The phrase website bounce rate came up often with clients and friends. Many bloggers or webmasters do not understand fully what it meant for their websites because they’re too busy.
So, I hope in this blog post to clear that up for many who are not quite sure what it means. It’s not the easiest concept to understand while running your blog, website, or small business.
Table of Contents
What Is Bounce Rate?
According to Google, a website bounce rate is:
The percentage of visitors to a particular website who navigate away from the site after viewing only one page.
So, if it is based on the number of people who navigate away from your website page, can you see why a lower percentage bounce rate is what to strive for?
If people like what they see when they land on your blog post or website they will stay longer while driving your bounce rate down.
Therefore, they will check out your related posts and other pages. That is another reason why internal linking is important to keep readers on your site longer.
(That is unless, of course, they make a quick purchase, download, or fill out a form.) In that case, a lower bounce rate is a good thing.
This can often happen for affiliates. The affiliate link takes users to another site to make an actual purchase.
How to Calculate Your Own Bounce Rate?
A website’s bounce rate is calculated by dividing the number of single-page sessions by the number of total sessions on the site.
For example, if 100 users land on your website (total sessions) and 5 of the users exit without triggering another request (single-page sessions), your website’s bounce rate is 5%.
What is a Good Bounce Rate to Strive For?
I personally like to see 50% or lower for a website’s bounce rate. 50% is considered an average bounce rate.
Of course, it depends on the niche and if a site is informational or an e-commerce site.
How To Find Your Bounce Rates
You need to have your Google Analytics set up for your website or blog. If you don’t have yours set up yet, check out Mayura’s Post on how to. From your dashboard follow the steps below:
- Go to Acquisition.
- Then go to All Traffic. I love this feature of Google Analytics – it gives you a lot of insights.
- Check your top 50 and notice the bounce rate for each.
It is interesting to see which has the lower bounce rates. For me, it’s Google organic and other referring blogs and websites.
Returning visitors also lower my bounce rate and new visits seem to track higher.
This means I have some work to do on those new visits. How is your website bounce rate measured?
Also Check:
- Audience Behavior.
- New Vs. Returning. This is where I’ve noticed a much lower bounce rate for return visitors and a higher bounce rate for new visitors. Important information to know and to work with.
- Technology – You can drill down more and see what drives bounce rate, tablet, desktop, or mobile. More great info!
- Keywords – You can even check your top keywords and their bounce rates as well.
- Goals – If you have goals set up for purchases, downloads, and such you can track those. Most of the time they will have lower website bounce rates.
6 Things You Can Do To Decrease Your Numbers
- Use Internal Linking – This is very important. Be sure every post and page has internal links to other relevant parts of your overall website. Do not link just to link! People will get frustrated and leave quickly. They may not come back.
- Don’t Deceive – Do not deceive the audience with titles that have nothing to do with your post or page. This holds true when sharing on social networks. If someone clicks because of a title, they will not stay if it’s not related to that title. It’s like false advertising.
- Make External links Open to New Window – Be sure external links open to a new window and that your internal links do not! They should flow right to the other page or post on your website in the same window.
- Optimize Your Pages or Posts – Be sure they coincide with the search terms. Use a plugin like Yoast for SEO.
- Show Related Posts – There are several plugins that can do this for you. It’s a great way to keep visitors on your blog and may increase their engagement as well.
- Keep Your Website Clean – No one wants to visit a cluttered website, be careful of what’s in those sidebars! Having your most popular posts there will help to draw more folks to them if they are displayed nicely on your sidebar.
7 More Things You Can Do to Lower Your Rate
- Check Your Browser Capability – If you have a high website bounce rate it could be because your site is not functioning well in certain browsers. You can use a site for FREE called Browser Shots.
- Check Your Site Speed – If your website is slow chances are that your website bounce rate may be high as well.
- Nasty Pop-Ups – Many web users do not like to deal with pop-ups that they can not easily click away from and may leave your website because of them. You should be able to tell from the Google Analytics pages if this is the case.
- Use A Clean Typeface – Is your typeface easy to read? Do readers have to squint? Be sure the font is readable and big enough.
- Don’t Use Backgrounds That Give Headaches – Have you landed on a page with a zig-zag background or one with lots of things going on that gives you a headache? Keep your backgrounds clean for ease of readability and a lower bounce rate.
- Provide Useful Content – Is the content useful to your readers? Or is there to fill space only? If it is not useful to your readers you may want to reconsider posting or changing the copy on that particular post or page.
- Customize Your 404 Page – You could add links to other pages and posts of interest on your 404 page. This would give visitors who land their more options of where to go on your website and may keep them there longer to decrease your bounce rate. A fun image there would be helpful too.
Read more from SEJ on more reasons for high bounce rates.
Your Take on Website Bounce Rates
Were you surprised by your website bounce rates?
Was there a stat in Google Analytics that surprised you about your own website bounce rate? Have you been able to drop your average website bounce rate down?
Finally, please drop a comment so we can discuss your website bounce rate.
Understanding Bounce Rates on Your Website: FAQs
What is a bounce rate?
A bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who land on a web page and leave without taking any further action, like clicking on a link, filling out a form, or visiting another page.
Why is a website high bounce rate bad?
A high bounce rate might indicate that visitors aren’t finding what they’re looking for or that the page load time is too slow. It suggests that the content or experience isn’t engaging enough to keep them on your site.
What’s considered a “good” bounce rate?
Typical bounce rates vary by industry, but generally, a bounce rate between 26% to 40% is considered excellent, 41% to 55% is average, while anything over 70% may indicate a problem.
How can I reduce my bounce rate?
You can improve your bounce rate by enhancing page load speed, ensuring your content meets user intent, optimizing for mobile, using clear calls-to-action, and minimizing distractions on your landing pages.
Does a low bounce rate always mean my site is doing well?
Not necessarily. A low bounce rate can sometimes mean users are confused or can’t find what they’re looking for, leading them to click through more pages. Ensure that the user journey is intuitive and the content relevant.
How does SEO affect bounce rate?
SEO helps attract the right audience to your site. If your SEO strategy aligns with user intent, bounce rate may decrease. However, misleading meta descriptions or irrelevant keywords can lead to higher bounce rates.
Can a high bounce rate affect my search rankings?
Yes, a consistent high bounce rate might affect search rankings as it can signal to search engines that your site isn’t providing value or relevance to visitors.
Are there tools to help analyze bounce rate?
Yes, Google Analytics is the most popular tool for tracking bounce rates. It provides detailed insights into user behavior and can help you identify pages with high bounce rates for optimization.
How does mobile usability impact it?
Mobile usability significantly impacts bounce rate. A non-responsive design, slow load times, or poor navigation can frustrate mobile users, leading to a higher bounce rate.
What role does content play in the rate?
Content is crucial in engaging visitors and encouraging them to explore further. Relevant, high-quality, and well-organized content can lower bounce rates by keeping users interested and moving through your site.
How often should I check my rate?
Regularly monitor your bounce rate, at least monthly, to catch trends quickly. Frequent checks allow you to respond to changes in user behavior and make timely improvements.