21. What is meant by bounce rate?
Everyone who has ever had a website knows the term bounce rate. With Google analytics spreading its wings as a free tool for site analytics, more and more number of website owners have access to data which they want to comprehend. Bounce rate is one such data point which analytics provides. So what is bounce rate?
Bounce rate refers to the percentage of visitors who have only viewed a single page of your website and for some reason did not delve or explore further into the website. How effective is bounce rate in aiding website design and content decisions? The answer is that, it all depends on how you analyse the data as whole and not just on the basis of this one parameter.
For e.g. If visitors arrives on a page on your website from a search engine listing and the page answers their query, they may just leave satisfied, but in your analytics console this will be considered a bounced visitor. This despite the fact that there is nothing wrong with your page. In most cases when people talk about bounce rate, the reference is to the home page.
Is bounce rate important? Ofcourse, if your website has a high bounce rate, it could mean the content on your website may not be relevant to the visitors. Furthermore, it may be relevant but may not be well written or appealing to the visitors. What could be more disheartening is that your website navigation may not be up to the mark, thereby pushing visitors away. You must note that the online visitor takes barely a few seconds to decide whether he should continue exploring your website or click away.
Bounce rate also depends on the kind of website you have. High bounce rates could mean that your competitor is doing something right, which you are not. If you need any website analytics services contact us
