What is Bounce Rate? (Google’s Most Misunderstood Metric)

Why is bounce rate important?

The bounce rate is a crucial SEO metric since it measures how interesting your content is. A high bounce rate could indicate that visitors aren't getting what they're looking for on your website. It could also be a hint that you need to improve your website's content or user experience. Whatever the reason, it usually indicates that you're passing on conversion possibilities.

A thorough examination of your bounce rate can assist you in improving a variety of usability components on your website, such as navigation, call to action (CTA) placement, and content quality.

It's especially useful when comparing different pages on your site to one another. For example, if a particular topic has an extremely low or high bounce rate, it may imply that your target audience favours or dislikes that issue.

Bounce rate is also a valuable technique for comparing traffic segments to one another. Is one digital marketing channel more effective than others? Is organic search traffic more likely to bounce than Facebook traffic? A/B testing channels against each other might assist you in determining which channels to prioritise.

Key Points

Bounce rate is a web analytics metric that compares single-page sessions against all sessions.

Google's ranking algorithm does not take bounce rate into account.

High bounce rates aren't always negative.

If you've spent any time in Google Analytics, you've probably noticed the Bounce Rate metric that appears on each page of your website.

You're not alone if you're not sure what bounce rate is or how to apply it. It's one of the most misunderstood SEO metrics.

Before you can enhance it, you must first understand the elements that contribute to a high or low bounce rate. While it isn't a ranking element in Google's algorithm for a variety of reasons, it can be a useful tool for improving site content and usability. As a result, your total rating will improve.

A bounce occurs when someone visits your website and only views a single page without taking any action inside a certain time period. So, if your homepage receives 1,000 sessions in total, and 500 of those sessions are single page visits that do not result in any user interaction events, your bounce rate is 50%.

Playing a video, downloading content, or subscribing to your blog are examples of user interaction events. They do, however, require you to set them up in order for them to fire properly and not distort your analytics stats.

Later in the essay, I'll go through various different examples of what a bounced session looks like, so don't bounce just yet ;)

Exit rate compared. bounce rate

Exit rate (also known as drop off rate) and bounce rate are sometimes mistaken because they both indicate the percentage of sessions that terminated on a web page. The main distinction is that the exit rate applies to both single-page and multi-page sessions. Consider the distinction between the definitions of bounce rate and exit rate:

Exit Rate is the percentage of all page views that were the session's last.
The bounce rate is the percentage of sessions in which the first page was the only page seen.

Unfortunately, the definition of bounce rate is quite broad, which is why it is such a generally misunderstood measure.

Furthermore, users are occasionally expected to bounce. Consider Wikipedia or WebMD as resources. The bounce rate for informational websites might reach 90%. However, this does not imply that those sites are a usability disaster. The page has accomplished its objective if the visitor leaves satisfied.

How can you figure out your bounce rate?

To determine the bounce rate for a web page, divide the total number of single-page sessions by the total number of sessions for the page. The proportion is then multiplied by 100.

Bounce rate calculated by Google = (Single page sessions / Total sessions) * 100

For instance, (500 / 1,000 = 0.5) X 100 = 50%

It's vital to understand that the bounce rate of a page can vary greatly depending on the source of traffic as well as the time period you pick to view.

We define bounce rate measurements at the page level, yet each page has an impact on a website's overall bounce rate. It is critical to understand how each particular page performs in order to optimise a website's bounce rate.

What is an acceptable bounce rate?

In general, the lower your website's bounce rate, the better. However, there is no universal criterion for determining what constitutes a good bounce rate versus a bad one. Because of the industry, type of content, search intent, and landing page, the measure is simply too variable. To understand how your website operates, it is more effective to focus on other indicators such as time on page and conversion rates.

When examining bounce rates on your site, it's best to compare them to the industry average. If you believe it is too high, consider these ways for lowering your bounce rate.

What is the typical bounce rate for each industry?

Contentsquare discovered a 47 percent average bounce rate in its 2021 digital experience benchmark assessment.

Industry average bounce rate

Make use of Google Analytics' Benchmarking function to see how your website compares to the industry standard. Prioritize your industry. Google Analytics will provide its own industry benchmarks to determine whether or not your website has a regular bounce rate.

Is having a high bounce rate a bad thing?

Because it has such a broad definition, you should exercise caution when asking broad queries such as "what is a bad bounce rate?" After all, even within the same business, different types of content will have distinct bounce rates.

When analysing the measure, consider the search intent behind specific pages.

Your homepage, for example, is likely to receive a high volume of branded search traffic, direct visits, and referrals. As a result, customers must frequently delve deeper to discover more about what you do.

Blog posts, on the other hand, are more informative. Because longform material allows you to address topics in more depth, it typically has more single page sessions.

However, in the area of Ecommerce SEO, a high bounce rate has an impact on conversions. For example, if your ecommerce site has poor image quality, insufficient content, or long load times, visitors may return to the Google SERP in search of something better.

Behavioral intelligence solutions like as Decibel and Mouseflow can disclose how specific sites are used by visitors. You can discover the exact point on a page that visitors bounce by tracking user interactions.

Furthermore, these tools show you how long users stay on a page. So, if a page has a 95% bounce rate but a six-minute average recording time, it's a reasonable guess that users find the page valuable.

Why do visitors leave? (good reasons)

A high bounce rate may not be a bad thing in the instances below. These factors are not related to your website's usability, but are a natural part of the search process.

You found a solution to their difficulty.

If you answer a visitor's problem, they won't need to investigate your site further and are more likely to leave. This is fairly prevalent on informational websites such as Wikipedia, Dictionary.com, and so on. The good news is that, even though the visitor bounced, they are far more likely to return to your site in the future because you immediately resolved their problem.

They're simply conducting research.

