+33 votes
by (440 points)
Confusion Confusion!  Our writer wrote a blog last year and our target audience is from UK.Confusion Confusion! Our writer wrote a blog last year and our target audience is from UK. BUT our blog is ranking well in US as compare to UK, also its main keywords are on 1st 2nd 3rd position. but the confusion is why our bounce rate is 100%? It's because our content is not relevant or engaging? but if our content is not relevant then why it's ranking is stick to first page? Since last year blog is on first position with 100% bounce rate  What to do next? remove it or update it?  
Confusion Confusion!  Our writer wrote a blog last year and our target audience is from UK.

28 Answers

+8 votes
by (780 points)
 
Best answer
I would look at time on page. Also, if you’re not trying to lead the user somewhere else, I wouldn’t be concerned. If time on page is healthy for the length of your blog, and it’s just a piece to read, then you’re good. But if that blog is supposed to lead to a service page and a follow up action, then you may want to rethink the call to action strategy.  
by (2.4k points)
@morceau4 This ☝️
by (1.1k points)
Is it that good if user don't click on anything else, ever ? I have definition pages ranking well, and although bounce rate isn't pretty, which is pretty normal for definition pages, I don't have a 100% bounce rate either. There must be some kind of problem ?  
by (780 points)
I think it really depends on the purpose of the website. If you're selling products/services, then your goal should be to sell something as a result of that blog page visit, you should really be going for another click on the page. If you're an informational website that generates revenue based on traffic, a higher bounce rate is okay. Pogo-sticking is what would kill your rank, not necessarily bounce.  
+6 votes
by (1.7k points)
Do you target only UK with your website?  
by (1.7k points)
Or just this specific blog?  
by (440 points)
@annapurna10 I'm targeting UK audience only with my website not just blog.  
by (1.7k points)
@lathrope EASY then, Go to your Google webmaster and set the international targeting to the UK only. Then Google will prefer your website there
by (440 points)
But the point is why my blog is ranking if it has a high bounce rate. What could be the reason of 100% bounce rate.  
by (1k points)
. uk tld and set up International Targeting to UK as @annapurna10 mentioned. This would be reason it’s ranking in US if you didn’t do these 2 things. Plus, if it fits best for US audience, Google can rank for that too.  
by (5.6k points)
@lathrope the reason is that the articles are poorly written and people won't read them. They will find it and leave immediately because of badly written content. If you are trying to sell your services to the UK you are going to need someone with boots on the ground here to help you understand the market you are selling to.  
by (1.7k points)
@lathrope Bounce rate has nothing to do with the quality of your articles. You need to understand that bounce rate defines if people are jumping from one page to another but if someone read the same article thrice but left the site after 30 minutes, the analytics would still say 100% bounce rate. So, for checking the quality you need to check the average time on the page instead of bounce rate :) Hope that helps.  
+17 votes
by (1.7k points)
What is the intent behind the blog? Does it provide an answer to a query or something else? You have to look at other metrics not just bounce rate, what is the time spent on page? Can you add relevant contextual links within the post to point to relevant resources in other areas of your site?  
by (440 points)
Its basically a Ecommerce Or E-Commerce | Write It The Right Way. keywords ranking: ecommerce or e-commerce volume 700 ecommerce vs e-commerce volume 150 etc etc. according to my learning its linking are good to go.  
https://intelicle.com/ecommerce-or-...erce/
by (990 points)
Is this the page? I assume people who are hitting it are people who are wanting to know the correct way to spell the term. It is a fair jump from there to selling your website services. You may want to consider changing your call to action to a trust-building type thing at that stage - so links to more useful tips for blog authors or to sign up for a free blog writing ebook or e-book or whatever. I’m not an expert, but you may see more engagement that way.  
by (5.6k points)
@lathrope is that the article? It's horribly keyword stuffed and poorly written. I couldn't get through the first two paragraphs and I didn't understand until the last sentence in the second paragraph what is probably the point of the article. The problem is poor content. People don't read poorly written content. and that is why your bounce rate is not what you want.  
by (1k points)
Jean, I believe it’s written by a non-native.  
by (990 points)
@impolitic I suspect you're right. There are a lot of odd turns of phrase.  
by (5.6k points)
@impolitic so? Quality and readability is why there is a bounce rate, which answers his question as to why there is a bounce rate.  
by (1k points)
Jean, so the writer might not be knowledgeable enough or a best fit to write errors free and engaging content.  
by (5.6k points)
@impolitic Yeah, I understand that, but the dude was asking for a reason. that's the reason. :) He needs to get a better writer, preferably one actually here. It looks like he's trying to pretend to be a business in the UK when he's not. which feels dodgy in itself.  
by (2.5k points)
@torras I don't believe it's poor content. Bouncing isn't always a bad thing. Users come to the site, find the answer they are looking for, and leave satisfied. It's only bad if they go back to serps to look for the answer on a different site. It's entirely possible the user found all the information they need and left. Users here are just looking for right spelling. It would make sense they wouldn't click elsewhere.  
by (1.7k points)
@leo24073 agree with this. Looking at the topic of the post and search intent it could be the user found what they were looking for.  
+31 votes
by (530 points)
It's depend upon the intent of keyword you are ranking.  
+31 votes
by (990 points)
Was it written by a UK English speaker or US English? Does it effectively answer the search queries?  
by (440 points)
Yes its written in uk english plus effectively answering the search queries
by (990 points)
Do you know time on page/whether they’re scrolling? Is there an action you’re hoping for?  
by (1k points)
Rachel, lol
by (990 points)
