Whether you have a website for your online business or you host a blog for a hobby you’re passionate about, analytics are important. Depending on your goals, you may keep your eye on different aspects of your analytics; but have you ever looked at your website’s bounce rate?

Today we’ll be discussing everything you need to know about bounce rates, why it’s something you should be paying attention to, and what it can mean for your website! Let’s talk more about what exactly a bounce rate is.

What Is A Bounce Rate?

You may be asking yourself, “What does bounce rate mean in Google Analytics?”, and that’s a fair question. Bounce rate is a word used online to measure the number of people that go to your website and do nothing on the page they landed on.

If someone is on your website and doesn’t click on any links, scroll to view the menu or click on an article headline, the bounce rate measures just that. It’s as if the person never visited your website in the first place, as Google Analytics won’t track them as a trafficked visitor. Bounce rate is essentially someone coming to your website without engaging in anything and then leaving.

Why Do Bounce Rates Matter?

Bounce rates play a big role in your analytics. If you have a high bounce rate, which you don’t want, it could mean that your website isn’t engaging enough. It could also mean your website is coming up in irrelevant searches. People visiting your page that don’t do anything don’t count towards your web pages traffic either.

On the other hand, having a low bounce rate percentage means that the people visiting your website are highly engaged, which if your website is for products or services, could lead to more sales.

Google Analytics And Bounce Rates

Google Analytics is a great tool that offers you to take a look into the numbers behind your company’s online presence. Google uses the following phrase to define the way they calculate bounce rate:

“Bounce rate is single-page session 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.”

How To Find Your Actual Bounce Rate

When it comes to tracking your bounce rate, you will receive a percentage that defines the bounce rate of your website. Before we show you how to find your bounce rate, we’ve included a list of what the number you get means, so you’re able to know how your website scores.

• 80%+ is extremely bad
• 70 – 80% is poor
• 50 – 70% is about average
• 30 – 50% is incredible
• 20% or below is either outstanding or a tracking error

Follow the steps below to use Google Analytics to find your actual bounce rate for your entire website:

1. Sign into your Google Analytics account.
2. Choose which website you’d like to see the bounce rate of.
3. You’ll now be able to see the “audience overview” page.
4. Select “Bounce Rate”.

If you want to find the bounce rate for specific pages within your website, use the following directions:

1. Sign into your Google Analytics account.
2. Choose which website hosts the pages you’re looking for the bounce rate of.
3. You should be looking at the audience overview page.
4. Select “Behavior”.
5. Click on “All pages”.
6. You’ll then be able to click on and view bounce rates of different pages within a website!

Lastly, you’ll be able to find the bounce rate for specific dates using the directions listed below:

1. Start out by signing into your Google Analytics account.
2. Select which website you’d like to view the bounce rate of.
3. This will take you to the audience overview page.
4. Select the dates and times you’d like to view by adjusting the options on the top right.
5. Select “Bounce Rate”.

Viola! You are now able to check your bounce rates in three different ways! Let’s talk a bit more about what having a low or high bounce rate means to you and your website.

Having A High Bounce Rate

Having a high bounce rate should be a cause for concern. There may be a number of reasons you’re seeing a high percentage when it comes to your website’s bounce rate. Let’s talk about this more in detail to help you avoid or fix a high bounce rate.

Quality

If you have low-quality content on your web pages, people aren’t likely to be that engaged. There is nothing on a low-quality site that invites people to want to explore or click to find out more.

Audience

An audience won’t stick around if it’s in the wrong place. Try thinking of it from the audience’s point of view. If you’re looking for a puppy to adopt but wind up on a site that sells birds, the visitor will probably leave that site to find one that fits what they need.

Pop-Ups

Do you have a lot of pop-ups on your website? If so, this could be something that’s turning visitors off. Pop-ups disrupt the user’s experience and can be a pet peeve to a lot of people. Avoid them if you can.

Nothing New

If you don’t keep your website updated, people won’t be clicking around too much. This is especially true for people who have visited the site before looking for something. If that’s the case, you may actually be doubling your bounce rate without even knowing it.

Information

There are so many websites available; it can be hard to differ from one to the next. If you have the same information as similar websites, your bounce rate may increase. This could be because the visitor isn’t finding the information they are looking for or they already know the information in the first place.

How To Lower High Bounce Rates

The best way to lower high bounce rates is to increase the engagement on your website. If you increase your engagement, your bounce rate will automatically decrease. Another thing you can do is to look at the information you’ve provided. Maybe your website doesn’t have what people are searching for.

You can search your site’s keywords and see what competitor sites have or ask your friends, family, and colleagues what they’d want to see on a website like yours.

If you haven’t already, check where you’re advertising. If you own a company that specializes in leather goods, you wouldn’t want to be advertised on a website that has mostly vegan visitors. Having your ads in the right place will give you the best audience and keep your bounce rates low.

Next, you’ll read about what having a low bounce rate requires. You can use that section to come up with ways to lower your bounce rate and keep folks sticking around your website.

Having A Low Bounce Rate

Having a low bounce rate is a great thing to see when you’re looking at your analytics. Chances are you or someone on your team has put in the work to keep the percentage low. Here are a few things that can play a part in having a true low bounce rate:

Engaging Content

If your website has engaging content, you’re more likely to have visitors clicking all around. Even if they’re just checking out a blog post, the menu, or your latest products, it’s keeping them on your website while staying engaged. There are plenty of ways websites keep their visitors engaged; you’re probably incorporating a lot of them if people are sticking around.

Keywords

Chances are, you’re using the right keywords if you have a low bounce rate. Using the correct keywords is an easy way to make sure you’re getting the best audience for your website. If people like what keywords you’re using, they’ll be clicking around to check out what you have to offer.

Up-To-Date

It doesn’t matter what your website is for; if you have fresh content, you’ll have more visitors. Having new, up-to-date posts for your audience to interact with is a great way to keep your bounce rate low. You may also repurpose old content so that it is more relevant to the time people are looking at your site.

Different Than Competitors

Whether you have unique products, services, or just different information than your competitors, any of those are reasons for people to stay on your website rather than another. This is why it’s important to not have a website that contains the same information or products that people can find on 100 other websites.

Effort

Simply put, if you’re putting in the effort to maintain a low bounce rate, that is what is causing you to have a low bounce rate. This is a time to pat yourself on the back because the work you and your team are putting in is paying off.

Final Words

So, what does bounce rate mean in Google Analytics? You’ll now be able to answer that question to anyone that asks and let your team know so they can keep track of the information they need to. Paying attention to your bounce rate is crucial for running a successful website. There are plenty of ways to lower your bounce rate if it is too high. Make sure you have the correct audience and that your website is not only updated often but engaging to all types of visitors.

It’s also good to keep in mind that just because your bounce rate is high, that isn’t necessarily your fault. People close out of websites without engaging for a number of reasons; just make sure those reasons aren’t things you could change to improve your numbers.