The bounce rate is an essential metric in web analytics.
Thanks to its analysis, we can find out how the content of a page works and how the user interacts with the web.
If this term is not too familiar to you, don’t worry.
You are in the right place!
In this article, we are going to see how to measure the bounce rate of a website, why it is important to know it, and how to lower the bounce rate of a page.
Go for it!
What is the Bounce Rate? Definition
The measures of the percentage of users who have visited a page and left without interacting with it.
That is, they have not visited other pages within that website, posted any other comment on the blog, downloaded a lead magnet, filled out any form, etc.
This web analytics metric is tremendously relevant to know if a web page lives up to the expectations of the users.
Later, we will understand why it is important to know what the bounce rate is.
But, first, we are going to solve some frequent doubts regarding this term.
Bounce Rate vs. Exit Rate
On many occasions, the bounce rate is confused with the exit rate.
And it is that, although they are similar, they do not measure exactly the same.
As we have previously mentioned, the bounce rate measures the percentage of unique sessions that leave a website.
However, the exit rate indicates the number of people who left a specific page, regardless of whether they took other actions before reaching it.
Let’s see it with an example.
A person searches Google for “how to make potato omelet” and a cooking blog appears as the first result.
At that point, two different things can happen:
- He accesses the blog, the content seems poor, and he leaves the page and returns to the results ranking. This is a rebound.
- He enters the blog and likes the content he sees. Also, visit the dessert section and click on the orange sponge cake recipe. Finally, she leaves the web. In this case, it would be considered an exit from the web on the cake recipe page.
The bounce rate can indicate a technical failure to the existence of too poor content that does not engage the reader.
Therefore, it is important to analyze this metric together with the time spent on the page or dwell time.
Bounce Rate and Dwell Time
The dwell time is the time a user spends on a page.
This indicator is perfect to know if the content of the page is interesting.
In fact, Google takes it as a positioning factor.
It makes sense: if a user lands on a page and finds the information they were looking for, they stay on it longer.
If, on the contrary, the content is not up to the task, he leaves the page and the dwell time is very low.
In addition, sometimes you can also measure whether or not the user scrolls as a way of knowing what the acceptance of your web page is.
What is the Bounce Rate Used for and Why is it Important to Know it?
We have already anticipated it: the bounce rate is a key indicator to knowing the user experience on a web page.
Thanks to the bounce rate, we can know if the content of the page is attractive or valid for the users who reach it.
Or if, on the contrary, they have not found what they were looking for and, therefore, visitors leave the page without taking any action on it.
This is especially relevant to take into account both in the creation of content that ranks organically and in the creation of a landing page for a specific marketing campaign.
But, in addition, knowing the bounce rate can be key to detecting a technical problem.
For example, discovering a load time that is too high that leads users to leave a page before consuming the content that is hosted on it.
And, also, to detect possible usability problems, such as the incorrect display of a website on different mobile devices.
Finally, you should know that the bounce rate directly affects the SEO positioning of a web page.
If Google detects that users do not interact with the content that is present on a page and that the dwell time is low, it will gradually rank that page in lower positions.
How to Calculate the Bounce Rate?
The bounce rate is calculated with a very simple formula:
Sessions of a page / total number of sessions x100
That easy.
In fact, it is a metric that Google Analytics offers users by default.
This tool allows you to know the bounce rate:
- Analyzing the website as a whole.
- Of the different channels used to bring traffic to the web.
- From each source or medium.
- Analyzing the bounce rate of a specific page.
Exceptions When Interpreting the Web Bounce Rate
In any case, you should take into account some exceptions when establishing a KPI regarding the bounce rate of your website:
- Those known as one page are websites that only have one landing page. So, by not being able to navigate to other pages, by default they will have a high bounce rate. Therefore, in these cases, we must assess other factors such as the time spent on the page or the conversions to evaluate the performance of the said website.
- Assess which pages have a high bounce rate. If, for example, they are blog posts to which you link through a newsletter and to which users access through the link you send to your subscribers. Or if, on the contrary, they come from backlinks from other websites or media that link to your page.
