What Is A Good Bounce Rate in Google Analytics | How To Improve It

What is a good bounce rate in google analytics? The bounce rate is one of the most misunderstood indicators in digital marketing. We tried to make the bounce rate easy to understand and what you can do to improve the bounce rate on your website.

• My bounce rate is over 50%, is that good or bad?
• What is a good bounce rate in Google Analytics?
• What factors influence your bounce rate and how can you reduce your bounce rate?
  

This question is a regular question that I keep getting asked. The aim of this article is that I examine in detail all the background information about the bounce rate and afterward you can better estimate the values for your bounce rate in Google Analytics:

Bounce Rate in Google Analytics?

Google’s definition of a jump is that only one page was accessed when the website was visited. The bounce rate results from bounces, i.e. visit a single page, divided by all sessions. Typically, the bounce rate is used as a measure of a website’s performance.

The bounce rate in Google Analytics is the percentage of sessions on your website where your users go to a page and then leave your website. In a simple definition, the bounce rate is the percentage (%) of 1-page views.

The bounce rate combined with session duration is probably one of the most commonly misinterpreted metrics in Google Analytics. Therefore I will give you a simple and then a detailed definition of the bounce rate.

How is the Bounce Rate Calculated?

The bounce rate – or bounce rate – is calculated from the total number of visits to a page divided by the total number of sessions on a website.

For example, if the homepage of a website has 1,000 visitors in the course of a month and 500 of these visitors leave the website after viewing the homepage without visiting other pages, the bounce rate of the homepage is 50%.

Detail Definition of the Bounce Rate:

In this simple example, with a standard implementation, a bounce rate of 75% would mean that 75% of all sessions were 1-sided sessions.

Basically, this definition of the bounce rate helps for an initial assessment. However, for a better assessment of the bounce rate you have to deal with the details. The better definition for the bounce rate would be as follows:

Definition: The bounce rate is the percentage of users who only interact during a session on the website. An interaction is e.g. a page view, but can also be an event or an e-commerce transaction hit.

100% bounce rate means that 100% of your sessions are “single interaction visits”. In web analytics, the bounce rate is an important indicator to assess the relevance of a country page or that of the source.

These interactions that can reduce the bounce rate include:

• Pageview hits (pageview)
• Event hits (event)
• Ecommerce transaction hits (eCommerce: add transaction)
• Ecommerce transaction item hits (eCommerce: addItem)
• Social plugin hits (social)

In all of these interactions, you can decide via the non-interaction value whether this hit reduces the bounce rate or not.

• ga (‘set’, ‘nonInteraction’, true); the bounce rate is not reduced
• ga (‘set’, ‘nonInteraction’, false); the bounce rate is reduced

Note: The non-interaction value refers to event tracking. This parameter can have the values ​​”true” or “false”. If this value is “true” the bounce rate is not reduced, the value of the parameter “false” the bounce rate is reduced.

For example, if you use events to measure events, as shown later, please consider very carefully whether you want the occurrence of this event to change your bounce rate or not.

What is the Difference Between the Bounce Rate and the Exit Rate?

The bounce rate is often confused with the exit rate, but there are big differences. The bounce rate measures the number of users who visit and leave a website immediately. The exit rate measures the number of visitors who leave a certain page.

The main difference between the two values ​​is that the exit rate measures the percentage of visitors who have left a particular page, but it does not say whether this was the only page that the user visited. Therefore, all jumps are exits, but not all exits are exits!

For example, if 100 people land on the homepage and 50 of these visitors leave the website without calling up another page, the bounce rate of the homepage is 50%. However, the homepage can receive 400-page impressions in the same period, of which only 100 are the last page impressions of the respective visits. In this case, the exit rate is 25%.

The exit rate should not be overinterpreted. A visitor to your website has to generate their last page view somewhere, so some pages will naturally have a high exit rate. You should take a close look at this metric in Funneln or multi-level contact forms, as they can indicate problems with usability there.

How Do You Interpret the Bounce Rate?

The bounce rate is a multi-faceted metric. In most cases, a high bounce rate is interpreted as bad, but it doesn’t have to be. To correctly interpret the bounce rate, you have to answer a few questions in advance:

• What does the user want?
• Is it a returning visitor or a new visitor?
• On which device did the user access the page?
• What type of landing page is it?
• How high is the landing page?
• What type of content is on the landing page?
• Which channel does the user come from?

Annotation:
A page-wide view of the bounce rate can act as a warning system, but should never serve as the basis for analyzes. The bounce rate varies greatly from channel to device to individual page. First develop a specific question before you start looking for an answer.

The amount of your bounce rate depends on the factors above. As soon as you are aware of these factors and are aware of the situation of the user and his “history”, you can start optimizing the bounce rate. By history, it means the traffic source. If, for example, users have visited the landing page via display ads, the design of the ad is an important factor in the bounce rate:

If the statement on the ad does not correspond to the statement of the landing page, the expectations of the user are not fulfilled and the user will quickly leave the page. Here is a quick solution to reduce the bounce rate again: promise the ad, adapt the landing page. The same procedure can be used for almost all paid traffic sources.

In order to optimize the bounce rate for each channel correctly, all relevant data such as campaign, content, and target group must be transferred to Google Analytics using UTM parameters.

In addition to the traffic source, the type of content also has a significant impact on the bounce rate:

Informational Content: Blog Posts

If the purpose of the site is only to inform, then a high bounce rate is even common. Such sites should of course also be interested in reducing the bounce rate. Of course, you want users to read multiple articles on your website, subscribe to your newsletter, or do other conversions.

One way to reduce the bounce rate on informative pages is to integrate targeted CTAs or related articles into the content through clever links, in order to provide the user with further information.

