What is bounce rate in seo? Does it have an important role to play? In short, the “bounce rate” is the percentage of visitors arriving from an external source and leaving without exploring another page. You can find more in-depth details below.
What is Bounce Rate?
The percentage of visitors who leave a webpage without taking action, such as clicking on a link, filling out a form, or making a purchase, is called the bounce rate. The percentage of solitary visits to your site is referred to as the bounce rate. That is the number of people who come to your page and then leave without viewing any other pages on your website or engaging in any meaningful way with your page.
Marketers interpret this metric to evaluate whether the webpage provided the user with what they were looking for. As a marketing firm, you should understand bounce rate and how it impacts your whole digital marketing plan. A high bounce rate, for example, could point to technical SEO issues, such as a slow page loading time.
The bounce rate does not indicate how long a user stays on your page. This distinction is the source of much confusion. Because bounce rate does not measure time spent on site, you can have a great, engaging page AND a high bounce rate.
Importance of Bounce Rate
The bounce rate is significant for three reasons:
- Someone who bounces from your site clearly did not convert. When you prevent a visitor from leaving, you can boost your conversion rate.
- The bounce Rate could be a Google Ranking factor. In fact, according to one industry study, Bounce Rate is closely related to first-page Google rankings.
- A high Bounce Rate signifies that your webpage (or specific pages on your site) has problems with content, customer experience, page layout, or copywriting.
Two Main Implications
Bounce Rate is Not Necessarily Bad
To begin with, a high bounce rate isn’t always a bad thing. While ineffective content and/or low accessibility can explain the bounce rate, it can also be the result of a mismatch between keywords and phrases and content or even the purpose of the page.
A high bounce rate on a homepage or product launch page, for example, is virtually unavoidable (especially with the trend in one-page websites). You may also want a high bounce rate for information-based pages where users can find what they need and then move on. Wikipedia is a good example of this. As a result, optimizing for bounce rate does not always imply that you are enhancing the quality of your webpage or making it more useful to your visitors.
Decreased Usability Because of High Bounce Rate
Second, putting too much focus on bounce rates may reduce your site’s usability.
Consider splitting every page you have into two and linking them together to reduce your site’s bounce rate. You have continued to improve a KPI from the analytics perspective. You’ve turned a simple, accurate site into a shambles in terms of user experience. Your website’s roadmap and user funnel should be meaningful in design rather than bounce rate-focused.
Bounce Rate vs. Exit Rate
Bounce Rate:
The bounce rate of your website is the percentage of visitors who arrive at a page on your site and then leave. They don’t do anything else or go to another page on the site.
Keep in mind that a bounce rate is not the same as an exit rate. Bounce rates only account for “one-and-done” visits, in which visitors arrive and leave your website without leaving a single page.
Exit Rate:
However, exit rates are a little more complicated. They include the percentage of visitors who leave your website from a specific page — which isn’t always the only page they’ve visited on your official site. The page they left could have been the last in a long series of page visits. As a result, the exit rate isn’t always as concerning as the bounce rate.
Comparison
Assume you’re comparing bounce and exit rates for a thank-you page. A high bounce rate on that page is concerning because it indicates that people are only viewing that page and then clicking away. Worse, they didn’t have to fill out a form to get there, which means you’re losing conversions.
However, a high exit rate would not be a cause for concern. It would imply that this page was the last in a series of visits — people exiting from that page most likely arrived from its preceding landing page, downloaded the offer on the thank-you page, and then left to use the content they had just downloaded.
Remember that this is a hypothetical scenario, and these conclusions may differ depending on other page metrics — but it serves as a simple illustration of the difference between bounce and exit rates.
Bounce Rate Formula
The bounce rate is calculated by dividing the number of single one-page visits by the total number of visitors because it is the percentage of visitors who only view one page on your site.
For instance, if 100 people come to your website and only 10 of them visit one page, your bounce rate is 10%. This number will almost certainly change over time, so using a data analysis provider to track all changes will help you understand what’s affecting your bounce rate.
What is a Good Bounce Rate?
If you’ve recently examined your website’s bounce rate, you may be disheartened by the figure. However, if you decide to aim for a 0% bounce rate, you will most likely become even more discouraged. The average bounce rate is between 26% and 70%, with 26% to 40% being the ideal range. Landing anywhere under 20% is generally unlikely, so if that’s what your data shows, you should double-check some things. Incorrectly reported bounce rates can be caused by duplicate code, incorrectly implemented tracking, and third-party add-ons.
The average bounce rate can also vary depending on the device used by the viewer. Mobile devices, for example, have the highest bounce rate (51% across all industries). The average bounce rate on a desktop is 43%, while the average on a tablet is 45%. So, when calculating your site’s bounce rate, consider where the traffic is coming from.
To describe what a good bounce rate is for your webpage, you must first understand the distinction between a high and a low bounce rate.
High Bounce Rate: A high bounce rate indicates that a visitor’s session duration is brief; they visit a page on your site and then leave.
Low Bounce Rate: A low bounce rate indicates that visitors are staying on a page and using available links.
A high bounce rate isn’t always a bad thing in terms of good versus bad. A good bounce rate and a bad bounce rate are relative terms with varying definitions based on various criteria, including subjective ones. According to Google, for example:
If the success of your site depends on users viewing more than one page, then yes, a high bounce rate is bad … On the other hand, if you have a single-page site like a blog, or offer other types of content for which single-page sessions are expected, then a high bounce rate is perfectly normal.
Another way to consider this is to consider the structure of a website. Consider an e-commerce website. Because you want visitors to stay on web pages where they can make a purchase, such as a product page, the homepage may have the highest bounce rate of any page.
So, what constitutes a good bounce rate? A bounce rate of 56% to 70% is considered high, though there could be a good reason for this, and a bounce rate of 41% to 55% is considered average. A good bounce rate would be between 26% and 40%.
How to Lower Bounce Rates?
If you want to reduce your bounce rate, you should think about what can make it worse, such as:
- Slow page loading
- Pop-ups
- Unneeded plug-ins
- Usability issues
- Inadequately optimized title tags and meta descriptions
- Technical errors and blank pages
- Content of poor quality
- Non-mobile-friendly webpages
- Incorrectly configured Google Analytics
Be Ready to Bounce
When investigating bounce rates, make sure to look at the big picture. Examine how much time visitors spend on your site, where they’re coming from, and what device they’re using — and whether your content and experience are in sync with all of those variables. You may discover patterns that indicate how to address the bounce rate issue.
Consider bounce rates to be the “check engine” light on your car. When it happens, you know there’s something wrong, but you need to check all of the car’s systems to accurately diagnose the problem. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for bounce rates, but understanding what they are and how they can inform your marketing strategy can help ensure the success of your website.
