What is a Bounce Rate & Why Do You Care About It?

Having a website for your business is a vital part of your marketing strategies. Not having one is practically suicide in today’s digital world. But, on the flip side, just having a website isn’t enough anymore. There are probably hundreds of other people that sell the same products or services you do. Assuming you’re selling a product or service people want, and you’re getting your name out in front of the right audience, you should be fine, right? Not always. Sometimes your biggest enemy is your website. 

Websites have standard analytics to measure the performance of a page. If you’ve ever looked at Google Analytics, you’ve seen a bunch of these measurements. One of the key metrics to keep an eye on is bounce rate. What does that even mean? Bounce rate is simply the percentage of users that click away from your website after only viewing one page. Obviously having a high bounce rate is bad. Did you know Google takes your site’s bounce rate into account when ranking your page in search results? It definitely does. The search algorithm determines that sites with higher bounce rates aren’t relevant, and therefore rank lower.

Your next question about now is probably “What is a good bounce rate?” This varies from industry to industry, but a bounce rate between 30% & 45% is considered excellent. Average bounce rates are between 45% & 55%. Above average, meaning it’s a little high but don’t get too worried about it, is between 55% & 60%. Anything above that, it’s time to start looking at reasons for why people are moving away from your site after being referred to it. One thing, however, that you need to keep in mind is that having a high bounce rate isn’t always a bad thing. You might have designed your page so all the the interaction with your site is on the one page. If that’s the case, the high bounce rate would be normal. 

So what drives up a bounce rate?

Maybe your site isn’t interesting, or it’s too hard to navigate through, or the design doesn’t capture people’s attention and drives them to other pages. There are so many different reasons why this could be high. Having music or streaming videos on your site can negatively impact your bounce rate. One thing people don’t always keep in mind is your digital advertising could be a bit too general, and is attracting people who aren’t really your customers that quickly leave your page. 

What now?

• The first step is to evaluate your site and figure out if it’s driving leads through the site correctly. I like to think of a website as a story with a beginning, a middle, & and an end. The site should easily direct the user to the next piece of information you want them to have.
• The next step is evaluate the appearance of the site. Does it look like a professional site people would expect from a retailer or service provider in the field you’re in? If not, the look of the site could be scaring people away.
• Does your site have pop-ups or splash pages? In today’s digital world, these have become more of an annoyance, and actually drive people away. 
• How long does your page take to load? The longer a page takes to load, the quicker people are to move on to the next one.
• Make sure your marketing strategy isn’t too broad. The greatness of digital advertising is the ability to target the audience most likely to buy from you. You might be driving a lot of traffic, but if you’re not driving the right traffic, it does you no good. 

Need help in evaluating your site or digital strategies? Reach out to us at CODEMAY. Our team can help you make your digital strategy more efficient and effective, leading to more business for you. We recently worked with a client and lowered their bounce rate from the above average level down to the excellent range.