There’s a metric in Google Analytics we were occasionally asked about, which is the “bounce rate” on a website.
First, the quick facts:
- No website has a 0% bounce rate, or even a 20% bounce rate
- The average website “bounce rate” is 50%
- If it’s more than 60%, you might need to look into making changes
- If it’s less than 20%, there’s something wrong with your analytics
What is a “bounce rate”?
Google’s definition of a bounce rate is someone who comes in, and leaves, on the same page. It’s considered a “single page view.”
What it means is either:
- The person landed on your website didn’t find what they were looking for on that page and determined they came to the wrong website
- Someone came to your website and just didn’t like it, or didn’t think it was credible, or
- They landed on a page that had information to, say an event, with a link that took them to the event website. So they came in and left on the same page, probably within a 3o seconds, which counts as a bounce. If you have a lot of those types of pages it could artificially inflate your bounce rate, making it look worse than it really is.
What is a “good” bounce rate?
There was a blog by RocketFuel.com that did their own test/study on bounce rates, so it seems they had good numbers to work from.
They found:
- 26% to 40% is excellent,
- 41% to 55% is average, and
- 56% to 70% higher than average
Bounce rates, like golf scores, are better when they’re lower.
One thing they indicated was, a bounce rate of over 70% was bad, other than for blogs, and news sites.
When is a high “bounce rate” not a good indicator?
There are exceptions as to why the bounce rate isn’t a good metric, and we’ll refer to the Short North Arts District website as an example. They have a high bounce rate, but it isn’t because people landed on it and didn’t find just what they we were looking for. Quite the opposite.
The Short North website does a better job of SEO than the small independent shops in the neighborhood who are listed on the Short North website.
When someone Googles a restaurant, clothing shop, or art gallery with the words “Short North” as part of their search (ie: “womens clothing store short north”), the results Google shows are for the Short North website. Someone then goes to the list for that restaurant, clothing shop, or art gallery on the Short North Arts District’s website, not the individual restaurant, clothing shop, or art gallery’s websites.
Since there’s only limited information on the Short North website about that gallery (or any business), there’s also a direct link to that gallery’s website. So when the person clicks the link to the XYZ Gallery’s website on the Short North Arts District website, they leave the Short North’s website and go to the gallery’s site. So that counts as a “bounce” on the Short North website.
That’s an instance where the person comes in and leaves on the same page. They came and found exactly what they wanted: a link to the XYZ Gallery’s website. So The Short North Arts District website has a higher than normal bounce rate, but that doesn’t mean someone didn’t find what they were looking for on that website.
Granted, the independent shops do a great job with social media, but Facebook doesn’t let Google search their website, so you’ll never see any reference to Facebook links on Google’s search results page. Facebook wants you to use Facebook to do your searching. So while Facebook results don’t show up in Google, Google’s Analytics does track when someone comes to your site through Facebook.
If your bounce rate is over 60%
On a website that revolves around events, visitors often want the time, date, location, and that’s it. They get the information. They leave. The bounce rate on that website will skew towards a higher percentage, but that’s fine, because the user’s needs are still being met.
If yours is over 60% and you’re not redirecting people to other websites, then it would be time to do a few things:
- See which pages people are coming in and leaving. Maybe those pages have a 60% or 70% bounce rate, so you would want to change them so they don’t have such a high bounce rate, thereby lowering your overall bounce rate numbers, or
- Find out which segment of your audience are coming in and leaving on the same page and maybe stop marketing to them, since they are skewing the numbers for the audience who IS finding you website worthwhile is spending time on it.
- If your site isn’t a mobile site, time to do something about it. When lots of the searches are done on mobile devices, looking at a traditional website on a phone can be a bad experience. And folks will quickly bounce from a bad website when they’re on their phones.
What if someone spends 5 minutes on 1 page?
What if someone comes to a blog post, they read the entire blog post over a 5 minute period, then leave?
Technically, they came in and left on the same page, but they certainly found what they were looking for. But that counts as a bounce, and therefore count against your website on your Analytics.
How can we convince Google Analytics that, even though someone was only on one page, they found it helpful? Well, turns out there is a way: to have the visitor do something that tracks their time on the page.
For example: at time stamp 0:00 someone lands on this blog post page. If we could encourage them click a link, say to email us, go to an infographic, or to another page on our website, the time stamp would show that at 3 minutes and 10 seconds they clicked a link. That shows Google’s Analytics that they were on the page then went to another page, so it doesn’t count as a bounce
We’re thinking this is more information than you ever wanted to know about bounce rates, but to us, it is important. We also find it interesting.
When the time comes that you are looking for a web design company who keeps up on Google to help your website work harder for you, then talk to us. We keep on top of this stuff so you don’t have to. Contact us so we can start that conversation.