You’ve likely heard about a website’s bounce rate, but how much do you know about it? This website analytical metric is important for a few reasons. A site’s bounce rate is a great indicator of the overall perception of the website. If a site is being analyzed differently by a search engine then how it is perceived by a site visitor, the bounce rate can be a good indicator of a disconnect in those two areas.
What Is Bounce Rate?
So, what is bounce rate? According to Google, it is “… single-page sessions divided by all sessions, or the percentage of all sessions on your site in which users viewed only a single page and triggered only a single request to the analytics server.” Or more simply, it’s how much time a visitor spends on your page, without taking action, before leaving.
What’s a Good Rate Goal?
In general, any page with a rate over 70% is bad news. A percentage of 41%–55% is about average and a great bounce rate is in the 26%–40% range. The caveats are that a very low score—which normally would be a good thing—can also be an indicator of not having any compelling content like engaging blog posts. So, being lower than 25% is also bad news.
Why Does It Matter?
Knowing your site’s bounce rate is important for a few reasons. But put simply, if visitors are getting to your site and then immediately leaving, then there is likely something wrong that needs to be addressed. A high bounce rate can indicate the following:
- Poor SEO
- Bad site structure
- Lack of meaningful content
- Little or no calls to action
- No mobile optimization
How to Find a Page’s Bounce Rate
The best way to know your website—and individual pages’—bounce rate is by implementing Google Analytics on your site. After enrolling your site, Google is able to capture information about who is visiting your site, how they get there, and how long they stay on each page. Which means you’re now able to see not only how many visitors are coming to your page but also if they are using a phone, tablet, or desktop to get there. This also includes the bounce rate for each page of your site.
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