Your site’s bounce rate refers to the number of visitors leaving your website or “bouncing” back to the search results or website they were on before, after visiting just one page. Put simply, the lower bounce rate a site has, the better, especially in Google’s (and other search engines) eyes.
However, the bounce rate can also be used for analyzing what is going on with your site, what is working, and what isn’t.
How to Determine Your Site’s Bounce Rate?
Your site-wide bounce rate is available through Google Analytics in the Audience Overview section. This provides you with a general look at your site’s performance. Just remember, this is a general number. The user behavior on every section and page of your site is unique, which means that you aren’t learning very much when you average it all together.
Try to look at the bounce rate of certain webpages. Figure out how they perform compared to other pages. What pages have the highest visitor times? These are the ones that are obviously more engaging.
To find out your bounce rate for individual pages, you can go to your Google Analytics dashboard and click Behavior to Site Content to Landing Pages.
What Is Considered a Good Bounce Rate?
High bounce rates are typically viewed negatively. However, this may not always be the situation. A good bounce rate differs based on your website and the page you are looking at.
This means you must consider the purpose of the page and the content present when determining if you have a good or bad bounce rate. For example, do you have a site that encourages visitors to spend more time there and look around? Or does your site encourage users to visit one webpage to find everything they need?
Someone interested in a blog you have posted may visit your site, read the blog, and then leave. This results in a higher bounce rate even though your visitor gets just what they came for. This means that a high bounce rate caused by this is not all bad. Be sure to look at the page’s goal to determine how it could be impacting your bounce rate.
Also, many search engines bring people to the specific page they are searching for, which means that someone visiting the site will not spend as much time “exploring.” This means that no set number will let you know what a bad or good bounce rate is.
Take time to consider your user’s experience. Do they have a reason to visit more than one page? If they don’t, then you need to find new ways to engage them. For example, this could include making a booking or clicking on a phone number. The goal should be to figure out the actions you want your visitors to take.
Improving Your Site’s Bounce Rate
When it comes to your website’s bounce rate, taking steps to improve it is a must. If this is not something you believe you can do on your own, seek out help from the professionals. They can ensure you get the low bounce rate desired for your site.