A bounce rate refers to the number of website visitors that land on your website and then bounce away from your website without any interaction. They go back to whatever webpage/social post/email they originally came from.
This means that a website visitor took no action on your website. They didn’t scroll down and read content, they didn’t click through to anything else on your website, and they didn’t complete a contact form or make a purchase. They just landed on your website and went ‘nope’.
This is a clear indication of two things…
- Your website was slow to load – visitors got bored and moved on
- Your website doesn’t interest them
Sometimes it’s both, sometimes it’s just one of these elements.
Why is the Bounce Rate so Important?
Your bounce rate is a key factor because it can explain just how many website visitors are interested/not interested in your business based on that first impression. This allows you to improve your website.
The main reason why you should be paying attention to your bounce rate is because it is a key metric used by Google to rank your website in their search engine. And we all want to get our website’s ranking as high as possible for relevant keywords/phrases within Google.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a good bounce rate?
A good bounce rate is a low bounce rate – the closer to zero the better.
I.e. A bounce rate of just 2% means that just 2% of your website visitors have bounced off your website, whilst 98% have stayed on your website.
What is a Normal Bounce Rate?
There are a huge number of reports online that give you varying numbers on what a ‘normal’ bounce rate should be. They seem to vary between 40% and mid-50%
There are however lots of variations in what a normal bounce rate should be depending on the industry you are in. For example…
- Ecommerce sites: Bounce rates between 20-45%
- B2B websites: Bounce rates between 25-55%
- Lead generation websites: Bounce rates between 30-55%
- Non-ecommerce content: Bounce rate between 35-60%
- Landing pages: Bounce rate between 60-90%
- Dictionaries and blogs: Bounce rate between 65-90%
It is well worth doing a little research into the types of bounce rates common for your industry, that gives you something to aim for and beat.
Your bounce rate can also vary depending on the traffic source for your website traffic. For example…..
- Display: 56%
- Social: 54%
- Direct: 49%
- Paid Search: 44%
- Organic Search: 43%
- Referral: 37%
- Email: 35%
The more invested a website visitor is in your business already, whether that is because they or a friend/family member have interacted with you before, the less likely they are to bounce off your website.
What could be impacting my bounce rate?
Anything on the webpage can impact the bounce rate. That includes…
- Content
- Imagery
- Videos
- User Experience on-site
- Layout of the page
- Branding
Anything that didn’t meet the individual's expectations.
How Can I find my Bounce rate?
Head to your Google Analytics account.
How does Google Calculate my Website's Bounce Rate?
Within GA4, Google bases the bounce rate on a visit that is greater than 10 seconds, saw the website visitor view at least two pages of the website and triggered a conversion event.
Is the bounce rate the same as the exit rate?
No.
They are similar but there is one key difference.
The bounce rate is the number of people who land on a specific page and leave that specific page. The exit rate is the number of people who leave a specific page even if they originally entered the website via a different page.
For example…
If someone lands on this specific blog post and immediately leaves this specific blog to return back their search results within Google - that would be a bounce and push up our bounce rate.
Whereas, if someone lands on this specific blog post and then clicks on our ‘Contact’ page to grab our email address before leaving the Digital Nachos site, that interaction would be recorded within our exit rate. The individual in question did not bounce off this specific blog post as they moved to a different page within our website, and they didn’t bounce off our ‘Contact’ page as they arrived on our ‘Contact’ page from within our website.
If you are looking to improve your bounce rate, or simply want to know what it currently is, then get in touch with the team here at Digital Nachos. We can review your current website and work with you to improve it.
Published: 5th Feb 2024