A bounce rate is the percentage of people who leave after viewing only a single page on a website. It is the percentage used to determine the number of people who viewed a page and then left without performing a certain action. It can include staying on the page for a certain time, signing up for a newsletter, or making a purchase. Bounce rate can also be defined as the percentage used to measure single-page sessions that did not interact with the page.
The average bounce rate for most websites is between 26% to 70%. But bounce rates also depend on the context. For example, it can vary depending on the industry and traffic of a website. To measure bounce rates, you must first understand your company’s goals. High bounce rates on a single-page session can be positive for certain websites; for others, a lower bounce rate is good.
In this articel you’ll find:
- Is Bounce Rate a Ranking Factor In Search Results?
- Is There An Average Bounce Rate?
- What Is The Reason For Bounce?
- 6 Ways To Reduce Bounce Rate
- Wrapping Up
- Related Reads
Is Bounce Rate a Ranking Factor In Search Results?
Google has said that bounce rate is not a ranking factor. It is just a metric and does not influence rankings in the search results. However, studies have been conducted to understand if there is any correlation between the two. Using the bounce rate percentage, you can improve your website’s quality, which can affect search results.
A higher bounce rate means that your website might be lacking in SEO factors like
- A slow loading speed.
- Low-quality design of the website.
- Mobile optimization is poor.
- Gap between the content and keywords.
You can improve your website’s bounce rate by addressing these issues. Aim for a lower bounce rate keeping your website goals in mind. For example, it is perfectly normal for a single-page site to have single-page sessions. A lower bounce rate means the website has good engagement with the audience and is useful to them. Google cares a lot about websites that have good engagement.
Is There An Average Bounce Rate?
Many studies have been conducted, and much data has been collected to find the average bounce rate. Some say it is somewhere between 26% to 70%, while others say it is between 41% to 51%. However, it should be noted that the bounce rates depend on the industry and where the traffic comes from.
For context, here are the average bounce rates of various websites.
- E-commerce and retail – 20 to 45 percent
- B2B – 25 to 45 percent
- Lead generation – 35 to 55 percent
- Landing pages – 60 to 90 percent
- Blogs, portals, dictionaries – 65 to 90 percent
- Non-eCommerce content – 35 to 65 percent
Bounce rate is also influenced by where your website traffic comes from. Here are some of the average bounce rates according to the traffic sources.
- Organic Search – 43.60%
- Direct Search – 49.90%
- Paid Search – 44.10%
- Display Advertising – 56.50%
- Social media – 54%
- Email – 35.20%
- Referral – 37.50%
For better results, you must first determine a good bounce rate for your website using Google Analytics and how it compares to your competitors.
What Is The Reason For Bounce?
These are some common reasons why some websites have a high bounce rate.
1. If a home page has a slow loading time, there is a high chance that people will bounce. Improving your site speed can also affect search engine rankings.
2. Not optimizing your website for mobile can also lead to people bouncing. To have a low bounce rate, you must ensure that the website is optimized for tablets and smartphones.
3. Giving all the information on the landing page can also be a reason for a high bounce rate. This is not necessarily bad, but if all the information is on the first page, people won’t have to click on a link and go to the next page. You can give the reader an idea of the content but add the remaining information on the next page. For some sites, like dictionaries, a high bounce rate would not be an issue because their objectives can be met without having to view more than one page.
You must compel people to click on relevant links so they will take action and go to relevant pages within your website. It would be best if you give website visitors a reason in order to do that. This can be done by giving just an idea of the content, a preview so that they will be interested to learn more about it and follow up on it on the next page.
4. Another reason is that your site content might need improvement. If people think the content is bad or if it is irrelevant, chances are they will leave the website. Make sure to focus on the quality of the content by providing relevant information to the search queries people would normally make.
5. A bad UI can also be the reason that people leave your website. If the website is laggy and the animations are obnoxious, people might not stay to read the content. Spend some time making the website smoother and improving the overall user experience.
6 Ways To Reduce Bounce Rate
To improve your bounce rate, you must focus on
1. Faster page loading speed
People on the internet expect fast results all the time. Apart from network issues, it is important for people that a website loads really fast. You can implement small changes like reducing the size of the images and compressing them before loading them to the site, only using the available display size, etc. These changes can help towards improving user engagement.
You can also check to see if there are load-heavy scripts the website doesn’t necessarily need. Also, see if there are other faster plug-in options. You can even set up browser caching and use CDN, CSS, and Minify Javascript.
2. Optimize the UI for all devices
It is not uncommon for people to use their smartphones and tablets to shop, read and research these days. If a particular page is fast on a computer but slow on a mobile phone, it is because the page is not optimized for all devices. Users have many devices, and making the website faster on all of them is necessary. Mobile devices have the highest bounce rate, so make the UI experience faster on phones before other devices like tablets, PCs, etc.
3. Adding internal links
Adding relevant internal links can improve the chances of users taking action on your website. You can add internal links to other relevant content on your website so that users will be compelled to stay on the site for longer. It is important to not just focus on individual pages but also ensure the internal links are purposeful and relevant to the content they are looking for.
4. Using subheadings and making the content easy to read
Users are always in a hurry to find what they are looking for and often expect answers quickly. To make things easier for them, you can add subheadings to the content to make it easier for the user to find what they need. Adding white space can also help make things look better.
5. Using SERP analysis to satisfy search intent
Users expect relevant answers when searching for something in the search engine. Always keep the search intent in mind and give the user what they searched for by giving them relevant results.
You can conduct SERP analysis to determine what users want to see for a keyword. You can use keywords to give the searchers what they want and reduce the chances of them bouncing back to the search results. Use Google Analytics to get detailed information and reduce your bounce rate.
6. Using a table of contents to guide the user through the webpage
Using a table of contents is the easiest way to make a user-friendly website. You can use a table of contents on the page and quickly lead them to the relevant content.
Wrapping Up
Bounce rates are just a metric used to measure the number of visitors who visit your website but leave without taking any further action. It is merely an expression used to represent the proportion of single-page visits. It can be used as a measure to see how your website is performing, and it is important to consider it. You can implement the above tips to give your website a lower bounce rate.
