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Can someone explain 'bounce rate' to me?

by sylviad
12 replies
The material I've read on this is a little confusing and it seems like an important issue. My Analytics show the bounce rate for my site ranging from 65% to {whoa!} 100% over the past 6 weeks. Christmas day was 100%.

What does bounce rate mean, and how should I read these numbers?

What would be a good % to aim for? What are other people getting?

What do I need to do to improve it?

I was looking at Web Site Optimizer in Google, but it just got me more confused. Maybe it's just late in the day, but bounce rate was never clear to me.

Thanks.

Sylvia
#bounce #explain #rate
  • Profile picture of the author Neil Morgan
    Hello Sylvia

    We discussed this a week or two ago, so rather than post the same information again...

    http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...les-pages.html

    Cheers,

    Neil
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  • Profile picture of the author ScamFreeSuccess
    The % of visitors who arrive and leave from the web page they enter on (don't go any further into the website).
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    • Profile picture of the author Neil Morgan
      The % of visitors who arrive and leave from the web page they enter on (don't go any further into the website).
      True.

      I would be absolutely delighted with a 100% bounce-rate on a one-page sales site that converted really well and made great money.

      And this is what makes it a meaningless number unless viewed in the context of the objectives of the site in question.

      Cheers,

      Neil
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      • Profile picture of the author sylviad
        Thanks, Neil. That thread does cover it a bit, but I have additional questions.

        Does bounce rate only register for the Index page? Or for any visit where the person doesn't go beyond whatever page they land on?

        I don't generally promote my site as a whole, but individual pages with affiliate products related to the article that brought them to my site. In that case, they often don't need to go farther than the Review page and then on to the merchant's page.

        Also... on that other site, someone said:

        Strategies, I've used to decrease mine are:
        1) adding more relevant content to my site
        2) strategically placing "resolving" links to other content
        3) placing an opt-in form or "pop-up" in pages with high bounce rates
        4) adding more trust-building elements (ie: security seals, MBG, etc.)
        My site does have tons of relevant content and an opt-in form. Security seals wouldn't really mean much since I'm not selling the products - just recommending them.

        What does #2 mean? "...unresolving links to other content"? I'm guessing it's one-way links to valid content that backs up my claims?

        What else can I do to get less bounce? I know from my host's stats that 79% of my visitors never go beyond the home page. I thought that's because they were just people looking for other reasons, like other business operators looking for ideas and spammers looking for contact info - since my contact info is on the bottom of the page, they wouldn't need to go farther to find it. Maybe I should take it off and have it only on my Contact page.

        Sylvia
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      • Profile picture of the author marcanthony
        It's a percentage measurement that calculates the average amount of time a visitor spends on a webpage

        Higher bounce rates mean that people are spending very little time on your page...

        Lower bounce rates meant the people are spending more time on your page...

        It's good to monitor your bounce rate trends however, bounce rate should not be measured based on being good or bad...

        There are many different factors to consider that may affect your bounce rate...

        Your bounce rate, in addition to other Analytic stats, are speaking a language that you must learn to decipher through testing...

        Once you understand how to monitor it, you will realize that it's an excellent tool that will assist you in adjusting your marketing accordingly.
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        • Profile picture of the author Neil Morgan
          It's a percentage measurement that calculates the average amount of time a visitor spends on a webpage
          Not true.

          Bounce rate is not a measure of time. It's a measure of the proportion of people who visit only that page. Someone could arrive at page #1 and stay for 5 seconds or 5 hours. If they don't visit any other page, that visitor will be counted in the bounce rate.

          Does bounce rate only register for the Index page? Or for any visit where the person doesn't go beyond whatever page they land on?
          The latter.

          What does #2 mean? "...unresolving links to other content"?
          Sounds like BS. What's a resolving link compared to a non-resolving link? Who knows?

          What else can I do to get less bounce?
          On a content-rich site with many pages, a high bounce rate means that people don't stick around. Which means that they've arrived at your site looking for something and the page they've landed on doesn't have that something, and doesn't have obvious links to that something.

          So you need to make sure that when people arrive at your site that they either find what they're looking for on that page or can very easily find what they're looking for.

          This opens a whole can of worms about the goals you have for your site. You need to know what you intend your visitors to do, and to make sure every pixel pushes them down that path. For sites that are recommending a mish mash of products and services, that's difficult to do.

          As I said, bounce-rate means nothing unless viewed in the context of the goals you have for your site and the expectations you have of your visitors, based on the path you are trying to get them to follow.

          Cheers,

          Neil
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          • Profile picture of the author marcanthony
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            • Profile picture of the author Neil Morgan
              He's definitely talking about multi-page sites where you want visitors to stick around.

              Maybe he covers it in another part of his talk but he doesn't mention that a 100% bounce-rate is ideal in certain circumstances, such as:

              1. A single-page sales site with nothing on it but a "buy now" button that links to an offsite payment processor.

              2. A squeeze page that links to an autoresponder.

              ..to name two.

              The context is very important.

              Cheers,

              Neil
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              • Profile picture of the author 123andyt
                Thanks for the useful information everybody.. I had exactly the same questions on bounce rate and this seems to be the only way I could get an answer ...
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  • Profile picture of the author Centimetro
    so if someone clicks out of your site to another website (Following a link from your site) does it register as a bounce?

    If that's the case then my "bounce rate" suddenly doesn't seem so bad.
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    • Profile picture of the author Killer Joe
      Sylvia,

      Below is a picture of a graph from one of my websites showing the bounce rate for the last ten days.

      Because there is so much confusion about what a bounce rate is, I thought I would just show you an example of what a bounce rate can look like on a site with more than just a single page.



      KJ
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      • Profile picture of the author Neil Morgan
        so if someone clicks out of your site to another website (Following a link from your site) does it register as a bounce?

        If that's the case then my "bounce rate" suddenly doesn't seem so bad.
        Yes, if they don't visit any page on your site other than the one they landed on.

        The bounce rate does not measure how or why visitors left your site, or where they ended up - it's just the percentage of visitors who landed on a page of your ste then left by any means and for any reason, after any length of time, without visiting any other page on your site.

        Cheers,

        Neil
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