Are Visitors “Bouncing” from Your Website?
If we are talking about trampolines, basketballs or even Tigger from Winnie the Pooh, being bouncy is a wonderful thing. If we are talking about your website, though, being bouncy is not so wonderful. In fact, it could be downright disastrous.
A website’s “Bounce Rate” represents the percentage of visits in which the visitor lands on only one page within your website and then leaves instantly. In other words, the visitor arrives on your site, finds no reason to click anywhere or visit any other part of your site, and then leaves to go to another site.
As Google’s Analytics Evangelist Avinash Kaushik describes it:
…rather than I came, I saw, I conquered, the action is I came, I saw, Yuck, I am out of here.
How many people are bouncing from your website? Do you know?
Although the Bounce Rate is going to vary based on the type of site and the type of web page, the higher the rate the worse it is for your business. Typically a Bounce Rate over 50% is something to be seriously concerned about, as it would mean that the majority of your site visitors are not compelled to spend more time with your brand. Worse yet, it could potentially mean that your website is completely turning them off.
You can easily find the Bounce Rate for your site in your web analytics package. The Bounce Rate can be filtered to represent the percentage of visits to your entire website, to your website from specific sources (e.g., Google organic search, online ads, partner sites) and even to specific pages within your site regardless of source.
Examining your site’s Bounce Rates can be illuminating. The Bounce Rate can reveal poor performing online marketing campaigns, just as it can reveal site content that does not resonate with your target audience.
When you see high Bounce Rates, try testing alternatives. Perhaps you need to test a new page header, or new Calls-to-Action on your web page, or different imagery, or the length of text on the web page, or the addition of contextually relevant links, or…you get the idea. Or perhaps there are web pages that you need to eliminate altogether.
So dig into your web analytics, leverage your Bounce Rate, and take corrective action to improve your website and online marketing ROI.
These are just a few tips to help you improve your website. If you need additional help, let me know below or at www.WebsiteMarketingNOW.com. Thanks!
April 14th, 2009 at 11:09 am
Thanks, I really need to do some proper analysis on my sites. One has a bounce rate of 50% (phew borderline, but still needs some work), the other is a whopping 90%. It is still early days for both, but it is now time to get some proper work done on them.
April 14th, 2009 at 5:55 pm
Love, love, love the information I receive on this site each time I visit!
April 16th, 2009 at 1:11 pm
I agree with Tracy. Your info is always RIGHT ON and PERFECT TIMING! Thank you!
April 17th, 2009 at 4:44 am
Garry - Yes, try testing different headers, images, calls-to-action, etc. and see if that might help improve your bounce rates. It’s easy to test, and very much worth the effort.
Tracy & Anna - Thank you for the positive feedback. I am thrilled that you are finding the information to be useful. I’ll strive to provide you with more and more good stuff to take your websites and online marketing to the next level, so check back for additional blog posts each week!
April 17th, 2009 at 10:43 am
Hi Tom. My blog is hosted by wordpress.com. That site doesn’t provide the in-depth web analytics info like the resources you mentioned. Could I still track my bounce rate?
April 20th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
Great article and information. Google analytics is a great tool. Bounce rate issues are very important indeed and usually the starting point for many site owners to improve upon.
April 21st, 2009 at 1:00 pm
Thomas - Check out the Google Analytics plugin for WordPress at:
http://yoast.com/wordpress/google-analytics/
You can find a number of other useful WordPress plugins listed in the following StartupNation article as well:
http://www.startupnation.com/articles/9407/1/wordpress-plugins-superpower-your-blog.htm
Hope this is helpful.
Tom
April 23rd, 2009 at 10:55 am
What about when most of the content is on the page the visitor lands on? For example, a blog might have 2-3 full posts on the home page.
Would this inflate bounce rate? If so, would Time on Site be a better indicator? Both are important, but wonder if a high bounce rate can be deceiving as well.
April 23rd, 2009 at 10:46 pm
People can get too focused on bounce rates.
For example … if your site is a tightly focused niche and each page focuses on one unique product would it not be unusual to have a high bounce rate?
