Will this idea work for decreasing bounce rate?

Hi folks,

I have an idea (and I’m developing service for this) which will help to decrease bounce rate and increase engagement (I hope it will).

In a nutshell, it’s like hide-and-seek game (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hide-and-seek). You can hide graphical objects on your website and suggest visitors to seek them. If users find graphical objects they can get a reward for this (for example, discount on your products).

So you incentivize your visitors to scan more content and part of them will read this content too.

Do you think such gamification really help to decrease bounce rate and increase engagement? For what other goals such service can be used?

Here is a link to see the idea - http://ollybee.boostant.com/. You can type in any URL and see how it works. You may need to sign up only if you want to get script for the website.

NOTE: folks, please, don’t share this URL outside sitepoint.com. There’re a lot of bugs. My main interest is getting feedback on the idea itself, rather than its current implementation. Some sites may not work (sitepoint.com works for me). I’ve provided this link only to clarify how it would work (don’t forget to click on Save and Preview buttons when you finish to hide objects).

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EDIT: notice was added

I think the usefulness of a tool like this will depend pretty massively on your audience. If for example, Sitepoint.com did it, I’d be hoping they had people opt into it, as I’d find it incredibly distracting/annoying - I would use Sitepoint.com to monitor new ideas and articles, or as a resource when researching/learning something specific. Gamification of this sort won’t change that purpose.

If, however, it’s say a current events site, where the consumption of 1 or 2 articles is no tangibly different than consuming 3 or 4, other than in the amount of time spent, then I guess this might work for the right types of people?

I do like the idea of gamification, I just think it needs to be deployed in the right places, in the right ways, and to the right audiences.

Edit: So, as far as the specific OP questions - would it decrease bounce rates? Possibly? It depends what you’re going to do with it, I suppose.

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Thanks @jeffreylees for you input.

In other words, for loyal users of websites like Sitepoint.com you see it will be useless. Do I understand your point right?

I’m curious, what right places for this idea of gamification are good (in your opinion)?

It’s about the purpose of the site in the mind of that user, maybe? So like, I wouldn’t like it on Sitepoint, where I’m looking for specific things that I want to read. But maybe I’d like it on Mashable, where I’m just skimming through articles anyway? I’m not really sure. But then, is it improving the bounce rate if it’s most attractive to users who are already invested somewhat?

That’s food for thought. The bounce rate is people not viewing more than one page. That means that to be successful at that goal, your gamification must be so prominent when they hit the home page that they are immediately engaged by it - and does that not perhaps overshadow your actual content?

I guess that thought might lead me to believe that gamification is better suited to engaging users you already have, as opposed to attracting the “bouncing” ones. But I’m definitely not an expert in this area.

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I came across a similar idea several years ago, where a well-known software company ran an “Easter egg” hunt (at Easter). I found it surprisingly compulsive - even though most of the prizes were software for Windows OS, and therefore of no interest to me.

As @jeffreylees says, on a site where you just want to get in and get things done, it would be of little appeal, but on others sites it could be fun. I probably would enjoy it on SitePoint; it might encourage me to visit categories I don’t often venture into. (But whether I would actually read the articles, or just get carried away with the hunt is another matter… )

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Perhaps the clues are IN the articles :slight_smile: . Or at least hte possibility is there.

Can you write URL of this company here? I want to look at an example of the company, who will see value in this idea.

They don’t know you like Linux-based systems :slight_smile:

Yes @RyanReese. Hide-and-seek game will not resolve the problem if there are poor content.

It was coffeecup.com

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