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Help! is my bounce rate correct? - 3.85%

by dcolaianni
20 replies
Will be looking into all the possible solutions
#385% #bounce #correct #rate
  • Profile picture of the author moneyhd
    Read this Article this might help you. What is Normal Bounce Rate?
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    • Profile picture of the author dcolaianni
      no it does not help, I really just need a straight answer from people on here
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  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
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    Originally Posted by dcolaianni View Post

    Please help, is there something wrong here? it tells me I have an average bounce rate of 3.85%
    Yes, I think something's probably wrong, there: that's the lowest bounce-rate I've ever heard of, I think.

    In theory, that's absolutely great: it means that the number of visitors to your site who arrive on and leave from the same page, without interacting with the page in-between, is only 3.75%. But I suspect it may not actually be quite right, really. The last person I heard of with an ultra-low bounce-rate turned out to have the Google Analytics code in both the header and the footer of the page. You're quite sure you haven't done that? If you are, then let's hope there'll be other people along who know more about it than I do ...
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  • Profile picture of the author salegurus
    Just an FYI, there are forums for specific topics, like SEO.
    Have a look around, SEO topics go here: Search Engine Optimization
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  • Profile picture of the author Alex Blades
    no it does not help, I really just need a straight answer from people on here
    Lol, none of us works for Google, we can't give you a straight answer. If Google is giving you a 3.85% bounce rate, then how the hell are we suppose to know if it is correct or not, take out a support ticket
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  • Profile picture of the author JensSteyaert
    It seems quite odd to have such a low bounce rate, especially since the average visit duration is just 44 seconds. A normal bounce rate for that would be 80%+ actually.

    Did you add a popup or something lately? Might be an iframe is loading which also counts as a pageview so from now on each visit gets 2 pageviews hence 0% bounce rate. (and the 3.85% would be counting visits from before you added this)...
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  • Profile picture of the author UnkwnUsr
    A common problem is having two instances of Google analytics running on the same site. This can happen when a plugins is used but the theme also has an instance running. Or it could happen when trying to install analytics on a subdomain.
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  • Profile picture of the author nicolasmd2112
    That's a very low bounce rate,especially when the average person on your site only spends about 44 seconds or so. Check your code again, and make sure that you don't have your analytic code in there twice. Contact support and ask them directly if it's correct.
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  • Profile picture of the author joseph7384
    Originally Posted by UnkwnUsr View Post

    A common problem is having two instances of Google analytics running on the same site. This can happen when a plugins is used but the theme also has an instance running. Or it could happen when trying to install analytics on a subdomain.



    Re-read the OP! He already stated that there was only instance of the code on his site.




    Originally Posted by dcolaianni View Post

    I also checked the source code, the analytics code only shows once within it.
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  • Profile picture of the author David Keith
    sounds pretty close to the number of people who might have java script turned off. the op certainly thinks he only has one instance of google analytics loading, but i would be dollars to donuts thats not the case.

    a sub 4 percent bounce rate is just not happening. there is a coding issue...i guarantee it. you dont have 96% of people clicking links on your pages...aint happening
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    • Profile picture of the author TCrosby
      I have a amazon product review site that has a consistent bounce rate of 1-2% for 9 months straight.

      It's possible. Factors:
      • Organic traffic
      • Keywords/searches where people are looking for detailed information
      • Good links/site structure above the fold
      • A good looking site (some people will leave if they perceive the site to look low-quality)
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      • Profile picture of the author David Keith
        Originally Posted by TCrosby View Post

        I have a amazon product review site that has a consistent bounce rate of 1-2% for 9 months straight.

        It's possible. Factors:
        • Organic traffic
        • Keywords/searches where people are looking for detailed information
        • Good links/site structure above the fold
        • A good looking site (some people will leave if they perceive the site to look low-quality)
        again, not happening. i dont believe it for a second. There is no way you are telling me that 99 people out of a hundred that come to your site click a link. I been at this stuff a long time guys... you have a tracking error...100% guaranteed.

        I have seen an enormous amount of website data over the years, and that is just not happening. Hell, i bet you personally have a much higher than 1% bounce rate when you login to visit your own personal email.

