Why it isn't converting
How to fix high bounce rate: sort by arrival
Most of your visitors leave after one page, and analytics does not say why. Mimiq sends simulated visitors from the same kind of arrival and shows the screen where each one leaves.
How do I fix a high bounce rate?
Sort the bounces by arrival before you touch the page, because a visit from an ad for the wrong product is not a page problem. Then look at the first screen as the bouncing group sees it, on the device they use, and check for anything that blocks it: a pop-up, a cookie banner or a page that shows nothing for several seconds. A simulated test sends visitors from the same arrival to that page and shows where each one leaves, with a screenshot.
What this looks like in a report
“A pop-up asks for my email before I know what this is, and the button behind it is hidden. I cannot tell if this is for dentists or restaurants. I am closing the tab.”
The fix. Hold the newsletter pop-up until the visitor has scrolled, and never place it over the only call to action on a phone. Put who the product is for in the first line of the page.
An illustration. Run a test to see your own.See a real sample report
A bounce can be the page, the arrival or the phone
Most analytics tools count a bounce as a visit that ends on one page with nothing else recorded. A visitor who read the whole page and left, and a visitor who stared at a blank screen and left, look the same in the report. Both are one visit that did nothing. The first needs a better page. The second needs a faster page, or nothing covering the page at all. Many owners rewrite copy when the visit actually ended because a cookie banner covered the only button on a phone.
- Bounce rate by source and device, so ad visits and phone visits are not averaged together
- The first screen on a phone at its real width, with the cookie banner and any pop-up open
- How long the screen stays blank on a slow mobile connection before the first content appears
- Whether the first line of the page matches the link, ad or post the visitor clicked
- Pages where the bounce is highest, set against the arrival each one was sent for
Split the bounce by arrival before you touch the page
A bounce rate averaged across the whole site mixes visits that were never going to stay with visits that could. A broad ad, a forum link and a branded search behave differently, and so do phone and desktop visits. Export the bounce rate for each source and each device for the same dates. If one source bounces far more than the rest, look at what that source was told before you look at your page. A visit from an ad that promised one thing and landed on a general home page is an arrival problem, and rewriting the home page will not fix it.
The first screen is judged before the headline is read
Many phone bounces end before any headline is read. Open the page at real phone width with the cookie banner, the chat widget and any pop-up showing, and check whether the first button can still be tapped. A pop-up over the only button ends the visit without a word read. A hero video that loads last can leave an empty block, which many visitors take for a broken site. Once the button works, check that the first line names the product and the person it is for, since a line like Work smarter, together gives the visitor nothing to hold.
A blank screen on a phone looks like a dead page
Speed problems show up as bounces because the visitor sees nothing while the page works. Heavy images, a script that waits for a third-party widget and a font that blocks text all keep the screen empty on a slow connection. The owner, on office Wi-Fi, sees a page that loads at once and never sees the blank screen the visitor saw. Test the page on a phone connection and watch for the moment the screen stays empty. If the visitor leaves while the screen is still blank, the fix is loading, not copy. Move the widget or image below the first screen, then test again.
What you get with Mimiq
- 01
Run it by hand, or on every pull request
Paste a link and a task in the app and watch the visitors work. Or run them on every preview deploy: the GitHub Action comments on the pull request, any other CI can call the MCP endpoint, and your coding agent can run it too.
- 02
Bugs and usability problems in one report
The browser records errors and failed or slow requests on the step they happened. The visitors say where the wording or the steps confused them, and where they left.
- 03
Visitors that behave like your audience
Each visitor is a different profile with a reason to be there, matched to who the page is for, described by you, or built from your own customers.
- 04
A prompt to fix each problem
Every problem comes with a fix to paste into Cursor, Claude Code, Lovable or any coding agent, and one prompt hands over the top problems at once. Then send the same visitors through again.
- 05
Follow every visitor
See each visitor's whole path, step by step with screenshots, and what it was thinking at every step. Ask any visitor a question.
The browser records relevant JavaScript errors and failed or slow app requests encountered during the run, attached to the step where they occurred. The visitors are simulated: they find problems, they do not predict how many real people will convert.
A new tag or pop-up can bring the blank screen back
Tags, chat widgets and pop-ups are added by marketing tools, and any one of them can cover the first screen after the next release. Run the same arrivals through the page after every change, on a phone. If pages sit behind a login, give visitors a test account so the screens after sign-in are checked too. Send each new ad group through its own run before it goes live, since a new source brings visitors with new expectations.
Starter
Try it on one launch
About 4 tests of 5 visitors
- Visitors on your landing page, signup and checkout
- Where they left and why, with a fix to copy for each problem
- Run it in the app or on every pull request
- Ask any visitor a question, included
- Test accounts and protected previews
Builder
Test every build
About 20 tests of 5 visitors
- Everything in Starter
- Credits refill each month, and what is left rolls over once
- Cancel anytime
Pro
Test every release, as a team
About 60 tests of 5 visitors
- Everything in Starter
- Credits refill each month, and what is left rolls over once
- Cancel anytime
Scale
Test at scale, every day
About 240 tests of 5 visitors
- Everything in Starter
- Credits refill each month, and what is left rolls over once
- Priority support
- Cancel anytime
Questions
What is a normal bounce rate?
There is no single normal figure, because a blog post, a product page and a landing page from an ad are read in different ways. Compare each page with its own earlier weeks, then compare sources with each other. Mimiq does not give a target bounce rate, and it does not predict how many visitors will stay.
Will a simulated visitor show me the bounce?
It shows the step where a simulated visitor leaves, with a screenshot of that screen. Those stops point to causes such as a blocked button or a blank screen. It cannot show a real visitor's reason for leaving, so check the cause against analytics for the same source before you rely on it.
Should I remove the pop-up?
Not without testing first. A pop-up can collect emails and still cost visits. Run the same visitors with the pop-up on and then off, and compare the step where they leave. If the pop-up covers the first button on a phone, move it or delay it. If it only sits over the page, a delay may be enough.
Do bounces from paid traffic matter the same as organic?
Often not. A visitor from a broad ad may be the wrong buyer, which is a targeting problem. A visitor from a search that matches your page may bounce because the page is slow on a phone. Split the numbers by source, then decide which group to work on first.
Keep reading
Send visitors and see what breaks first.
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