How Great Web Design Leads to Longer Site Visits: Low Numbers Worth Celebrating

When you launch a redesigned website, you usually want your analytics’ numbers to go up. Here’s the story of when those numbers plummet, and you still jump for joy.

In the fall of 2014, Xdesign began redesigning the Gulf Coast Bank website. The project goals were familiar, the site needed to be responsive, accessible, manageable by the client, and utilize progressive enhancement techniques to work on all browsers, including older versions of internet explorer.

There was another requirement that usually isn’t included directly from the client – the design needed to be simple. We love hearing this. Simple doesn’t mean it’s easy to create. However, it does mean easy to use and comprehend for the user.

So we set to work. What we ended up with is above all is a very clean design with a very direct user experience (UX).

As you can see, a user landing on gulfbank.com is not bombarded with the information or design clutter. Rather the user is presented with options that are clearly defined. Should they wish to login and manage their account, they can do so in under three clicks. Or, should they wish to learn more about free checking, they can do so in less than two clicks.

When we launched the site, we knew we’d see some improvement in our analytics. However, there was one area, though, where our numbers plummeted. By plummeted we mean absolute tanked. The number that took a dive is the bounce rate. This is summed up in the following graphic:

If you’re not familiar with bounce rate, it’s is simply

the percentage of visitors to a particular website who navigate away from the site after viewing only one page.

In other words, if people land on your site and leave immediately, they’ve bounced. If your bounce rate is high, that means people either aren’t finding your design interesting and engaging, or they can’t figure out what to do.

Bounce rate is a bit like golf, the lower your score, the better you’re doing. But going from ~55% bounce rate (an already good rate) to ~0.8% bounce rate? That’s nearly unheard of. Essentially, bounce rate is an extremely good indicator of your user’s experience (UX). If your rate is low your users are engaged, if your users are engaged, then they are having a positive experience and spending more time on your website.

So, cheers to a low bounce rate, the one number that we celebrate being low in our office.

With X, you get a great UX, and that leads to more business. How’s your bounce rate look?