Do you want to learn about Google analytics and how to use it to make more effective online marketing decisions? This week, in our Google Analytics learning series we discuss bounce rates: what they mean, what an “ideal” bounce rate is, and tips to improve your bounce rate.

 

What Does Your Bounce Rate Mean?

 

A Bounce is when a visitor lands on a page on your site and then leaves (from the same entrance page) without viewing any other page on the website. The average time spent on the site for a bounced user is logged as 0:00 minutes since they viewed zero additional pages.

 

Note: There is no industry standard minimum time by which a visitor must leave by in order for a bounce to occur. The maximum time can be the length of time a session time-out occurs.

 

How does an entrance page visit bounce?

  • By closing a window or tab
  • By typing in a new URL
  • By clicking on the back button
  • From a session time-out
  • By clicking on a link to a page on an external website

 

What is an “Ideal” bounce rate?

 

If you have a bounce rate less than 45%:
This is a low bounce rate which is an indication that visitors find relevant information and decide to stay on site to get even more information. The more pages a visitor sees (higher engagement), the greater the opportunity grows to convert them (i.e. become a customer). Average performing website can expect to have a bounce rate between 30% to 40%.

 

If you have a bounce rate more than 50%:
This is a high bounce rate which is an indication that visitors are not really finding what they want on your site before leaving. A 51% bounce rate means that 51% of visitors come to your site without viewing any other page. Of note: Many blogs have high bounce rates because visitors often stop to read only one blog article before “bouncing” off to another site.

 

What is the average bounce rate?

 

The latest Google Analytics Benchmarking Report states that the average bounce rate was 47.0% in 2010.

 

Tips for improving page bounce rates

Each page will have its own bounce rate, since every page is a potential landing page. There are some great strategies on how to optimize your landing pages to improve click through rates and lower bounce rates, but you can’t beat the basics listed below.

 

1. Clear & Relevant Navigation – When users land on your site they take about 3 seconds to orientate themselves. Ensure that page titles, menus, and breadcumbs are present. A hero graphic that supports the page theme would also be useful. Avoid pop-ups and any other distractive graphics or layouts that can frustrate the user.

 

2. Original and Relevant Content – Visitors expect that when they click on a link the content contained on the page is unique, interesting, and ample (about 300-400 words). Too much unrelated content creates visitors who are confused, and possibly longer load times. Also, search engines rank sites with original and relevant content higher in search engine results.

 

3. Avoid external links – Minimize the number of external links on a page, especially if it’s one of your most frequented landing pages (i.e. homepage). This will decrease the opportunities for first time visitors to leave the website, and thus, lower that page’s bounce rate.

 

Now that you learned some tips on how to lower your bounce rate be aware that there are some factors that skew your bounce rate metrics.

 

If your website is new – You may have an extremely low bounce rate since most of the visitors are people you know usually just checking out the awesome website you’ve just created.

 

If your website has low traffic – you may not be getting the sample sized required to get an accurate measurement of bounce rate. The more unique visitors you have each day, the more accurate your bounce rate will be.

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If you need help optimizing your website landing pages, please contact us at info@tidal.ca.

 

 

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