Glossary
Bounce rate is a calculation in Google Analytics that indicates the percentage of website visitor sessions that fail to qualify as an engaged session. (updated September 2022)
For years, popular thought was that bounce rate was simply a percentage of people who visit a website but leave without visiting any other page. However, with the creation of Google Analytics 4 and it’s inclusion of the engaged sessions metric, bounce rate was no longer observed in the same method.
The Google Analytics 4 calculation of bounce rate is different from the Universal Analytics calculation, which is the percentage of all website visitor sessions in which the user only views one page.
More Questions People Ask About Bounce Rate
What Is A Good Bounce Rate To Have?
When it comes to bounce rates, almost every site owner wants this question answered in short order. That’s OK, don’t feel bad, but you aren’t off the learning hook.
Bounce rate stats are unique to the site and, more specifically, site page experience and goals.
Some people will tell you that a bounce rate over 70% is bad. In fact, a writer for Search Engine Journal explicitly states that a bounce rate north of 70% means “something is probably broken.”
SEMRUSH – the platform our agency runs all of our site audits on for active and prospective clients – flags bounce rates as being too high if they are found to be above 30%.
Such statements seem to imply that a consumer can’t be both happy with the page of your site they arrive on and want to view only that page.
There are plenty of sites that recommend bounce rates to shoot for, but we question such an approach.
A better path lies in considering bounce rate as one criterion among many of site health.
How Can You Improve Bounce Rate?
Answer…
What Causes High Bounce Rates?
This section assumes that a high bounce rate occurs for both good and bad reasons. Most marketing writers treat the why-is-bounce-rate-so-high section like the postmortem of a professional pitfall. Which is to blindly assume that a high bounce rate is bad for business.
At DOM, we take a more nuanced view. We recognize that evaluating bounce rate requires careful analysis of the particular website, company, and goal in question.
So why might your bounce rate be high?
- Your content satisfies
- Your site is slow
- Your page is a poor experience
- Your mobile experience is bad
- Your content title misleads
- A website linking to your site is misleading
- You’re running a PPC landing page
What Does It Mean When Bounce Rate Is High?
Answer…
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