One of the most prominent and common metrics you encounter when looking at website analytics is bounce rate. A high bounce rate is always associated with being bad, while a low bounce rate is commonly seen as a good mark. So what exactly is a bounce rate, and what does it say about your website?

What is Bounce Rate?

Bounce rate is a website metric that shows you the percentage of visitors who land on your website but don’t engage or do anything once they’re on it. For example, say you visit our website at wundertredev.wpengine.com. You get to the home page, but you don’t do anything on it, or you don’t click on a banner, link, or any resource. If you bounce from a website, you look at the page and then leave. 

This inaction is then recorded by your website analytics tool as a bounce. If the visitor to your website clicks on a link to visit another page on your website, they are not considered someone who has bounced from your website. As a company that wants people to interact and engage with their website for a conversion, you will want to keep your bounce rate as low as possible.

The Bounce Rate Calculation

Google defines the bounce rate calculation as ”single-page sessions divided by all sessions, or the percentage of all sessions on your site in which users viewed only a single page and triggered only a single request to the Analytics server.” To put it in simple terms, the bounce rate is calculated by gathering all sessions where someone has visited only one page on the website and dividing it by the total sessions. 

The formula for bounce rate would look like this. 

Bounce Rate=Total single page sessions/Total Sessions

What Does a Bounce Rate Say About Your Website?

Many people who analyze website metrics know that a high bounce rate is bad and a low rate is good. While that is a simple way of putting it, there is much more to it than that.

A bounce rate can say a lot about your website more than just saying if it is good or bad. For example, a high bounce rate can tell you a few things.

1. That your website’s content is pretty informative. For example, say someone is looking to learn more about bounce rates. Your website happens to have an article covering this topic. They click on the link to that page and read all about it. Once they have finished reading, they feel satisfied with what they have learned and click out of your website without doing anything else on it. 
2. That visitors to your website might not be the visitors you are targeting. We’ve all done this before when browsing through the web. You think a website might have a potential solution to your problem, but when you click on it, you realize that it doesn’t; you just click right out of it. 
3. That your content or quality of the website lacks something. This is a probable reason why people aren’t clicking on any of your links on your website. Visitors may look at your website and think that it is “meh” and not worth exploring more. 

A low bounce rate can tell you the opposite. Your website could be very inviting for people to engage with. Visitors may wish to learn more and click other links on your website to do so. These are just some of the things that a bounce rate can tell you about your website.

Does Bounce Rate Affect SEO?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is an important ranking factor for anybody’s website. SEO can help your business in many different ways. So what happens if your bounce rate is high or low? Does it contribute to your SEO rank on Google? 

As it turns out, the bounce rate doesn’t directly affect your website’s SEO. The reason I say directly, though, is that there might still be an impact on other factors. A high bounce rate can tell you that something isn’t working right on your website. For example, a poor user experience can increase your bounce rate. Once you identify that your user experience is the cause of many people bouncing from your website, you might look for ways to improve that experience. Improving the experience might lead to visitors engaging more with your website and staying longer, which can lead to a better website search ranking.

3 Tips to Lower A Bounce Rate

If your website happens to have a high bounce rate, the next obvious thing you should do is find ways to lower it. Fortunately, there are many tips you can follow to do just that. Here are 3 tips to lower your bounce rate. 

1. With many people browsing the Internet through their mobile devices, it is now more important than ever to make sure your website is optimized for a mobile experience. People might notice that the mobile version of your website is just like your desktop website. This may lead to a confusing and frustrating experience for the user, which may cause them to bounce once they have a quick look at your website. Try making your website more mobile-friendly and see if that helps lower your bounce rate.
2. Try and avoid having too many calls to action on your website’s pages as it can confuse and overwhelm visitors. Think from the visitor’s perspective when creating your website. Help your visitors by providing them with information, and include useful links that you feel might help them find a solution to their problem. 
3. One of the more simple but effective ways to lower your rate is by improving your page loading times. Visitors can become annoyed if your website isn’t loading as fast as they think it should. They might click out of it if they have to wait a decent amount of time for it to load. Don’t lose potential conversions just because your pages aren’t loading in a reasonable amount of time.

Bounce rate is something you can always look to improve upon and lower. Take a look at your website’s analytics. They can tell you what is going wrong with your website to help you improve it.

Looking to up your website game, then you should definitely give us a call. We’ll help you create a website that can help you reach your potential!