Bounce rate is one of the parameters that gives us an idea of how engaging the content of a given website is, as well as how the website was designed in terms of broadly understood UX (user experience).
This is a significant metric, yet its value for webmasters is often underestimated or overestimated. What exactly does the bounce rate tell us, and how should we interpret it? Does it impact website positioning?
Bounce rate – what is it and what does it mean?
Google Analytics calculates bounce rate using the formula:
sessions during which the user made only one interaction / the entire session
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Of course, the rule of thumb is that the lower the bounce rate, the better – a low bounce rate means that most users are interacting with the site, which is something every website owner should care about. However, this doesn't necessarily have to be crucial for every website.
Is a high bounce rate a cause for concern?
You should certainly be very wary of opinions that a single-subpage session means that "the user entered the site, vomited, and left," which can sometimes be found online.
For natural reasons, the bounce rate analysis will not be particularly useful if the website is a one-page website, i.e. it does not have any subpages.
Expert blogs are also often characterized by a relatively high bounce rate – a user usually comes to such a blog looking for an article containing specific information on a given topic, and after obtaining it, leaves the site.
A similar "problem" occurs with online dictionaries, culinary websites, or study aid websites, and this does not necessarily mean that these services are of little value to users – it is simply dictated by the specific nature of the content.
A high bounce rate should certainly be a significant alarm for the e-commerce industry, especially when accompanied by a low conversion rate. In most cases, a specific value can only be interpreted by taking into account the user base and industry practices, as well as—if possible—the performance of competing websites.
When it comes to traffic sources, sessions from display ads and social media typically generate the highest bounce rates. Users who access a website through these sources often quickly return to the previous site.
In the case of display ads, you should also take into account "missclicks", i.e. incidental clicks on the image with the ad, especially if the entries were generated by difficult-to-close pop-ups or other forms that "cleverly" provoke not entirely intentional interaction.
Is bounce rate a ranking factor in SEO?
As is often the case with Google's algorithm, opinions are divided. Google itself states that bounce rate is not a factor that directly affects a website's ranking in search results.
On the other hand, a large number of SEO specialists believe that the search engine is able to conclude that a given website is optimized for a given phrase, but users do not find information on this subject on it, which must in some way affect SEO.
A high bounce rate can also be related to other factors listed in Google's official webmaster guidelines. In this case, the bounce rate will be an indicator of other website optimization issues that will undoubtedly impact SEO.
A high value may, for example, result from a page taking a long time to load, causing an impatient user to choose another site. Other reasons include poorly optimized text that makes content difficult to digest, a website that isn't mobile-friendly, a large number of irritating ads, or a lack of an SSL certificate.
How to reduce bounce rate?
Improve the UX (user experience) of your website
Poor user experience is usually the main reason for high bounce rates. For some reason (or more often, reasons), the website simply doesn't encourage user interaction.
This may be due to hundreds of factors, from the archaic structure of the website itself, through the selection of an insufficiently fast server, to errors that make it difficult to view the content.
UX is a multifaceted, complex issue – a valuable first step can be to commission a full UX audit from specialists.
Optimize your content
Proper content optimization is in many respects a UX element – dividing into paragraphs, aligning text in paragraphs to the left, choosing an eye-pleasing font, or adapting content to different resolutions.
However, it's not just the form that matters, but also the content – sometimes rewording a piece of text can significantly reduce the bounce rate. Analyze whether the appropriate call to action is missing, and whether the text is easy to read or rather clumsy. Even seemingly small changes can have a noticeable effect.
If a subpage has been well positioned through SEO activities and generates a lot of organic traffic, and at the same time its bounce rate is very high, it is possible that the keywords used do not correspond to the actual content, collecting low-value visits from the owner's perspective.
Link internally and send suggestions to users
If there is an article on your website that has a high bounce rate, suggest other subpages related to the topic to the user – you can do this in the form of a link directly in the text, with an appropriate CTA or a panel that will automatically display suggestions for similar subpages within your website.
In online stores, you can suggest other products from a given category that are likely to meet the customer's requirements.
Verify your Google Analytics implementation
A suspiciously high or low bounce rate can also be caused by incorrectly pasting the Google Analytics code. In this case, the system will misinterpret the page visit, resulting in inaccurate data.
A related issue will also be the lack of or incorrect setting of events - a session with the launch of a video located on the website should not be counted as a rejected session - even though the user did not visit other subpages, he performed a specific action on the website.
Summary
The above article covers the following topics:
- Bounce rate is an indicator that measures the attractiveness of the content and the quality of the UX of a website, which requires precise interpretation in the context of its usability.
- Bounce rate is the ratio of single-interaction sessions to total visits, and typically indicates how engaged users are with your website.
- A high bounce rate does not always indicate low quality of the website, as its interpretation depends on the specific industry and type of website, although it may indicate technical or substantive problems that indirectly affect positioning.
- To reduce the bounce rate, you should ensure a refined UX and page speed, optimize the readability and content quality, use effective internal linking with call-to-action (CTAs), and verify the technical accuracy of the analytics.