Users may leave your page after reading it if they are in the research stage of the purchasing process. They evaluate the contents of your page before returning to the search results to conduct additional research. This is the nature of the purchasing process and should not be regarded as an issue.

This is especially true when it comes to blog content. Users tend to check multiple sources for information, while journalists may be sourcing content for their own pieces.

They're doing some window shopping.

It's also feasible that visitors will leave your site since they're merely looking around. Including an add to wish list option on your website will help you convert window shoppers into purchases.

Why do visitors leave? (bad reasons)

Unfortunately, there are several negative reasons why someone can leave your website. The majority of them revolve on a poor user experience.
Identifying and addressing these issues can have a big impact on user engagement on your site.

Search intent that isn't aligned

Visitors may leave your site if the content is not aligned with search intent. In other words, the page's contents do not correspond to what the user was looking for.

For example, if someone searches for best trail running shoes and your page contains a list of the best running shoes of all types, they are not satisfied. They simply want to compare trail running shoes and aren't interested in looking at other types of shoes.

If you want to keep users from leaving, make sure the page content matches the objective behind the search phrases. This includes creating a clear title tag and meta description so that a searcher knows exactly what they will discover on your page.

It is not enough to simply conduct keyword research; you must also evaluate competition SERP results and comprehend the intent behind those phrases. This procedure will aid in increasing the percentage of quality visitors from organic search, which will improve conversions and engagement.

Pages that take too long to load

People expect web sites to load quickly now that they have widespread access to broadband internet and mobile devices that use 5G cellular connectivity. If the website load time is excessively long, users will leave before they even see the content.

You can improve your page speed by taking the following steps:
Unnecessary third-party scripts should be removed.
Change to a speedier web host.
Configure lazy loading so that images load only as the user scrolls down the page.
Large page elements that take longer to load should be removed (images, GIFs, etc.)
Remove unnecessary third-party scripts that must be loaded before a user may interact with your website (heat maps, analytics, etc.)
Implement browser caching, which saves some items in a user's browser so they don't have to be reloaded every time the page is accessed.
When all other factors are equal, a faster page speed results in a lower bounce rate.

Too many obtrusive advertisements

If your page is crammed with advertisements, users will press the back button as soon as it loads.

Multiple adverts on a page that disrupt the user experience and increase page load time are annoying for website users and can reduce trust in a company. Ads can also cause a page's layout to abruptly shift, making it difficult for users to navigate. This not only irritates users, but it can also harm your search engine rankings because Google considers page shifts as part of the Page Experience ranking factor.

This is true not only for blogs, but also for ecommerce websites. Users are equally overwhelmed with popups for sales advertisements or for joining a mailing list.

If you have adverts on your website, ensure sure they don't interfere with the user experience.

Content of poor quality

Visitors will leave if your pages include out-of-date, thin content. After all, why would anyone want to investigate your site further if their first impression is negative?

You need high-value, high-quality material that exhibits your expertise and properly covers the issue in question if you want to retain visitors from leaving.

One of the most effective methods to keep people engaged with your company is to have a well-defined content strategy. Blog postings should cover relevant topics comprehensively, address critical questions throughout the user experience, and clearly outline next steps via internal links.

The design of a website is untrustworthy.

If you want to keep visitors on your website, it must appear trustworthy and reliable.

This includes a professional design, high-quality photos, social evidence (testimonials, reviews, and so on), and an easy-to-use menu. Include all contact details, as well as extensive information about your brand and those behind it, to increase visitor confidence.

Include any trust seals that are applicable, such as Better Business Bureau accreditation or the Norton SSL symbol.

Include the credentials of your content creators as well. All of this contributes to your site meeting Google E-A-T (Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness) requirements, which are becoming increasingly crucial ranking factors.

How to Calculate Bounce Rates Accurately

Analyzing your website bounce rate isn't very useful because users leave sites for a number of reasons. You can gain some important insights by analysing the bounce rate of a particular page, but you still don't have a complete picture of why visitors may be leaving the page.

Here are three other techniques to measure bounce rates to supplement the data you collect from single pages:

Segments

Bounce rates can be effectively measured by segmenting your audience. It provides information about how different categories of users interact with your website's pages.

You can segment your audience in a variety of ways:

Age
Income
Occupation
History of purchases
Location
Device
Interests

Examine how each group interacts with various pages on your website. Do any segments favour certain sorts of material and spend more time on your site than others? Do any portions have much greater or lower bounce rates than others? You may make modifications to the pages that are most likely to result in a bounce if you understand how different groups of people interact with your website.

Source

It's also a good idea to look at bounce rates based on the source of the traffic. For example, you may discover that visitors from a specific source, such as social media, have the highest bounce rate.

Alternatively, you may discover that organic search traffic has a far lower bounce rate.

For sources with a greater bounce rate, you can either adjust how you utilise it, minimise how much you use it, or abandon it entirely. Sources of traffic with a low bounce rate represent a possible growth opportunity. Consider increasing your investment in those channels.

Content

Bounce rates can also be broken down by content category. This provides information about which types of content are more or less interesting to visitors. Do you think blog postings or videos are more appealing to visitors? Are there any product pages that receive more or less engagement?

Analyzing bounce rate by content might assist you in determining which sorts of content to prioritise and which aren't worth the effort.

Another useful feature of Google Analytics for determining your bounce rate from organic visitors is to navigate to Behavior > Landing Pages and use the Organic Sessions filter.

This will show you the bounce rate from organic visitors only, which might be a strong indicator of how well your website is performing.

The next step in your success will be to enhance your bounce rate based on all you've learnt so far.

Crush Your Growth Objectives Discover how to dominate your product or service category in organic search results.

Bounce Rate Frequently Asked Questions

What is the definition of bounce rate?