What's funny, @impolitic? There are very significant differences between US and UK english, if that's your point?  
by (1k points)
Rachel, it won’t make any difference, I believe. Even if the content is written in US English, it can still rank in UK.  
by (990 points)
@impolitic sure, but it can be off-putting for someone in the uk looking for something local, so if they're selling a uk-only service that would explain the bounce from US visitors as well as the UK ones. But looking at the article which has now been shared I don't think that is the issue
by (1k points)
Rachel, I don’t think readers would mind just because it’s written in US English but yes if the intent is local then UK English would be much better from UX perspective.  
+21 votes
by (530 points)
I can say sure that page stay time is performing well.  
+25 votes
by (510 points)
What is the category and sub-category of the blog? What part of consumer intent is it serving? Is it also ranking for keywords not intended?  
+18 votes
by (1k points)
Are you using . com tld? And if you didn’t specifically target UK audience, more likely it will appear in US SERP. About bounce rate, don’t worry much about it, the audience got the answer, that’s fine.  
+21 votes
by (5.6k points)
Read the article he posted. You will see the problem. Poorly written and keyword stuffed. I could not make it past the second paragraph.  
+16 votes
by (2k points)
Bounce rate isn't always bad because it can signify that you answered the question. But since it is 100% then it is likely an intent mismatch between the keyword and the content or possibly something technical like a misconfigured redirect.  
+16 votes
by (1.1k points)
1. Who ever wrote your blog has serious issues. 2. You are confused? Did you read “Your blog”? If you did and saw no issues add another person to number 1 above.  
+21 votes
by (530 points)
Change targeted audience to UK in Google webmaster tool, host your site on UK data base, use UK English on website and grab few band backlinks with UK anchor text these 4 changes can fix targeted audience issues, Your another problem is 100% Bounce rate, Higher Bounce rate means people are visiting only that specific page and not clicking on any other page. This could happen because, if article is terrible so people don't want read any more, Here is few things you have check before making any conclusion, 1. Check source of traffic 2. If getting more direct traffic the examine the most visited traffic IP, and if there is any IP visited too many time just block them, make sure it should not be google bot ip.  
+14 votes
by (970 points)
Just to clarify, bounce rate does not influence your rankings in Google SERPs. It is not a ranking signal.  
+22 votes
by (2.1k points)
Do you think adding a hreflang en-gb is an option? Or do you want people from the USA to read the blog? Pro tip: if you add a goal in Google analytics and readers meet that goal, your bounce rate will go down
+18 votes
by (460 points)
Bounce rate is 100% meaning that visitor is no going to any other page. If your intent is to decrease bounce rate, use internal links to dofferent pages of website or cal to action pages. It will decrease. Time spend on page should be the actual metric here. Also, if its traffic is coming up from US, doesnt mean its nt doing good, depends on too many factors
+19 votes
by (810 points)
I could believe 90, 95 or even 97%, but exactly 100% is very suspicious. Something is wrong with the GA code
by (260 points)
@eidolon Pls sir, what is normal bounce rate percentage?  
+9 votes
by (620 points)
Yes something is wrong with GA code. 100% is practically impossible.  
+30 votes
by (990 points)
Double check your GA code. If the same code is twice then it might be possible. you should also check https or http request. Regarding your ranking, you should check your backlinks. Probably, most of your backlinks are from US IPs. Also, your website server.  
+30 votes
by (520 points)
What is the speed of the blog page? Bcos 100% is practically impossible it mean something is badly wrong. I believe people are click d website but not interacting.  
+29 votes
by (540 points)
Tell me the keyword and i will let you know  
+2 votes
by (1.2k points)
If its a comparatively competitive keyword & you're getting visitors the keyword quality shouldn't be the problem. The time on page will be shown as 0. 00 if the visitor doesn't click a link and visit another page in the website. Try to improve time on page and clicks on the page to improve the bounce rate.  
https://support.google.com/google-a...hl=en
+9 votes
by (4.2k points)
The "real" relevance of something is strongly influenced by intent. In some cases, Google is pretty good at determining intent from a search term. In other cases, it pretty well sucks. Where it doesn't understand intent, it likes to cover the bases and provide a mixture of results in hopes that one of the pages will provide the answer the person is looking for. In your case, it sounds like your page is likely a contender in Google's "Maybe they want this? " algo, but it's not panning out to actually be what users are looking for.  
+28 votes
by (940 points)
I think you answered your own question, users are coming from the US, finding content that's not relevant and bouncing. I'd maybe rewrite title and meta to make it clear that this is about the UK.  
+28 votes
by (2.5k points)
If the bounce rate keeps that high the rankings will drop - I would add something to the page to get people to click - write a script for US IPs that a box in the copy promoting something or asking a poll question etc - get them to engage
+29 votes
by (2.5k points)
You offer a diverse result but if users keep bouncing Google will reasses
+15 votes
by (950 points)
Maybe google trusts the website already and that's why they gave it ranking. if they'll see bounce rate continue to be like that. they might decrease the ranking then‍♂️
+17 votes
by (2k points)
Use schema markup to say that you are an organization in the UK. Also, have a UK address on your contact or about pages.  
+1 vote
by (1.2k points)
Are u sure its real traffic from the US. It could just be crawlers or spammers with US ips. Also u need to setup the time zone and local language on your admin if u have wp. Use internal links inside ur article on important keywords, this could lower the bounce rate if ppl click. Add videos, images to illustrate ur article and a sidebar with interesting links
The Search Engine Optimization Group is where you can always find questions, answers, advice, reviews & recommendations from other community members about better strategy on ranking highly for search engine results.
...