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Google bounce rate

by BarryOnline
12 replies
I was wondering about how the bounce rate is worked out.

If someone lands on my home page then clicks "back" to leave the site, then I take it that counts as a bounce.

But...

What if someone lands on my home page but clicks a link to another sites & leaves that way, does that count as a bounce too?
#bounce #google #rate
  • Profile picture of the author tuanng
    I suppose so. they 'bounce' off your homepage and never come back
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    • Profile picture of the author x3xsolxdierx3x
      Bounce rate is an interesting phenomena I have studied quite a bit.

      Rather than think of bounce rate as a good or bad thing, it can be either or dependent on the site you run.

      If you have a hyperlink, with a " _blank" or "new" attribute associated with it, people won't actually be bouncing from your site, and it shouldn't count.
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      • Profile picture of the author reapr
        Originally Posted by x3xsolxdierx3x View Post

        Bounce rate is an interesting phenomena I have studied quite a bit.

        Rather than think of bounce rate as a good or bad thing, it can be either or dependent on the site you run.

        If you have a hyperlink, with a " _blank" or "new" attribute associated with it, people won't actually be bouncing from your site, and it shouldn't count.
        I agree 110%!

        Neither good of bad and should be used as more of a metric based on your product and targeted keywords and conversions.


        To the OP>>>

        I have a site with a very niche product with a bounce rate of just over 80%. Conversions seem to be running between 15-20%. I am quite happy.

        Now if I had a product site with 30% bounce and conversions were under 2% I would be concerned(this is just an example). It can be due to several factors. You could be selling products that are found down at wally world and xmart for much cheaper. You are targeting the wrong keywords, your keywords do not match with your site products, your page layout is not taking advantage of heat map data or above the fold advantage(too many page elements to list here) or your sales copy is just not as good as it needs to be to compete with your competitors.
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  • Profile picture of the author Neil Morgan
    Bounce rate can be good or bad depending on whether you want visitors to look at multiple pages or not. I blogged about it recently.

    Bouncy Visitors – Good or Bad? | AutoResponse Plus Blog

    Hope it helps.

    Cheers,

    Neil

    Edit: Just realised from the other thread that's hot today that maybe I shouldn't be linking to my own blog. If that's the case, please delete this post as I'm not trying to bend the rules.
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  • Profile picture of the author patey88
    Originally Posted by Barry$ View Post

    What if someone lands on my home page but clicks a link to another sites & leaves that way, does that count as a bounce too?
    I've wondered this but never got around to testing it until now. The answer is yes, it's a bounce.

    I went directly to my site and then clicked an outgoing link that went to a different site, without opening in a new window or tab. It shows up in google analytics as a bounce.
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    • Profile picture of the author cindybidar
      Originally Posted by patey88 View Post

      I went directly to my site and then clicked an outgoing link that went to a different site, without opening in a new window or tab. It shows up in google analytics as a bounce.
      If that's the case then I think bounce rate is, at best, a misleading number. Surely I can't be the only one who has my browser set to always open links in a new tab? So even though I've left your page, it's still open. I may or may not come back to your tab, and I might not get around to closing it for several minutes. Or am I missing something?
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  • Profile picture of the author alexei_aus
    So you are suggesting to setup the link to _blank in order to keep it down? Thats an interesting thought. Althought I think its only a matter of time until Google realizes this
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  • Profile picture of the author Neil Morgan
    A bounce is when someone visits just one page on your site.

    It doesn't matter how they leave - click an external link, click the "back" button or whatever - it's a bounce if they visit only one page, whatever page that is.

    Note that your tracking service needs to be monitoring all the pages of your site or your bounce rate stats will be incorrect.

    High bounce rate can be good if, for example, you want people to visit one page, read it then click a link to an affiliate site.

    Cheers,

    Neil
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  • Profile picture of the author Neil Morgan
    I don't see what the "_blank" thing has to do with it.

    Bounce rate is a measure of the number of people that visit only one page of your site before leaving by any method.

    No more, no less.

    Cheers,

    Neil
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  • Profile picture of the author Neil Morgan
    So even though I've left your page, it's still open.
    ...and bounce rate will only be reduced if more than one page is visited, no matter how many tabs or separate browser windows are opened.

    Don't read more into this than there is.

    Cheers,

    Neil
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  • Profile picture of the author Neil Morgan
    True but length of visit doesn't come into it either.

    They could sit on the "entry" page for hours. If they then leave, it's a bounce. Or if they then visit another page it's not.

    Edit: Just to clarify the technical point, the above sentence is not really correct. If you did sit on a page for hours then visit another page, the tracking system would regard the 2nd page as a completely separate site visit due to the time between page views. HTTP is stateless which means that the tracking system has no way of knowing that you were sitting on that first page - it can only "see" switches between pages. This explanation is for the pedants out there

    Cheers,

    Neil
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