Table of Contents:

1. What is Google Analytics Bounce Rates?
2. Why are Bounce Rates Important?
3. How can I Improve my Website's Bounce Rate?
4. Bounce Rate FAQs

Google Analytics Bounce Rate.  What is it?

The Google Analytics Bounce rate is the percentage of single-page visits to your website. Google Analytics defines a single-page visit as when somebody views only one page on your site before leaving. High bounce rates can indicate that people are not finding what they want on your site or may find it confusing to navigate. Low bounce rates can mean that visitors are staying longer with content and engaging more with the design of the website.

Bounce rates vary by industry, but research suggests that most websites' average bounce rate fall in between 40% - 60%. A high bounce rate may be acceptable for some industries, while others will need to work harder at improving their user experience in order for visitors to stay longer on their pages.

Why is the Google Analytics Bounce Rate Important?

Bounce rate is important because it can impact SEO and how Google ranks your site. High bounce rates (over 90%) may negatively impact how high you rank since this may indicate that there are not compelling reasons for visitors to stick around after they have arrived at your website. In addition, google page experience is a metric that impacts your site's performance in google search console.  If you have a low page experience, this could impact your bounce rate metric.

What Can I Improve my Website's Bounce Rate?

Here are 5 tips on how to improve your bounce rate in google

1.  Make it easy for people to find what they're looking for:

It's important that your content is easily accessible and you can do this by organizing all of the information on your site in an intuitive way, from the way it is structured to how quickly new content gets added. A good rule of thumb is to make all content findable and accessible within 3 clicks.  If content is too difficult to find or the user has to navigate through complicated steps and multiple web pages, website visitors may get frustrated and leave your site.

2.  Give people something to do:

People need a reason to stay on your site and one way you can provide this is by offering additional services such as free trials, webinars or downloads which gives users an incentive to stick around and browse more than one web page. Experiment with different offers that would be relevant to your target audience and measure the performance of your offers using Google Analytics.  Positive changes should improve your bounce rate metrics and improve your average bounce rate.  If you notice an increase in your bounce rates after you make a substantial change on your web page, then make the necessary changes to reverse or improve the site content.

3.  Fix broken links:

Make sure all links from banner ads, images, videos and other media work properly to avoid frustrating visitors who may get annoyed that they cannot click on a link or complete a download because it has gone down. This also impedes SEO since crawlers cannot access the content even though it may be visible on the page. You can run a free website audit on your website that will show you errors that are site-wide as well as particular page errors that may be on your website.  Site audits cover broken links, missing alt text on images, slow loading pages, site map errors, broken internal links and external links, missing or duplicate meta description issues and more.

4.  Reduce above-the-fold distractions:

In an attempt to increase engagement, many website designers use popups and other types of ads to automatically load once users visit a web page. Although this may help your bounce rate in google analytics, it could also discourage visitors from exploring your website further.  Instead of focusing on increasing the number of clicks to get people to stay longer on your site, it is also important that you focus more on improving user experience instead of proving more distractions for users once they arrive at your site.

5.  Make content easily accessible:

Once you have made changes based on the tips above, you should also make sure that your site is mobile friendly. A lot of people do their research on their mobile phones and it's important to ensure they can access your website from the devices they're using.  If a visitor cannot view your content or easily navigate around your site on a mobile device then there's a really good chance that they will leave your site and find another one that is more convenient to use.

Bounce Rate FAQS

What is considered a high bounce rate?

Typically, anything over 80% is considered a high bounce rate. If you calculate your website's average bounce rate by adding up all of the sessions and dividing it by the number of sessions to get an average would generally be around 60%. This typically means that people are staying on your site for about one minute or less, which can indicate that you need to improve the user experience on your site.

What are bounce rate calculations based on and how does google interpret bounce rate?

Bounce rate calculations are based on the percentage of single-page visits to a website and reflects how often users navigate away from your site after they first land on it. It is important to note that not all site admins track their bounce rates in Google Analytics, but even if you don't have access to these metrics, your webmaster can still take measures to make sure your site content is accessible and easy to use.

What are some common factors that can cause a high bounce rate?

Some of the most common causes are difficult to navigate websites, pages with slow load time, popups or ads that automatically load, incorrect meta description information on an unattractive web page and having too many links.

What is a single page session mean?

When a website visitor visits only a single page on your website before exiting. 

Is bounce rate an accurate metric?

It can be misleading because there are many factors that affect your website's bounce rate. Your overall goal should be to improve the quality of your content and make it easier for prospects to find what they're looking for.

What is the average number of pages visited on a site?

According to Google Analytics, 3 sessions out of 5 will have more than one single page sessions, which would make the average bounce rates around 60%.

What if I only have a single page site?

In this case, you would have a 100% bounce rate because your site visitors will only land on a single page before leaving. However, if you have a landing page site, you can still have hidden internal pages that you can link visitors to through call to action buttons, blog post links, form submission landing pages and other internal content. 

Bounce rate google analytics - do they impact search results for my site?

Google has indicated that they don't use bounce rate as a factor in search engine ranking.  It's also important to know that user experience is a factor to consider that is a ranking factor.  It's safe to assume that if you have a high bounce rate in google analytics, that it may be that you may want to improve your website experience, edit content on web pages and consider optimizing your site experience around the user.

Leverage The Data To Improve Your Website

In Summary, improving your website bounce rate in google analytics begins with having a well-structured site that's easy to navigate and clearly communicates the information you're trying to get across. Also it's important that you regularly track changes on your website so that you can see if the updates you made will improve user engagement and overall satisfaction.

About The Stack Group

The Stack Group is a full-service digital marketing agency based in Agawam, MA. The Stack Group provides a comprehensive suite of services to organizations and individuals looking to establish a strong online presence. Services include: Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Social Media Marketing, PPC Campaigns, Web Design & Development as well as Content Marketing Strategy among others.