- Pay special attention to the data of the landing pages that you use for advertising campaigns in search engines or in social networks. A high bounce rate, in these cases, is an indicator that it is not working as it should.
What is the Acceptable Bounce Rate on a Web page?
Now that you know what the web bounce rate is, how do you determine if this number is high or low?
What do we understand by a good bounce rate?
It is likely that, after reading the article, you already know the answer: it depends.
And it is that defining a good bounce rate depends on factors such as:
- The page type. A blog is not the same as an online medium or an eCommerce.
- The specific page within the web from which we are measuring the bounce rate. It is not the same to measure this percentage of an informative page as another that does seek user conversion.
- The channel through which you drive traffic to the web.
In general, we can say that an acceptable bounce rate would be, on average:
- Around 20% on landing pages.
- From 20 to 40% on corporate websites and online stores.
- From 60 to 80% in blogs and online media.
- Around 80% on one page.
How to Reduce the Web Bounce Rate?
Follow these 7 strategies to improve the bounce rate of your website:
- Focus on your target audience.
- Improve the usability of your page.
- Work on the content structure.
- Review the contents of your website periodically.
- Work the copy of your website.
- Bet on internal linking.
- Include calls to action on your page.
Let’s look at each of these aspects in more depth.
Focus on Your Target Audience
This, perhaps, may be very obvious.
But, sometimes, we see pages that publish content on their blog that is not 100% related to their activity or the interests of their target.
Carrying out an analysis of relevant keywords for your business and writing content around this universe is key to improving the bounce rate of a website.
Improve the Usability of Your Page
An unfriendly page for the user will always have a higher bounce rate.
Therefore, you should bet on reviewing the usability of your website and, for this:
- Review the loading time of your website and verify that it is not too high to generate abandonments before it loads correctly. To do this, you can use a web speed test tool.
- Supervises that the page is responsive and displayed correctly on different devices and that the content is easily readable.
- Bet on having a secure website for visitors.
- Check the existence of technical errors in those pages that have a higher bounce rate.
- It facilitates navigation through the web page so that the user can easily access the content they are looking for.
- Bet on a clean and clear design that generates a good user experience.
- Avoid elements that make navigation difficult. For example, banners that are too big or pop-up messages that worsen the user experience.
Work the Structure of the Content
Have you ever entered a web page or blog and found a block of text that has overwhelmed you?
The structure of the content is vital when it comes to capturing the user’s attention and preventing them from leaving a page.
For it:
- Facilitating readability is key. Bet on creating short paragraphs and avoid sentences that are too long.
- Use enumerations or lists to clarify concepts.
- Lean on attractive images and stand-out blocks of text.
- Do not forget to prioritize the contents to facilitate their reading.
Review the Contents of Your Website Periodically
It is very easy for content to become out of date these days.
Analyzing the bounce rate of both the web pages and some keywords is essential to understand what content is not effective.
And, thus, update them and respond to the search intent of the users.
In addition, you should also review the titles and meta descriptions of your pages.
Adapt them to the content that the user will find to reduce the web bounce rate.
Work the Copy of Your Website
You may have the best content in the world on your website: the most documented, the most complete.
But without texts that attract the attention of users, it is of little use.
Work on the copy of your website, from the informative pages to the product sheets, and reduce the bounce rate considerably.
Bet on Internal Linking
One way to lower the web bounce rate is to bet on making a good internal link.
In this way, you can encourage your website visitors to:
- Visit related blog posts, especially if you publish content that requires a certain itinerary in order to understand the topic globally.
- See other related products from your online store.
- Download a lead magnet that you have hosted on the page.
Include Calls to Action on Your Page
CTA or call to action, are key to directing users through the navigation and guiding them towards your goal as a company.
Create clear and simple CTAs that invite the user to register in a form, make a purchase, or visit another page on your website.
Final Conclusions
As you can see, the bounce rate is a key indicator to understanding how your website is working.
Analyzing it together with other metrics such as the time spent on the page or the scroll made by the user is key to being able to understand it accurately.
And, of course, optimize the online presence of your business.
Thanks for Reading.