s called your bounce rate is critical for ensuring your online marketing success.

Bounce rate is a term denoting the percentage of people who navigate away from your website after only looking at a single page. Keeping this percentage low means that users are digging deeper into your site, and thus learning more about what you have to offer. The longer you can keep visitors on your site, the more time you have to turn them into clients.

We’re counting down the top 6 ways you can decrease your bounce rate:

6. Avoid Annoyances

One sure way to turn off prospective clients is to present them with unpleasant ads and pop-ups when they visit your site. While ad-supported websites are fine for personal use, in the professional world, these unwanted commercial interruptions can make a decidedly unprofessional impression on your potential clients. Creating an ad-free, streamlined, easy-to-navigate website is your best defense against high bounce rates. It may cost you a bit more to develop an ad-free site, but in most cases, this cost will be recouped in improved reputation and increased conversions for your law firm.

5. Reduce Page Load Times

Numerous studies and articles have shown that slow page loads lead directly to shorter times spent on websites and higher bounce rates. This is especially true in the competitive legal field; prospective clients are more likely to move on to other sites than they are to wait for an extended period for your page to load. Optimizing your online presence for speed can reduce your bounce rates and increase your conversions for your legal services. This step generally requires you to contact your Internet service provider (ISP) or web hosting company to upgrade the speed of your website connection.

4. Think Mobile

The popularity of smartphones and mobile devices continues to grow each year. Providing your visitors with a mobile-friendly version of your website can allow on-the-go access to your online information and can help you attract and retain new clients in the Internet environment. Creating a truly mobile version of your website generally requires the assistance of professional software engineers and programmers who can convert your existing website into a sleek, streamlined, easy-to-use mobile version that provides real value for clients.

Next week, we’ll continue the countdown and reveal the final 3 Ways You Can Reduce Bounce Rate. Stay Tuned…