For example, you are a freelance blogger. You have a website, and you want to have huge traffic and excellent website statistics.
One of the critical website statistics is bounce rate.
What Does Bounce Rate Mean in Google Analytics?
The bounce rate in Google Analytics represents the percentage of single-interaction visits to a website. For example, if the user opens a single page on the website and then exits without visiting any other page, the bounce rate is 100%. The bounce rate can be calculated as single-page sessions divided by all sessions.
Now that we know what a bounce rater means let’s use this information to examine the numbers. So, what is considered a high bounce rate in Google Analytics?
What is the high bounce rate?
By definition, a high bounce rate is any rate above 70 percent. Usually, websites with bounce rates up to 40 percent have low bounce rates, up to 55 percent average bounce rate, and 55-70 above-average bounce rate.
Many web admins will panic because their websites have a 90% bounce rate. There are many wrong opinions that a high bounce rate is terrible for a website. However, Google and intelligent web admins know that a high bounce rate is not always alarming.
I will give you an example.
You wrote the article “How to fix Google Chrome black screen.” You presented steps on fixing the problem and image and video solutions and created an excellent article. So when somebody has a problem with Google Chrome’s black screen, they will visit your website, see the answer, close your page, and fix the problem in Google Chrome. The visitor will not intend to read all your articles because they have a problem and want to solve it. You can be ranked number 1 in Google search for the “How to fix Google Chrome black screen” term. But, this article will have a high bounce rate, maybe above 90%.In this case, it is normal.
Is a high bounce rate good or bad?
A high bounce rate can be normal or bad for website success. If a website has a technical error, slow loading, or low-quality content, a high bounce rate is bad for website success. However, if single-page sessions are expected and the website articles are response posts that help answer the particular question, then a high bounce rate is normal.
Let us see what Google thinks about a high bounce rate:
Is a high bounce rate always alarming? A high bounce rate is always wrong if we have a landing page and we want to make the conversion. However, if the website owner has “response articles,” single-page sessions are expected; it is a regular thing.
Let us go deeper now. Which conclusions can we make using bounce rate?
What does a high bounce rate indicate?
A high bounce rate can indicate:
- Excellent response post, where single-page sessions are expected, and a high bounce rate is average.
- Slow loading page. Visitors may get fed up and leave.
- Low-quality content. Visitors do not read the content.
- Click-bait headlines –Misleading Title.
- Blank page or technical error
- The page is not mobile-friendly.
High bounce rate and excellent response post
In this case, Google Analytics will show a high bounce rate but a several-minute average time on the page.
If I see that my article has a high bounce rate and less than 30 seconds is the average time on the page, I usually have a problem with that article. In that case, I am trying to change the content and make it more engaging, with a few interlinking links created based on the topic.
Website owners can quickly determine traffic problems by using average page time, organic page views, and bounce rate.
How do we reduce the high bounce rate?
A high bounce rate can be reduced only if visitors visit another page after reading the landing page’s content. The website owner can reduce the bounce rate by adding a few links with a call to action in a website post and better formatting article content. For example, if the website owner adds 20 lesson courses, visitors will go to another lesson page after each lesson, and the bounce rate will be low. Of course, all technical errors, slow speed page errors, non-mobile-friendly website pages, etc., are errors that each website needs to correct to have a better position ranking and lower bounce rate.
The biggest problem in the industry is the high bounce rate of landing pages. In that case, the website owner must create several landing pages with different colors, links, call-to-action text, and designs. After a lot of testing, the best page configuration can be made. This sounds easy, but it is a very complicated and costly task—however, no magic formula exists for lowering the landing page’s bounce rate.
On my website, I do not write long or short articles. My only task is to share my knowledge and experience easily and precisely.
Learn more about authors in Nimblefreelancer's team biography page.