Tips to a Good Bounce Rate for Website

Website with poor usability is definitely not an indication of a good bounce rate record on Google Analytics. What then makes a good bounce rate for website?

The key factor is not in the metrics, but in the connecting purpose of the site. When a website is delivering on its primary purpose it was setup, we can say the site is successful/profitable/functional as the case may be whether the bounce rate is good or not.

The rate of user experience is always a determinant factor. Let me quickly explain what bounce rate is before I unconsciously make this page unfriendly to some people. Just don’t hit the back button yet.

What is Bounce Rate

Bounce rate is the percentage of visitors that left a web page soon after they arrived without any further engagement within the website. This activity implies that the visitor bounced.

Remember the bounce effect of football when you hit it on the ground. That’s the same experience bounce visitor had. The ground is the web page while the ball is the visitor.

Bounce rate is calculated as:

The number of visitors that left after a page view

Total number of visits

Let’s assume a particular website received 200,000 visitors over a period of one month and 90,000 visitors left immediately after a page view. The bounce rate is calculated as 90,000 divided by 200,000 which equals 0.45 or 45% bounce rate.

When can we say bounce as occurred?

Bounce will always occur if a visitor does any of the following;
Click the back button
Click an external link
Use external search box on the browser
Close the browser
Access a new link.

Any action that make visitor leave a page before engaging with another page within a website is regarded as bounce. I

t is may implies that the landing page lack expected quality and information in terms of design structures and content. Though, there are exceptional cases majorly determined by Average time on page metrics and of course the purpose of the site.

For this very reason, I would want to mention that there is what is called bad high bounce rate and good high bounce rate.

A bad high bounce rate is when a visitor quickly leaves a landing page either after or before loading. In this case zero average time on page may be recorded. This is a potent signal that the site or the page needs to be overhauled.

A good, but high bounce rate is when a visitor stay long on a page especially a blog or informative web pages and then leave without any further engagement. That is, they got what they wanted on a single page and they’re satisfied. Watch the video below to acquaint yourself with effectiveness of bounce rate metrics from the perception of Avinash Kaushik, Google Marketing Evangelist where he mentioned the metrics as “the sexiest metric ever.”

What is a Good Bounce Rate And How Can We Get It?

It may be pretty hard to determine the best bounce rate for all kinds of websites because; web pages are configured for different functions. Nevertheless, a 20-25% bounce rate could be regarded as good (i.e. out of every 10 visitors within a given period, only about 2 to 3 dropped off among which could have stayed long on a page).

It may not be easy to attain this fit, but it is achievable. Presently, this site record 66% bounce rate which is very high. But business turnover has been very great. Below are what we can do to attain a good bounce rate for our website.

Content Evaluation. Ensure content connect with visitors need in relation to page title and should be well structured and clear.
Grammatical Errors. Check for typo-graphical error, grammar construction must be correct and avoid ambiguous words.
Attractive Landing Page. Make every page as attractive as it can be.
Keyword Attraction. Ensure the potential keywords that draw visitors’ attention are used in the title and within the first paragraph.
Design Outlook. Always make your web page design look professional and easily accessible.
External Links. Force external links to open in a new tab.
Internal Links. Make all internal links open within the same window.
Search Box. Provide a search box and place it at a prominent position so that visitor can use it to search web pages within your site.
Long Articles. Break long articles into separate pages. 5 principles of user experience is a good example.
Provide Download Option. Convert long articles to PDF and place the download button at visible location.
Improve Load Time. Make your web page load fast by increasing the load time speed before you force visitors to your competitors.
Related Content. Provide compelling related content and great resources similar to the theme of web page.
Contextual Link. Ensure internal links are contextual and done naturally.
Highlight Compelling Info. Don’t blind important information within page, rather highlight them especially internal clickable links.
Language Translation. Make web page readable across different languages and countries by providing language translation box.
Test Page Efficiency. Get someone to help test your site for navigation problem, link errors, and see if they are guided to take the expected action.

Frequently Asked Questions About Bounce Rate

1. Why do I suddenly see a low bounce rate from 70% to 1-2%?
This could happen if you have Analytic code placed in two different places, say on the header and footer. Remove one and the tracking metrics will normalize.
2. Is high bounce rate really bad?
It all depends on what the site is configured to do. If the visitor get what they want on a single landing page, then the high bounce rate is not bad. But a high bounce rate is generally believed to indicate poor engagement with visitors.
3. Does bounce rate affect my website search engine ranking?
The answer is a typical NO going by Google’s submission through Matt Cutts saying “Google Analytics is not used in search quality in any way for our rankings.”
4. How do I check my website bounce rate?
You have to install web page analytic code like Google Analytics on your website.
Image Credit: WP