How Bounce Rate Affects Lawyer SEO
Updated: Feb 2, 2022
Why You Don't Want A High Bounce Rate And What It Means For Your Law Firm
The bounce rate is the number of users or visitors who leave a website without executing a certain action, such as setting an appointment, completing a purchase, downloading a file, etc. When your law firm's website has a high bounce rate, it might be a sign to change things up.
Remember: A 0% bounce rate is impossible to achieve unless you have an extremely small number of visitors. Unfortunately, not everyone who visits your webpage or website will be interested in your offerings.
How Bounce Rate Affects SEO
Lawyer SEO isn't just about getting clicks. While you optimize to rank as high as possible on chosen keywords, your main goal is ultimately to get clients. Sure, you might have gotten users curious enough to click on your links, but if they left straight away, it suggests you didn't keep them interested.
Everything you do for your website—like keyword research, legal blogging, and landing pages—is meant to attract as many people to your law firm and your services.
Of course, having a dedicated audience to your blog is excellent, but you need to use that traffic to your law firm's advantage.
Finally, a high bounce rate suggests that there is a problem with your website. Anything from a design problem to poor content could be the cause. This might be a sign to overhaul an outdated design, fix slow loading speeds, and invest more time and research into the content you publish.
Remember: A high bounce rate can definitely be a red flag for your Lawyer SEO. So pay attention to them.
Why You're Getting High Bounce Rates
Users have different reasons for close the tab immediately after coming into your domain. So if you don't know what's causing the problem, it can be tough to solve it.
So, let's discuss why your site visitors aren't sticking around.
1. They Didn't Get What They Need
Users are spoiled by Google's search algorithm. When they're looking for something in the search engines, they're used to getting the most relevant results.
So, if a user types in "los angeles personal injury attorney," they won't be interested in a page with general information about lawyers in California. So, even when the two seem adjacent, it is still not what the users are looking for.
This is why you should optimize your keywords wisely. For example, if you're creating content for the keywords "los angeles personal injury attorney", then don't post one about lawyers in California, Slip & Fall specific cases, or about other areas of law.
2. You Have Bad Site Design
Nobody wants to visit a poorly website. As much as we like to think that high-quality blog content is enough to keep users coming back, a considerable percentage of individuals will evaluate your website only based on its appearance.
A poorly design website can look outdated and unprofessional. Worse, most sites with bad design are often associated with untrustworthy scams and fake business fronts.
Remember: Even if you're not a web developer, many web hosting services make it easy to design your own website.
3. Poor User Experience
Simply put, User Experience (UX) is how site visitors experience your website. If they're having a terrible time on your domain, that's considered a poor user experience.
There are a lot of factors that go into UX. However, here are a few to give you an idea of the current UX status of your website:
The text should be easy to read, not poorly formatted or overly stylized
Loading speeds should be fast
It should be easy to navigate from one page to another
There should be no error pages
There should be no bugs and glitches
Your color scheme and contrasts should be pleasant to look at
Navigation links and menus should be clear and complete
Users will not want to visit or stick around a site that is difficult to use or navigate. The smaller the bounce rate, the easier it is to find what one needs.
4. Users Find What They Need Immediately
Sometimes, users will look up simple "yes or no" questions on the search engines. Sometimes, they just want a simple definition for a legal term and be done with it. For example, they might look for "evidence you need for a personal injury claim," find a listicle, and browse the list without reading too much of the supporting text.
This is why you shouldn't stress out about getting a 0% bounce rate. Sometimes, people get what they need and leave immediately, so it's best to consider factors other than having a bad overall site design or poor content.
Remember: However, this isn't to say that you should dismiss very high bounce rates. You might also want to look into your content and consider writing more in-depth pieces that discuss multiple sections of a specific topic. Thin content can be informative, but it won't give users much to read from.
We Have Lawyer SEO Experts At LawyerLeadMachine
Lawyer SEO and other digital marketing strategies can improve traffic on your Law Firm's website. By implementing practices that help indexing, user experience, and domain structure, you might get better leads and higher conversions. To have us help with your SEO, you may review your options here.