Lead Content: Bounce Rate on Landing Pages

If the purpose of a page is to actively engage with your website, i.e. to convert it, then a high bounce rate is wrong and can indicate errors. Let’s say you have a page that is designed to get visitors to sign up for your newsletter.

If this site has a high bounce rate, you may need to optimize the site and its usability. By adding a clear call to action, you could probably lower the bounce rate. If you do not have a clear call for action on your “lead content”, we should perhaps have a chat.

But there can of course also be other reasons for a high bounce rate on a newsletter registration page. If you have attracted traffic to the site with false promises, you should not be surprised if these visitors do not deal with your site. The expectations of users are one of the biggest factors influencing the bounce rate.

Site Engagement Model

We have developed our own online marketing strategy model as a basis for assessing and implementing online marketing strategies. This framework was inspired by models such as the conversion funnel or the AIDA principle.

More current studies on the bounce rate in e-commerce can be found here. Here you will find a page with current (2020) key figures benchmarks not only on the bounce rate but also on metrics such as

• Pages / session
• Share of sessions by device category or
• Conversion rates

According to an Adobe study from 2014 (there is also the 2015 study in the meantime), the benchmarks for bounce rate are dependent on some core business models:

• High Tech at 60% (Best of the Best 43%)
• Financial Services at 47% (Best of the Best 22%)
• Media & Entertainment at 59% (Best of the Best41%)
• Travel and Tourism at 45% (Best of the Best 34%)
• Retail at 63% (Best of the Best 44%)

In summary, a high bounce rate can simply mean that the expectations of the user do not match what the site offers. Possible reasons are that a) the source is not relevant or b.) The landing page does not meet the expectations of the user. Another study on bounce rate shows the following values ​​as a benchmark:

Study Benchmark Bounce Rates

Study benchmark bounce rates in your SEO checklist. Analyze how visitors engage with your website. Compare your bounce rates to industry standards to optimize user experience and retention.

• 0% – 45% for e-commerce sites
• 25% – 55% for BtB websites
• 30% – 55% for websites with the goal of generating leads
• 35% – 60% for more content-oriented websites
• 60% – 90% for promotional and landing pages
• 65% – 90% for content and news sites and other portals

But please don’t take these benchmarks as the holy grail, since the bounce rate depends on many factors. That is why an absolute view of the bounce rate does not make sense, but rather only a view with different segments (e.g. mobile, desktop, or tablet).

Which Factors Influence the Bounce Rate?

There are many factors that affect whether users leave or stay on your site. Basically, the bounce rate is a strong indicator for the qualitative analysis of the sources and the analysis of the country pages. But there is no such thing as an “optimal bounce rate” because the following factors affect your bounce rate:

• Source: Poor traffic quality often leads to high bounce rates.
• Relevance: Bad country pages.
• Page concept: Single landing pages usually have significantly higher bounce rates compared to router pages (start page).
• Brand: A lot of branded traffic or (direct) traffic tends to lead to low bounce rates (entry via the start page).
• SEO: A lot of organic traffic usually leads to high bounce rates.
• Technology: (Wrong) technical implementations in analytics often lead to changed bounce rates
• Mobile: Companies with an increasing share of mobile (social) traffic often have increasing bounce rates.

What is a Good Bounce Rate in Google Analytics?

It depends. There is no “typical” bounce rate. Given the multitude of website types and industries on the Internet that target a wide and diverse audience, it is difficult to generalize the bounce rate.

The definition of a “good” bounce rate is also quite subjective, based on the type of page and the source of the traffic.

For example, if this is an informative article that answers a specific question and the primary source of traffic is organic search, the bounce rate of the page is likely to be around 90% high.

That doesn’t mean the site is “bad” even though it has a high bounce rate. It could only mean that the searcher found exactly the information he was looking for and therefore no longer needed to see any pages.

Conversely, a page with a low bounce rate does not necessarily have to be “good”.

The following values ​​can be used as the basis for a rough guideline:

How Can You Improve the Bounce Rate?

There are many ways to improve a website’s bounce rate. Here are some of the best tactics:

• You should Optimize your loading time
• Optimize the traffic sources (ad texts, creatives, etc.)
• Make your content more accessible.
• Think about Google Analytics event tracking
• Include clear CTAs (Call To Actions)
• Use a sensible internal linking policy
• Must Optimize for mobile devices
• Properly Optimize your navigation

The Bounce Rate and Its Effect on Search Engine Optimization

There is a lot of discussion about whether the bounce rate is an SEO ranking factor. Fortunately, several Google employees say the same thing: Google doesn’t use Google Analytics data in its search algorithm.

Conversely, this does not mean that Google cannot measure jumps. It is a natural user behavior if you could not find the information you were looking for, automatically returned to the search results, and continued your search.

Important FAQs about the Bounce Rate

In the following, I want to answer a few important questions about the bounce rate. Do you have more questions about the bounce rate? Then leave your question here with us in the comments. We would be happy to answer your questions.

Conclusion and Thoughts on the Bounce Rate

The bounce rate is one of the most important indicators in Google Analytics. You can find out at a glance whether you are meeting the expectations of your visitors – or which pages need your attention. But always take a look under the hood.

A high bounce rate does not directly mean something bad and a low one does not directly mean something good. So always consider the bounce rate contextually. Think about the purpose of each page and how you can improve the usability.

But pay attention to the traffic source. Bring the right traffic to your website. When acquiring visitors, don’t just focus on good click-through rates, but rather pay attention to the quality of the traffic – then the bounce rate will automatically improve. For more information about Google Analytics, Bounce Rate click here.