Swapped my homepage from a generic hero image to a case study grid and my bounce rate dropped 22% in two weeks

I got tired of people landing on my freelance web dev site and leaving within 5 seconds, so I replaced the stock photo with thumbnails of my last 6 projects plus a one line result for each. It was a total guess, but after 14 days my Google Analytics showed visitors were actually clicking through to the contact page instead of bouncing. Has anyone else tried ditching the typical hero section for something more direct like a portfolio grid?

4 comments

4 Comments

tessap972d ago

Respectfully gotta push back a little here. 22% is a nice stat sure, but a case study grid can also make your site feel like a portfolio gallery instead of a business. I've seen plenty of people click through just to window shop, not actually hire or buy. Your mileage may vary, but I'd watch session duration and conversion rate too, not just the bounce drop.

joseph482d ago

Did your friend see a big spike in leads from tire kickers?

kai_ramirez381d ago

Yeah @tessap97 makes a good point, window shoppers love clicking through those case study grids just to browse.

sanchez.julia1d ago

and like, guilty as charged honestly. i've definitely been that person clicking through case studies just to see some pretty layouts and go "ooh, that's a nice graph" without any intention of buying anything. maybe it's the same kind of thrill i get from looking at model homes i can't afford. but yeah, tessap97 is right, if all those clicks are from people like me, the bounce rate drop doesn't mean much for actual sales.