The bounce rate is a term used in web analytics. It is given as a percentage and shows how many visitors leave a website after a short time. According to Google Analytics, this is the case when only one subpage is visited and thus only one request to the Analytics server is triggered. The term bounce rate is often used for the bounce rate.
Possible values and their meaning
The rating of the bounce rate depends on the content and the goal of the website. As a rule of thumb for commercial offers, the rate shouldn’t be below 50%. Typically, pages of well-known brands and institutions have a lower bounce rate because users specifically entered the address here. With Google Ads landing pages, on the other hand, the bounce rate is often higher than with other pages, as users usually quickly assess whether the advertisement was relevant to them or not.
What does a high bounce rate mean?
If a user only uses a website for a short time or does not interact with it, this does not necessarily have to be a problem. The user may have searched for certain information and found it directly on the called subpage. In this case, the bounce rate is not indicative of poor page quality. Examples are searches for contact details of companies that lead to a phone call or a visit to the branch. In many other cases, however, site operators want to keep interested parties on their own website for as long as possible. In this regard, a high bounce rate should be rated as negative.
Relation to the length of stay
The question of whether a short session length is negative depends on the context. In contrast to pure information pages, long dwell times are desired for landing pages. After all, reading the page is supposed to increase company sales. Event tracking is a good means of influencing the length of stay and the bounce rate in a targeted manner. For example, by transmitting interaction events, data can be transmitted to Google Analytics that effectively say something about whether the visitor has actually used the page. This includes activities such as sharing the page content.
How can the bounce rate be improved?
According to foodezine, the bounce rate is influenced by various factors. In order to improve it, one can
- improve the loading time of the page,
- reduce the number of advertisements,
- change the design of the website,
- check the page title and keywords,
- simplify navigation or
- provide more relevant content.
If the overall bounce rate is too high, it is often helpful to have the data broken down more precisely in Google Analytics. Sometimes the rate is based on individual factors such as certain channels or specific combinations of source and medium.
The difference to the dropout rate
The exit rate is about leaving the website after visiting at least one other page. In contrast to the jump, the user clicked on at least one internal link before leaving. Thanks to the exit rate, website operators can see from which sub-pages interested parties leave the respective website.
A high exit rate is not always a sign of a need for optimization on the subpage, as some pages are logical exit points. However, if those pages have a high exit rate that are not related to conversion or a lead, they should be improved.
Comparative standards or benchmarks for bounce rates
Depending on the type of website, certain bounce values can be considered normal.
- 40-60% for non-e-commerce content websites
- 60-90% for landing pages
- 20-45% for B2C ecommerce websites
- 10-40% for retail websites
- 70-98% for blog post pages
- 25-55% for B2B websites
- 65-90% for dictionaries and news sites
Does the bounce rate have an effect on search engine optimization?
It is controversial whether the bounce rate has a direct influence on the ranking on Google. The SERP return rate is often named as a more important criterion. This period of time in which Internet users return to the search engine after calling up a search result is considered to be more reliable and easier to measure.
Nevertheless, the bounce rate can provide information on how user-friendly a website is or how well it fits certain search queries. After all, people are more likely to visit other pages of a domain if, after visiting the first page, they feel that they are being helped with their information needs.
