Very Frustrated

[#1]

My bounce rate is 90%. I need some type of critique or advice to help my shop. I believe I have very nice items and I love what I do.

[Former_Member]

craftpolis would help with edit most if not all of it. I use craftpolis to track visit and hearts in my shops as well as do mass edits.

[EagleRowe]

Hi all. Just an FYI- the keywords in your keyword report may not be giving your actual shop traffic, but the bigger Etsy. See my post here to see why.

http://studio-eleven11.blogspot.com/2011/02/understanding-traffic-sources-to-your.html

As far as bounce rate, two things come into play: the landing page (page users land on) and visitor intent/type of visitor. So, you need to manage these two things.

For pages:
I agree with adding links back to your shop in the item description. This is called "pause points". Whenever you're contet comes to an end, this is a "pause point". At this point, instead of having a user think about their next move, give it to them. Internet users are lazy and the less they have to make a decision, the better.

For user intent:
Different traffic sources will give you different bounce rates based on the users coming from it. So itemize your list and see what the avg bounce rate is for each source. Say Facebook is giving you a high bounce rate, it may be the content you're posting isn't relative enough. Recently I've been sharing on Stumbleupon and bounce rate is high (80%) but I expect it because of the type of visitor. Getting more granular here will put things in perspective and give you more actionable data. If there is no real difference based on type of source, I'd work on your on-page content.

Hope this helps!

[Former_Member]

You have to do some fancy footwork in google analytics to get it taken off. You have to create a filter under your home page and then click add filter, then you can exclude traffic form your IP adress which u can find on ur computer or online.and then click save changes

[Former_Member]

thanks studio 11 never thought to look at it like that!

[Former_Member]

so I just seperated out the bounce rates and I've had a whole bunch of traffic from heartsy indirectlly becuase i'm not running any deals(heartsy is still considering mine) and that bounce rate it 96%. Analytics says facebook traffic is about 50, it says bronto/email(whatever that is) is at like 30ish percent, and direct traffic is 66%

[PatrisCorner]

I love this thread!

[Former_Member]

Thanks so much! Got to put some of this info to work!

[Former_Member]

more advice would be appriciated! My shop needs help!

[CottagePixie]

Wow...this is great information! Thanks so much everyone for sharing. I need to figure out GA a bit better so that I can get at more specifics.

I'm still unclear as to how to filter out my own visits to the shop when looking at GA bounce rates. Can someone please help again :-)

[EagleRowe]

Ok. Bronto is Etsy's e-mail marketing client. Know those Etsy e-mails that go out? It's traffic from that to Etsy and then to you. It does not mean you were featured in the email. Etsy's Analytics integration is wrong, so traffic going to the greater Etsy (like from email to Etsy.com) is counted as Bronto traffic (when they go from Etsy.com to You.Etsy.com). Seriously. Not trying to plug myself. Reading my post is imperative to understanding Google data.

http://studio-eleven11.blogspot.com/2011/02/understanding-traffic-sources-to-your.html

Anyways... this also means that Heartsy may not be directly to you but Hearty-->Etsy.com-->You.Etsy.com. BUT, at least you are on the right track here. Since Heartsy will give you a spike in traffic and its bounce rate is high, this will inflate your overall bounce rate. But this should be fleeting and then bounce rate should go back down. So, your problem may not be content but source related.

A good way to see the pages people are landing and their individual bounce rate is to go to Traffic Sources, All Traffic, and click a blue source name. On the next screen under the drop down that says "None", select landing page. This will show you the individual pages people came to from that source. You can then see bounce rate at page level to see which pages are the culprit.

To see the avg bounce rate for each page regardless of source, go to Content, Top Content. This will also show you the first areas of improvement.

Phew! Think a blog post might be in order on my blog about this. Great thread rachinator87!

P.S. If anyone wants to give me some love, I'm running a quick and easy poll on my blog about the best advertising source for handmade. Please vote!

http://studio-eleven11.blogspot.com/2011/06/poll-what-advertising-has-worked-best.html

[Former_Member]

thanks so much studio11!

[CottagePixie]

I'm still unclear as to how to filter out my own visits to the shop when looking at GA bounce rates. Can someone please help again :-)


Sorry - just got answer in a convo! Thanks so much...

[Former_Member]

I also agree with adding links back to your shop. For my most popular section, I use 2 links. One link back to the shop section to see all items and another link to see all items from my shop.

