Generally blogs have a very high bounce rates. If your blog has a bounce rate of 40% to 50% then you should be having great content. Usually, many blogs result in a bounce rate of over 80%. But there are ways to reduce your bounce rates.

What is a bounce rate?

Bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who leave your website without visiting any other page or before the specified session time.

According to Google Analysts, an accepted bounce rate would be between 20% and 50%. It also states that a bounce rate over 50% is a matter of concern.

Reason for High Bounce Rates

Blogs usually contain huge content, especially, if the blog is updated on a daily basis by more than one editor. Hence, search engines love indexing blogs. Search engines feel blogs have fresh content.

You would have noticed any information posted in your website appearing in Google’s Index in few minutes. This can result in the website ranking high even for unrelated content. If a visitor was searching for an online purchase and you had written an article about the product, the visitor might leave your site if he reaches and finds that you do not sell the product.

Similarly, many blogs have subscriptions. People who have subscribed for your articles would just read the article which interests them. Subscribers can also lead to high bounce rates.

How to decrease Bounce Rates

The best way to decrease bounce rates is make your website more interactive. This can make the visitor stay on your website.

1. While writing articles, also ask for feedbacks and comments on your thoughts
2. Let your articles be thought provoking and force the user to comment
3. Include a “Related Post” plug-in which can list related articles by using your tags.
4. Include a “Most Popular Posts” plug-in which can increase the curiosity of the reader
5. Reduce external links on your site. Try to open them in a new window if possible.
6. Optimize your site navigation. If you feel your template is not attractive or interactive, try using different templates until you finalize on one.

These suggestions can definitely help you decrease bounce rates. If you have any other suggestions, please feel free to post your comments.

Wouldn’t it be great to have a favicon added to your Wordpress blog? It not just looks cool it also builds a brand image. It also makes your blog visitors recognize your website as soon as they see your favicon. It is also identifiable when you bookmark it in your browser.

So said, how would you get the icon on the address box? It’s very simple.

Getting Started:

To create a favicon, you first need an image. Do you have a logo for your website? That’s what should go as the favicon. If you have not created a logo, search for a small clear image which would fit your website category . 

Creating Favicon.ico file

1. Goto Favicon generator
2. Upload the image from your computer using the “Browse” button in the Favicon generator.
3. If you wish to get an animated text gif icon, you can provide the text in “scrolling text”(Optional)
4. Click “Create Favicon”

You would get a preview of favicon.ico. On the right side, you would find the option to download favicon. Click on “Get It Now!”.Save the zip file to your computer. The zip file would contain four files:

1. favicon.ico
2. preview_16×16.png
3. preview_32×32.png
4. animated_favicon.gif

The favicon.ico is what you need. Extract it to your computer and upload the file to your root folder. For example, if your website is http://www.seo-mind.com then the favicon.ico should be placed as http://www.seo-mind.com/favicon.ico Usually, this would be the “httpdocs” or “public_html” or the “www” folder.

Adding the favicon.ico file to your Wordpress Blog:

Now that you have uploaded it, you would have to edit your header.php in your wordpress blog.

1. Log into your Wordpress admin section, choose “Presentation” and select “Theme Editor”
2. Choose “header.php” from the right side links and add the below line inside the head section.
   

   <link rel=”shortcut icon” href=”favicon.ico”>
   <link rel=”icon” href=”favicon.ico”>    

3. Save the header.php file

Now, refresh your website by pressing Ctrl+F5 keys. You should be able to see the favicon next to your website URL.If you are still unable to see the favicon, close your website and delete temporary internet files. Try opening the website again.

Technorati.com has included the Technorati Authority for blogs listed on the Blog page and in search results. This update changed the earlier references of “N blogs link here” and “X links from Y blogs” with the single Technorati Authority number. On the blog page, we also show the Technorati Rank.

Technorati Authority is the number of blogs linking to a website in the last six months. The higher the number, the more Technorati Authority the blog has.

It is important to note that Technorati measures the number of blogs, rather than the number of links. So, if a blog links to your blog many times, it still only count as +1 toward your authority. Of course, new links mean the +1 will last another 180 days.

Technorati Rank is calculated based on how far you are from the top. The blog with the hightest Technorati Authority is the #1 ranked blog. The smaller your Technorati Rank, the closer you are to the top.

Since at the lower end of the scale many blogs will have the same Technorati Authority, they will share the same Technorati Rank.

The Technorati Top 100 shows the most popular 100 blogs based on Technorati Authority. The #1 ranked blog is the blog with the most other distinct blogs linking to it in the last 6 months. If your blog’s rank is, say 305,316, this indicates that there are 305,315 blog ranks separating your blog from the #1 position.

The best way to increase your Technorati Authority is to write things that are interesting to other bloggers so they’ll link to you. Linking to source material when you blog is also a great way to engage in conversation and help others find what you find interesting.

Source: Technorati Support