Website bounce rate (Bounce Rate) is a very important indicator, but many web resource owners, site administrators and marketers do not attach importance to it. However, its high values indicate that the content of the site does not meet the expectations of visitors.
Attention! The reason for the high number of failures may lie in insufficiently fast page loading, ill-conceived navigation, or the absence of a version of the resource designed to be displayed on mobile devices.
The standard reaction of a visitor to all of the above factors is to leave the site.
At low values of this indicator, we can talk about a good optimization of the resource to get high-quality traffic and high conversion. After reading this article, you will learn how the bounce rate is calculated, for what reasons it can increase and how you can reduce it.
What is bounce rate?
The bounce rate is defined in Google Analytics as the ratio of the number of users who left a web resource after viewing only one page, to the total number of hits. In other words, using this parameter, you can estimate the share of those who needed one page to get acquainted with the content of the resource.
Rejection is recorded by the system if:
Session timed out;
The visitor returned to the search results;
The user entered the URL of another resource in the browser;
The normal bounce rate can vary depending on the theme and type of site. Here are examples of values that can be considered quite satisfactory in various areas:
Resources advertising services and services – from 10 to 30%;
Online stores (eCommerce) – from 20 to 40%;
Narrow-topic article sites – from 40 to 60%;
One-pagers (Landing Page) – from 70 to 90%;
Personal or corporate blogs – 70 to 98%.
These values can be used as a guideline. True, one should not relax even if the coefficient is at a low level. After all, a technical error could also reduce the indicator:
A bounce rate of 0% or 100% for certain pages may result in a large impact of spam traffic on Google Analytics statistics;
Violation of event tracking logic: for example, tracking is configured to fill out a feedback form or watch a video, which, it seems, does not load until a few seconds after the page is loaded. In this case, the bounce rate will tend to the maximum;
The page contains the code for several Google Analytics counters. This will result in duplicate information about the actions of one visitor.
What causes a high bounce rate?
Design and layout of the site. Visitors may not appreciate too fanciful color combinations, small fonts, text on a black background. Make sure that the page opens well for the user at any screen resolution, and the content is convenient and comfortable to read.
Page loading speed. Speed is especially important on smartphones, as the site can open over mobile Internet, which is not fast enough to load heavy scripts, pictures and style sheets.
First screen. As you know, the first impression is the most important. According to various studies, the user decides whether to look further on the opened page during the first couple of seconds. It is at this time that you need to meet in order to intrigue him and make him scroll further. The first screen should have a highly visible title that reveals the essence of the content of the page, so that the visitor immediately understands that he has come to the right address. The first screen should be equally informative both on the mobile version of the site and on the desktop.
Wrong choice of landing page. The document to which the advertisement leads the user must be fully relevant to his request. The ideal situation is that when a user enters the query “vinyl white wallpaper”, a catalog page with white vinyl wallpaper should open in front of him. Then the conversion will be high, and the bounce rate will be minimal.
How is bounce rate calculated in Google Analytics?
Different search engines calculate bounce rates according to their own algorithms. So, for example, the bounce rate in Google Analytics and Yandex.Metrika on the same resource can differ significantly from each other.
Google Analytics records as a failure a session during which only one page of the site was viewed. The total session time does not matter. Google doesn’t count visits that result in multiple page views, targeted actions, or link clicks as bounces. The parameter value is defined as a percentage of the total number of visits for the selected time interval.
Help! According to Google’s reference information, bounces include visits during which there was only one call to the Analytics servers.
How to reduce the bounce rate on the site – actual ways
Next, let’s look at current ways to reduce the bounce rate.
Speed up your website
You should start with a completely logical step – increasing the download speed. The average visitor is ready to wait no more than three seconds to open the page to receive information. After all, at his disposal a huge number of options offered by the search engine. Therefore, as soon as the visitor realizes that it takes too long to load, he closes the browser tab.
Advice! If you notice that the bounce rate is creeping up, compare the dynamics of the bounce rate value and the time it takes for an average resource page to load. This will help confirm or refute the hypothesis that the increase in the indicator is associated with a drop in the loading speed of the website.
Work on responsiveness
The lion’s share of search queries on the Internet today is entered through mobile devices. And if your site has problems with adequate display on such devices, you are likely to lose precious traffic. Check the correctness and loading speed of the site on tablets and smartphones.
Advice! With the help of reports in Google Analytics, you can identify the types of devices most popular with your visitors. Optimize pages for them.
It is convenient to check the adaptability and correctness of the display of the mobile version of the site in the Google Mobile-Friendly Test.
Update your content
An important aspect that is often forgotten is the relevance of the data. Portals with a branched multipage structure typically suffer from this issue.
Important! Keep track of the relevance of the content in each section of the site, and pay special attention to the pages involved in advertising campaigns.
Include the publication date of the information. So the user will be able to understand how relevant this or that material is for him.
Track the relevancy of pages to the queries that ads are set up for. A long list of keywords allows you to expand your audience, but if some of them do not match the content of the landing page, you can expect an increase in the bounce rate in Google Analytics.
Disable Intrusive Ads
Don’t scare off visitors with numerous ad units and Pop-Ups. Unable to focus on really useful information due to flickering banners and windows overlapping content, an annoyed visitor closes the tab with the site.
Advice! You don’t have to completely stop using pop-ups. You can get rid of obtrusiveness by showing such ads after a certain time interval after the page has loaded or when the user hovered over the button to close the tab.
Optimize site search
About a third of all visitors search the site for more information. Therefore, it must be comfortable. This not only has a positive effect on conversion, but will also reduce the bounce rate on the site.
According to recent research, 42% of organizations do not attach any importance to this aspect, and only 15% optimize internal search. Only you decide which category to put yourself in.
Check traffic quality
The bounce rate may increase due to the high percentage of inappropriate traffic that is generated through the use of certain advertising channels and keywords. So, for example, if your business is the sale of dishwashers, then you should not include requests related to their repair or maintenance in your advertising campaign. Most likely, the visitor will leave the site without finding what he was looking for.
Important! Lead your audience to well-designed landing pages where visitors can get answers to their questions. This will have a positive effect on the conversion rate, the number of transactions and reduce bounces.
Motivate the user to go beyond one page
The system accepts as failures even those sessions during which the user read the entire article, but then left the site.
Advice! By placing a module with similar articles on your blog or related products in your online store, you will reduce the bounce rate.
By adding materials related to the topic, you engage the user, making him stay longer on the web resource.
Adjust Google Analytics bounce rate
You can influence the value of the bounce rate by changing the logic of calculating the coefficient. For example, in order for Google not to classify sessions with a duration of 30 seconds or more than bounces, you need to make a change to the Google Analytics code that handles this event. Make the following changes to the counter code to change the logic of the indicator:
It is also possible to set up a failure latching on a page scroll event. For example, if the user has read at least 80% of the text on the page, then Analytics does not fix the failure, etc.
Summary
The bounce rate of a website is an important metric that is linked to its conversion. To retain the user, it is necessary to use the entire arsenal of tools, optimizing each element of the web resource. The visitor should not be annoyed by either its design or download speed.
For an experienced analyst, the bounce rate shows the problem areas of the site. It can also be used to evaluate the behavior of the audience. It should be remembered that not always tending to the maximum values of the indicator are a reason for panic. But a sharp increase or decrease in the coefficient always requires an operational analysis.
