Bounce rate. The mules like this metric. It sounds fun. Anyone remember Tigger? Bouncy bouncy!
Fun indeed, but keep a lid on your bounce rates, or they may bite you.
Google and other search engines have shown clearly they mean to continue improving (changing) their algorithms.
They wish to present the inquiring public with higher quality, more relevant results on average – and so new phrases such as “quality scores” are beginning to grab attention as indirect warnings for single-page placeholder sites.
Those among the SEO and design community often collect placeholder domains over time. Some are spontaneous purchases, some are “future project” domains that the future has not gotten to… in eight years.
Some of the bouncy one-pager domains are abandoned client projects. And some are, as with all things web, the result of alcohol mixing with “great ideas” late at night. Yet others may be deliberate “typo squatting” – and there are surely more.
Let’s face it, humans like to own things.
Even mules are susceptible to virtual materialism.
But if you’re not dumping your unfinished domains when they come up for renewal… you know, like the one that has said “hello world” since 1996… then it’s high time to make sure the domain is not left as a single web page, but instead becomes a small but dense 4-5 page site with good title, description, and H1 tags. Bonus points for a few decent IBLs (one way), and a page (per page) of relevant-to-purpose, original content.
Why?
Quality scoring takes into account, among other things, “bounce” readings. Previously, most of this was confined to PPC; in Google’s case, Adwords or AdSense – but it’s been more and more clear in recent updates that these bounce-as-quality principles are being applied to single-page placeholder domains.
Even those without paid links on them.
Bounce rates – the percentage of visitors that run away after a single page view – are a fair indicator of quality. As fair as most the other SERP soup ingredients, at least.
And if you only have one page on your placeholder domain… guess what your bounce rate is liable to be?
Right.
Lower bounce rates imply higher quality or broader content. This will help you in the SEs and SERPs over the long haul. Very high bounce rates… not helping.
So, whether or not you are running ads, it’s a good time to get your bounce rates down by making those dusty old single-page placeholder domains deeper, with 4-5 pages of inviting, relevant, and interesting content that drops your bounce rate from near 100% to more like 60% or less.
You may notice the difference in rankings, visible PR, and future “power” of your site, presuming you do eventually get around to using it for its original purchase-time purpose. It’s hard to say for sure it matters today – but it makes “sense” this sort of thing will in the future.
If you’re feeling evil, try a big green link offering “FREE range, ALL you can graze!” – and on the page behind the link, give the world’s mules a dash of TNSTAAFL reality. You may annoy visitors a bit, but the search engines will probably pat you on the head for a lower bounce rate (someday).
“Quality” is a top candidate for SE buzzword of the year, if not of the modern search engine. If you go from one page to just two on a placeholder domain, remember this: you don’t have to be viral or sticky to stop some of the unwanted bouncing!