        No way 99 out of 100 people who visit your site found exactly what they were looking for and did exactly what you wanted them to do...DID NOT HAPPEN THAT WAY.
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  • Profile picture of the author David Keith
    a screenshot is irrelevant man. i can make analytics show all sorts of different things. but there is no way that 99% of real human people who visited your site from a search or any other way did clicked a link. thats my point. sometimes numbers lie....or tracking software is not behaving or tracking what you think it is tracking.

    i have seen guys do that and turns out they have a auto redirect. or they are loading other pages (iframes) on that same page...after the google code loads. I dont believe for a second you are actually getting what you think you are.

    just for grins, i am interested in seeing the page that traffic is hitting. pm it to me if you dont mind.
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  • Profile picture of the author JayCununk
    No. That's absolutely correct. The bounce rate is ther percentage of traffic that leaves your website after viewing only 1 page on your website. That data shows on average they view almost 3.
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    • Profile picture of the author David Keith
      Originally Posted by JayCununk View Post

      No. That's absolutely correct. The bounce rate ios ther percentage of traffic that leaves your website after viewing only 1 page on your website. That data shows on average they view almost 3.
      again, just because the data says that does not mean thats what happened nor does it mean you tracked what you think you tracked.

      its damn easy to make google analytics show a virtual zero bounce rate. its damn easy to accidentally make it show a longer time on site than what actually is physically true.

      just because a number says something doesn't mean that a person is actually tracking what they think they are. I am fully aware of what bounce rate means. but just because some software says something doesnt necessarily mean what you think it means.

      The analytics software is only as good as the people who write, install, and interpret the data it gives them
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      • Profile picture of the author JayCununk
        Originally Posted by David Keith View Post

        again, just because the data says that does not mean thats what happened nor does it mean you tracked what you think you tracked.

        its damn easy to make google analytics show a virtual zero bounce rate. its damn easy to accidentally make it show a longer time on site than what actually is physically true.

        just because a number says something doesn't mean that a person is actually tracking what they think they are. I am fully aware of what bounce rate means. but just because some software says something doesnt necessarily mean what you think it means.

        The analytics software is only as good as the people who write, install, and interpret the data it gives them
        Assuming you know how to properly set up the code, I'm not wrong.
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        • Profile picture of the author David Keith
          Originally Posted by JayCununk View Post

          Assuming you know how to properly set up the code, I'm not wrong.
          thats kinda my point. A true 1% bounce rate on 4k traffic averaging something like 150 visitors a day would is almost completely impossible.

          By true bounce rate, I mean that the site actually convinced 99+% of 4k+ people to click a link. Thats pretty damn hard to believe man.

          Especially since google analytics is notorious for counting bot traffic of just about every kind...many of them are not crawler bots (they dont click links). That means the site would have had to convince more that 99+% of visitors when you factor in the bot traffic that i am absolutely 100% sure are included in that traffic. Thats just a prettty widely known limitation of google analytics is how much bot traffic it does count.

          again, my point is not that the data doesn't say that, its that the people didn't do what the data says they did. I bet the log files would show a much different story than a google analytics screenshot.

          which leads you to the only logical conclusion... script install error of some sort is by far and away the most likely cause.
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  • Profile picture of the author ryanbiddulph
    Create more in depth content, keep using niche specific keywords, help people, make friends, and as reader loyalty increases, or visitor loyalty, the rate'll drop
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  • Profile picture of the author TCrosby
    Poster of the Screenshot here.

    Originally Posted by David Keith View Post

    just for grins, i am interested in seeing the page that traffic is hitting. pm it to me if you dont mind.
    Since this site makes $500/month, I'd rather not share it. That also speaks to its value. $500/month on 160 visitors a day (40% of which click through to Amazon) is saying something.

    Originally Posted by David Keith View Post

    i have seen guys do that and turns out they have a auto redirect. or they are loading other pages (iframes) on that same page...after the google code loads. I dont believe for a second you are actually getting what you think you are.
    While I don't claim to be a GAnalytics expert, I am a software engineer, so I am not computer illiterate. An iframe shouldnt affect this unless its loading another page from your own site that has GAnalytics. I do have youtube embeds, which are iframes. I also do a non-www to www redirect, but this happens via htaccess which should take affect before any javascript.

    I will say that I do have top products in the top of my sidebar that link to amazon via Pretty Link Light, which does a 302 redirect. It is possible that GAnalytics does NOT count a bounce for a person who visits one page, and than leaves via those. However, I personally wouldn't consider that a failure, since they got to Amazon, where my viewers have a 7-8% conversion rate to sales.

    Originally Posted by David Keith View Post

    Especially since google analytics is notorious for counting bot traffic of just about every kind...many of them are not crawler bots (they dont click links). That means the site would have had to convince more that 99+% of visitors when you factor in the bot traffic that i am absolutely 100% sure are included in that traffic. Thats just a prettty widely known limitation of google analytics is how much bot traffic it does count.
    From personal experience I don't feel like this is true, but I admit this is purely from personal inference. When my new sites sit visitor less for weeks, that would suggest it is not reporting crawler traffic (crawlers definitely hit it).

    * I will take a little more glance at the site this evening and check that nothing wonky is happening with the JS, but I don't think that there is.

    * To me, if that bounce is fudged a little, I almost dont care. 3:00 mins on site, with 40% clickthru to Amazon, 7-8% conversion on Amazon, for $500/month on 160 visitors/day doesn't lie. Possibly the bounce stat isn't perfect, but its definitely LOW one way or another.
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