When 86% of new visitors won’t return to your website in the next 7 days, there’s a lot riding on the first visit. You only get one chance at a first impression, which is why it’s essential to understand the actions first-time visitors take and what they reveal about their propensity to return to your website.
Repeat visits form habits and lead to loyalty. Loyalty then leads to revenue in the form of ad impressions and subscriptions. To develop a clearer understanding of the audience behaviors that result in repeat visits, we analyzed millions of data points from our global network of publishers to see how metrics like number of pages visited, scroll depth, content type, and more affect likelihood to return.
In this installment, we’ll focus on how depth of visit impacts return rate.
How deeper visits influence return rate
It all starts with the first pageview. Without it, there is nowhere to scroll, click, or otherwise engage on your site. But just how much does it matter whether or not a first-time visitor stops on their first page or continues deeper into your site?
Overall, our analysis of more than 300 million first-time visitors revealed that 14% returned to the same site within seven days. Those who viewed just 1 page on their first visit returned at a rate of only 8%. For visitors who viewed one additional page, however, their return rate jumped up to 22%, making them 2.75x likelier to come back.
Beyond 2 pages, return rates continue to increase. Visitors who view 11 pages or more return at a rate of 74%—but the relative change in return rate starts to plateau after this mark. For example, visitors who view 4 pages return at a rate of 43% and those who view 5 pages return at a rate of 49%.
How referral source and device influence depth of visit
While each additional page viewed helps, incentivizing new users to visit just one more page on their first visit will have a measurable impact on whether or not they return. Let’s look at how this is influenced by referral source and device type.
For external referral sources like search and social, return rate increases as pages viewed increases, plateauing after 4 pages. Visitors from search are more likely to return than those from social as pageviews increase beyond that point.
For visitors using all device types, we see the return rate increase as pageviews increase. Past the 3-page threshold, desktop visitors are not as likely to return as mobile visitors.
How to Encourage Deeper Visits
While each additional page viewed helps, incentivizing new users to visit just 1 more page on their first visit will have a measurable impact on whether or not they return. Here are 3 ways to encourage deeper visits.
- A/B test headlines and images to find winning combinations. Find the combination most likely to encourage another click from your homepage to an article. On average, testing headlines and images together increases quality clicks 3x more than testing headlines alone.
- Take cues from high-recirculation pages on your website. Previous research shows that financial and sports content has higher Recirculation than news & media or arts & entertainment. Other industries may also offer inspiration.
- Consider device types to enhance user experience for return visits. Mobile visitors are more likely to return after viewing 3+ pages. Use shorter formats that deliver key content upfront and inspire further exploration.
While encouraging deeper visits is an important tool for converting new visitors to returning visitors, it’s not the only metric that affects return rate. Want to know how engaged time, scroll depth, and more impact likelihood to return? Download our full report, Winning Over New Readers: 4 Key Metrics That Predict Return Visits.
