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Who Else Thinks Traffic Stats Can Sometimes Be Mind-Numbing?

by Emmanuel Betinis
7 replies
Dear fellow Warrior,

I was looking at my Google analytics today & noticed an interesting
little tid-bit of information for one of my webpages.

Now, on this webpage is an article of about 450 words. According
to Google Analytics, for the last 45 unique page views, the average
time on page is 3:10. The average bounce rate is 90%.

The last I heard, a high bounce rate (90%) means they're leaving your
page right away. But that certainly doesn't sound like they're leaving
my page right away, because the average time on the page is over
3 minutes! Wouldn't you agree that if the average time on the page
is over 3 minutes that the people are staying on the page and reading
the article?! Then why is the bounce rate so high?

-Confused in Minnesnowta
#analytics #bounce rate #google #mindnumbing #stats #thinks #traffic
  • Profile picture of the author Aaron Riddell
    Interesting,

    Maybe there are a few staying on the page for longer, mucking up the stats?




    Aaron Riddell
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  • Profile picture of the author JeffLam
    Actually if I'm not mistaken, a bounce rate simply means that whoever has accessed your site simply closes the window that is displaying your site.

    So if I were to open up your site in a tab, then read it in about 3 minutes, following that I CLOSED the tab/window with your site on it, it is registered as a bounce.

    If I however, clicked on another link within your site, then I have not bounced.
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  • Profile picture of the author Emmanuel Betinis
    Mmmmmm...interesting...

    That makes sense...I think.
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    • Profile picture of the author Neil Morgan
      The bounce rate is nothing to do with the amount of time spent on the page.

      It's the percentage of visitors who viewed that page and no other tracked page.

      If someone visits only that page then there is no way of knowing how long they spent on it because only by moving to another tracked page can the time be calculated.

      Therefore, the average time shown does not include the visitors who bounced.

      That's my understanding.

      Cheers,

      Neil
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    • Profile picture of the author duncanb
      That is still worrying when you have a site with a bounce rate of 90%.

      Regardless of whether that bounce rate is due to the prospect(s) closing the window or not. I always say that every site is unique and in order for you to generate a realistic account of how your site is performing in real time you must spend much time in evaluating you site with google analytics,(and not just focus on the bounce rate).
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  • Profile picture of the author Neil Morgan
    If I have a one-page sales site with no link other than a payment link then I'd be perfectly happy with a bounce rate of 100%.

    The bounce-rate stat only means something in the context of the business model for the site.

    Cheers,

    Nel
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  • Profile picture of the author Emmanuel Betinis
    Ah...

    See, the webpage in question is a homepage...which essentially is a
    squeeze page. The page they go to after opting in also is being
    tracked.

    So if I'm understanding correctly, the time on squeeze page WILL be
    calculated correctly since the "next" page (after opting in) also has
    Analytics on it.

    As for the bounce rate, my optin rate is 25% so shouldn't that mean
    that my bounce rate should be 75% (since 25% of them go to another
    tracked page and 75% of them don't)?

    By the way, thankyou all so much for your input so far!
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