Think about this for a while. If your site has a high bounce rate and visitors stay for a few minutes and conversions are great then a high bounce rate is welcome. This means each page is unique enough that the search engines have it well indexed and people do not have to search around on your site. In other words 100% bounce rate with high conversions and a visitor stay of several minutes can be a great thing.
April 24th, 2009 at 6:54 am
Tyler - Thanks for your questions. The KPI (key performance indicators) for any website need to align to the business objectives of the site. Therefore, in certain cases Time on Site is going to be a useful metric, I agree. Publication sites and social networking sites are examples that would find Time on Site particularly useful.
I think you need to go deeper than this, though, when correlating it to Bounce Rates. Think, even if there is significant content or several blog posts on a single page, is a single-page view the ideal visitor experience? How does it align to your business model and website objectives?
The blog post speaks to Bounce Rates in relation to business websites. A business website should have a clear objective, whether a sale, lead-capture, subscription sign-up, store locator request, trial download, registration, etc. These types of conversion events typically involve more than one page view. Even with a blog or publisher relying on ad sales, most of these sites can charge higher ad rates with higher Page Views, and so reducing Bounce Rates is going to be important to the business.
Hope that this is helpful.
Tom
April 24th, 2009 at 7:08 am
Mark - Thanks for your comments. I agree that you should look at more than one metric to judge the success of a website. It all comes down to whether your website is achieving results aligned to the business objective of the site.
Again, though, most conversion events (sale, request for info, lead-capture, registration, download, etc.) involve more than one Page View, and so in that sense, a high Bounce Rate could be a danger sign. And as mentioned above, a publisher or blog relying on ad sales is going to want to drive multiple Page Views in order to increase ad rates.
Also, I personally view Bounce Rates as an excellent basis for testing. Let’s say that you have high conversion rates, but a high Bounce Rate as well. This to me indicates an opportunity to test various elements on your web pages to verify if you could juice your conversion rates further with a lower Bounce Rate. Testing can produce results that can be hard to predict, and so testing is often highly worthwhile.
Hope this is helpful.
Tom
May 5th, 2009 at 6:56 pm
Hi Tom,
Great article on something many small business owners overlook. I thought I’d add my own 2 cents as well…
It’s important to consider where the visitor came from, and what key words they were using, when they found your site.
I’ve discovered on my own sites that certain referral sources or key words result in a 100% bounce rate. But I’m okay with that because they clearly weren’t looking for what I offer (For example, I wrote a blog post about Pizza Hut’s natural pizza, and whether that was a good marketing strategy for them or not. Folks searching for Pizza Hut natural pizza and landing on my blog are likely not part of my target market so they should bounce).
People who come to my site from the right referral sources and key words tend to stick around and take action. Anyone searching for small business marketing tips or ideas, and folks who come to my sites via my online articles or social networking profiles generally find what they’re after on my Website. In those instances my bounce rate is always 50% or less.
Just more food for though…
Warmest,
Stacy
Stacy Karacostas
Practical Marketing Expert
May 5th, 2009 at 10:04 pm
Thanks, Stacy. Yes, absolutely, when analyzing Bounce Rates, check the source. I completely agree with you. Different sources may have very different Bounce Rates.
In addition to your examples, one may find low Bounce Rates and high conversion rates from specific sources, and this may be an indicator to increase investment towards such sources through advertising, promotion, sponsorship, partnership or other form of marketing investment to fully capitalize on the market opportunity from such source.
-Tom
May 25th, 2009 at 7:44 pm
All I can say is Rut,..Row. My site is in big trouble then. Your artical has been so helpful you just dont know,..and you worded it so well that even me a newbie can comprehend it.
May 26th, 2009 at 8:45 am
Thank you, Juanita. I am glad to hear that the article has been helpful.
FYI, I just published another post that you may find helpful with your website: 15 Questions to Measure the Success of Your Home Page:
http://www.startupnation.com/blogs/index.php/2009/05/26/15-questions-to-measure-the-strength-of-your-home-page/
Your website is a great cause, and I thank you for your efforts in putting it together!
-Tom