Bounce Rate

What is Bounce Rate?

 

Bounce Rate as defined by Google Analytics is the percentage of single page visits to your website. So they are coming onto your website and leaving via the same page.  Bounce rate is a measure of the visit quality and a high bounce rate generally indicates that the landing page/s aren’t relevant to your visitors.

 

The bounce rate is determined by the total number of visitors viewing one page only divided by the total entries to the page.

A bounce is caused by on of the following actions:

1.  Clicking on a link on the page that takes the visitor to another website

2.  Clicking the back button which takes them away for your website

3.  Closing the website browser or tab

4.  Typing a new URL into the browser

What is the Average Bounce Rate?

To put it all into perspective here are a few statistics for an average website:

• Average time spent on website: 190.4 seconds
• Average Pageviews:  4.6
• Average Bounce Rate:  40.5%
• Average New Visits to a website:  62.9%

There is more specific statistics for different industries but this is just an overall average.  Some specifics include retail with a 20-40% bounce rate; content websites with a 40-60% bounce rate; and service sites with a 30-50% bounce rate.

Bounce Rate Isn’t Always A Bad Thing

It is important to note that to determine the accuracy of your bounce rate you need to delve a little deeper into your Google Analytics to see what pages visitors are bouncing from.  It could be from your newsletter subscription page where they are signing up to your newsletter and then leaving; or it could be a sales page where visitors purchase an item and then leave; or simply getting your contact information and then contacting you directly via phone or email.  So even though it is considered a bounce you are still getting the desired results.

These factors need to be considered and investigated in conjunction with your Bounce Rate.

How to Improve Your Bounce Rate

1.  Load Speed of Your Website – This is important for visitors as well as Search Engine Optimisation.  You want to ensure that your website loads quickly.  Large image files will be a problem and cause your website to load slowly. Too many widgets or plug-ins can also slow your site down.  You can analyse your website online here:  https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/  You can do a report for desktop and mobile devices and it will give you a score out of 100.  You will also get suggestions on what needs to be fixed.

2.  Ads – Too many ads on a website can be a turn off for readers.  But I understand that many sites rely on these ads to bring in extra revenue.  If you have to have ads on your website don’t have too many above the fold, don’t have them near the navigation menu.  You don’t want visitors to search through ads to get to your content – they will either get distracted or frustrated.  Keep them prominent but far enough out of the way so that visitors can navigate your site without wading through the ads.

3.  Design – Make sure your content is easy to read.  Take note of backgrounds, text and sizing so that it is all easy on the eye and that your visitors don’t have to strain to read the content.  You also need to ensure that your website is easily read and navigated on mobile devices.

4.  Search Function – Have a search function displayed prominently on your website so that visitors can easily find the content they are looking for.

5.  Navigation – Make your website easy to navigate with a clear, large and easy accessible navigation menu  leading visitors to the different pages of your website.  Also use internal linking between your pages, by hyper-linking text.

6.  Video or Music – Some websites have a video or music that will start playing as soon as someone clicks onto the site.  Many web users don’t like this for a number of reasons – they may be at work or another quite environment and not want the sound coming from the computer.  Have the video on the site that allows the visitor to play it at their own convenience if they wish.

7.  Message – Ensure your message is obvious immediately.  Don’t make your visitors search to see what your website is about.  Your websites purpose should be evident immediately and expressed clearly in its design and content.  Make calls-to-action descriptive and attention grabbing.  eg.  “See a list of our services”  rather then “Learn more”.

8.  Keywords – Ensure that your website is being picked up in search engines for keywords that match your website and content and not irrelevant keywords.  Check your Google Analytics on a regular basis and see what keywords visitors are using when they click on your website.  You may have to adjust your content and SEO strategy in order to alter your targeted keywords.  There is no point getting those clicks to your website if your content isn’t what the visitor is looking for.

9.  Links to External Sites – Reduce links to external websites and if you do have them ensure that they open in a new window, so that your website is still open as well.  This includes social media.  Do you have social media icons on your site sending visitors to your Facebook Page or Twitter Profile.  Make sure these are also opening in a new window so you don’t lose your visitors as they may not return.  Better still, use the Facebook Like Box on your website so that your visitors can like your page from the displayed Facebook Box without leaving your website.

10. Browsers – Ensure that your website performance and design has been checked in all browsers including Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Safari and Firefox.  The website may look perfect in one browser and not the other.  In Google Analytics you can break down bounce by Browser so that you can determine if this may be a culprit