What is “bounce rate”
The bounce rate for a site is the number of visitors who land on a page and don’t go anywhere else on your site. So if someone visits just one of your pages and leaves, this would be considered a “bounce.” This number is effective in determining the stickiness of your site, notice that I don’t say effectiveness because there are times when high bounce rates are good and there are times when low bounces rates are good.
How to calculate bounce rate
You can calculate the bounce rate for your site with a simple formula:
What is considered a bounce?
There are several different actions that take place that can categorize a visitor as bounced:
- They leave your site or page
- They hit the “back” button on their browser
- Their viewing session times out (the time varies by each analytics program, but is typically 30 minutes)
- They type in another URL in their browser and leave
- They close their browser or tab altogether
- They click on a link and leave your site
What is a good or bad bounce rate?
I believe that there is not a specific number that determines whether a bounce rate is good. Different types of sites (and topics) have different goals and objectives with what they are hoping their visitors to do. It’s not necessary to fret over a high or low bounce rate because your site’s objectives may dictate that you need one or the other.
What is an average bounce rate?
As I just mentioned, there is no need to benchmark your site or blog against an average bounce rate because each topic is different. What you want to do is compare yourself to those who have similar types of sites, not topics because this can be misleading.
Sites with high bounce rates
Anything over 50% would probably be considered a high bounce rate. Again, this is not a bad thing depending on the type of site that you have. Some sites that would see a higher bounce rate might be:
- Directory websites
- Affiliate sites
- Resource sites
- News sites
- Magazine/informational sites
- Ad-heavy sites
So if you operate an affiliate site, you want people leaving and clicking on your links and you want a low bounce rate. If you have a site that produces a lot of information that is not very closely related, your bounce rate may be high, and that is completely fine.
However, you need to be sure that they are leaving how you want them, not just coming to your page and immediately leaving. This is where you will want to analyze the time on site to ensure that they are taking the actions you are wanting.
Sites with low bounce rates
Anything under 50% is what I would consider a low bounce rate. Usually niche or topical sites that focus on a particular subject tend to have lower bounce rates. These types of sites usually have content that is closely related and you want your visitors digging deeper. Sites that would want to (or tend to) have a low bounce rate would be:
- Sites about a particular topic
- Subjects that require some research: travel, technology, ecommerce
- Informational or business sites
Especially with ecommerce you don’t want your visitors immediately leaving. You want them to browse, shop around, and eventually purchase something from you.
Bounce rates as an indicator of effectiveness
So in determing what is good or bad for a bounce rate there really is no good or bad. You just need to analyze what you are wanting your visitors to do on your site and improve from there.