[FrazzledFinch]

Rachinator, if anything your prices seem LOW to me! Off to visit my google analytics page....

[Former_Member]

I just had someone say they were to high, ugh im so confused!

[PatrisCorner]

KellysKeepsake that is a great idea. But I have more than 150 items. Is there anyway I can do this fast?

[Former_Member]

I wish PatrisCorner! That's why I'm targeting my most popular section first. For my other sections my game plan is to - add the links as I add new items, edit listings or re-newing expired listings.

[TaraFlyArt]

ROFL I agree with PerfectJewel... I think your prices are a bit low, considering they're handwoven and beaded. I personally would expect to pay $10-14 for a handmade ankle bracelet, not $5. But I see you're running a sale...

Anyway, you can't please everyone obviously! ;D

Whenever people mention their "rock bottom" prices, I get hives. We can't compete with Walmart... so let's swing in the opposite direction and give excellent craftsmanship and quality. ;)

Also someone near the beginning of the thread mentioned "telling stories"... and that's a great idea! Your listings were a bit blunt. There was great information about the bracelet itself, but nothing made it seem personal.
Even just saying "I knotted each bead by hand" could help for customers to envision your process. Better yet, show them in one of your images! A pic of you stringing and knotting in progress... LOL

[ThePrivateCollection]

I'm new to this team and have been with Etsy for about nine months. There is so much to learn about Etsy; there never seems to be enough time to create new products. The threads can be so enlightening, but getting through them all is cumbersome and time consuming. I too, do not know what a bounce rate is, hence, I need to read the five pages in this thread.

I hope I can become a positive contributor to this team and the discussions in the future.

[Former_Member]

For anyone interested in placing links in their listings, the process is basically this:

1. Go to the page that you want to link your listing to.
2. Copy the entire address from your browser's address bar.
3. In a separate browser tab or window, go to http://bitly.com.
4. Paste the address you copied from step 2 into the shortener text area and press the 'Shorten' button.
5. You will now see a shorter version of the link which starts with etsy.me.
6. Copy this new address into your clipboard; this is the link you will use.
7. Edit your listing and simply copy this link in where appropriate.

The shortened address that you received from bitly.com simply forwards to the address you originally copied and has the benefit of being less distracting when copied into your listing.

You could skip steps 3-6, however then you'll have a long (and uglier) Etsy address which will distract your potential buyers.

Hope this helps.

[Former_Member]

Suzannebag, that bitly.com link is great! Thanks for sharing.

First, your pictures are great. I agree with TaraFlyPhotos, too, I think telling a story about your procedure and describing your items better will help. I type all of my descriptions in word first, then copy and paste to etsy. That way I can think about what I want to say, explain my total process and how I finish the item. For example, the gorgeous heart pendant you have listed doesn't have the size of the pendant. Does the necklace have some sort of closure or does the buyer have to tie it closed?

I also agree that your items are priced too low. If you price too low, it risks losing customers who think your product is not great because the price is low. I recently read a thread on Etsy that advertising a sale is bad, it just lets customers know that you couldn't sell your item at the original price. Also, it seems like your shipping charges are kind of high. For example, if a customer from Australia bought two items, the shipping charge would be 11.00. So, one of your 5.25 bracelets would have a higher shipping charge than the bracelet price.

[Former_Member]

I have always been a little confused about international shipping and shipping with another item. I thought the listing changed the price from the first number to the second number when someone purchased more than 1, that has been my experience. Am I mistaken?

[Former_Member]

I am having the sale becuase as my listings expire I am moving my inventory over to a new shop with a new shop name i feel better fits what i sell *CustomHempTreasures* So i really don't want to loose the 7 pages of listing fees I paid if nothing sells in that time, plus having to relist it in my new shop, so I would be paying double listing fees!

[Former_Member]

Hi rachinator87, the shipping doesn't change, what it does is charge the first listed shipping charge for the first item, plus it charges the second price listed for the second item. Here is one of my listings for you to check out how the shipping is set up: http://etsy.me/j8ZPps
so what happens is that the customer would be charged 2.50 for the first item, then if she buys another item, the second item is an additional .75 bringing the total shipping charge to 3.25.

I love your new shop name!

[Former_Member]

thanks! I just went through and changed all my shipping!