What is Bounce Rate?
Bounce rate is a SEO metric that shows how many people visit just one page on a site and leave it immediately, without looking at other content or exploring the site further. The higher the bounce rate, the worse the site’s performance is. Low bounce rate means that content is engaging enough to keep users on the site.
Bounce Rate Explained
Think of bounce rate like a guest popping their head into a party and then leaving immediately. Does it mean that the party is not good? Or was it just a misleading invitation? Either way, Google sees it as a bad sign.
High bounce rates can be caused by a few things:
- Slow pages. If your site takes forever to load, people might leave before they see anything;
- Confusing layout. In case visitors can’t find their way around, they’re likely to give up;
- Off-target content. If your page doesn’t have what visitors expected, they won’t stick around;
- No clear next step. If people don’t know what to do next on your site, they might just leave.
Sometimes a high bounce rate is okay, especially if you focus on informational content, and the page answers a question really well. Visitors might leave because they got what they came for.
However, if you run an e-commerce site and people just leave after looking at a single page, without making any purchases or exploring your stock, it’s a bad sign.
How to Improve Bounce Rate
If you want people to hang out on your site longer, you need to focus on these aspect first:
- Page speed. Speed up your site, make sure your pages load quickly;
- Make it easy to use. Your site should be easy to navigate, look good, provide clear instructions;
- Keep content relevant. Your pages should give visitors what they’re looking for. No misleading people with clickbait, false advertising, and similar tactics;
- Make sure you have clear calls-to-action. Tell visitors what you want them to do next;
- Optimize content readability. Use headings and lists to make reading easier. When people see a wall of text, they don’t bother to read;
- Be mobile-friendly. Most people browse on their phones, so your site needs to work well on mobile.
Lowering your bounce rate is about making your site more inviting and helpful, so people want to stay and look around.
How to Measure Bounce Rate?
Bounce rate is measured by dividing the number of single-page sessions (visits in which the user left your site from the entrance page) by the total number of sessions. It is typically expressed as a percentage. Most analytics tools, like Google Analytics, automatically calculate this for you.
What is a Good Bounce Rate?
A “good” bounce rate can be somewhat subjective and varies widely depending on the type of website and industry. However, here are some general benchmarks:
- 20% – 40% — Excellent. Typically seen with single-page sites like blogs or news articles where a single-page session is common;
- 41% – 55% — Average. Many sites, especially e-commerce and retail, aim for this range;
- 56% – 70% — Higher than average, a reason to start worrying, but may not be problematic, depending on the website;
- Over 70%: Considered dangerously high for most websites, with some exceptions like blogs, news, events, etc., where single-page visits are more expected.
What is a Bad Bounce Rate?
A “bad” bounce rate would be one that is significantly higher than average for your industry or page type and indicates that a webpage is not really engaging any visitors.
A high bounce rate can signal issues like:
- Mismatch between content and user expectations;
- Poor user experience;
- Low-quality content.
Don’t take it as a mere number, though: we recommend interpreting bounce rate within the broader context of your site’s goals and user behavior.