Bounce Rate huge and Climbing

I'm getting some monster bounce rates. And I tried to improve it by adding the "featured" at the top of the page in accordance with the most highest search engine keywords and now it got even worse. The traffic has been increasing and I know the higher the traffic, usually the higher the bounce but 80% is super high. Referring site links are also based on those keywords. So what can I do? My site is surfchrome.com

Search Engines (39.24%)
Referring Sites (38.67%)
Direct Traffic (22.09%)

Date - Bounce %
09/02 - 49.15
09/03 - 62.70
09/04 - 65.42
09/05 - 70.25
09/06 - 81.82
09/07 - 78.87
09/08 - 78.15
09/09 - 81.64
09/10 - 80.56
09/11 - 82.37

 

First, evaluate what content is getting bounced... sometimes people come to your site and just read one web page and leave... this is common with knowledge resource sites. You should probably do more internal linking inside your content to promote visitors to look at other sections of your site. Quality unique content is the key to a low bounce rate.

 

I went to your site, found errors and content that I had no interest it. Therefore I also bounced.

 

Edit: Ignore this.

 

Also try to determine your traffic sources and the type of people coming to your site. If they are not the type that will be interested in your content then its no suprise you're getting a high bounce rate.

 

I've seen a dramatic increase in bounce rate before simply from switching templates, so I'd say design could have a lot to do with it. First, I would make the font size larger and easier to read. Second, I would use a nice, eye catching logo. Third, well I use categories. If adding featured made it worse then remove it. You might want to try removing adsense from the home page or moving to the right and putting some navigation on the left. I wouldn't use the Who's Online either.

It's all about testing. Just try different layouts. I would also change the Joomla favicon to something custom. Just my 2 cents.

 

Google Chrome was announced right around the time your traffic & bounce rates appear to be increasing. Perhaps the "chrome" in your site's name was driving some additional (unqualified) traffic your way - this would easily explain the bounce rates.

 

Maybe your favicon causes the bounce rate. I for one don't have confidence in any site running on that CMS, for some reason.

 

Make sure the landing page is interesting enough that people will continue to search the site