What is Bounce Rate?
The percentage of visitors who land on one page of your website and leave without interacting with any other pages.
Deep Dive
A high bounce rate often indicates that the landing page did not meet the user's expectations or had bad UX (slow speed, bad design).
However, for some pages (like blog posts or contact pages), a high bounce rate might be normal if the user found what they needed and left.
Key Takeaways
- High bounce rate can tank SEO rankings.
- Context matters (Blogs vs Homepages).
- Improved by better internal linking and clearer CTAs.
- In GA4, this is the inverse of 'Engagement Rate'.
Why This Matters Now
Bounce Rate is the digital equivalent of someone walking into a store, looking around for 3 seconds, and walking out.
It forces you to ask hard questions: Was the ad misleading? Did the page load too slowly? Is the mobile design broken? It's the 'First Impression' metric.
Common Myths & Misconceptions
A high bounce rate is always bad.
Reality:If I search 'What is the capital of France?', land on your site, see 'Paris', and leave—that's a 100% bounce, but a successful user experience. Google knows this.
GA4 removed it.
Reality:They hid it. They prefer 'Engagement Rate' (sessions that lasted 10s+ or converted). But Bounce Rate is still there if you look for it.
Real-World Use Cases
Landing Page Testing: If Variant A has a 40% bounce rate and Variant B has 80%, A is the clear winner (assuming traffic quality is equal).
Content Strategy: High bounce on a blog post means you need to add 'Read Next' links to keep them reading.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an Exit Rate?
Exit Rate is the percentage of people who leave from a specific page (after visiting others). Bounce Rate is people who leave *without* visiting others.
What is a good average?
Blogs: 70-90%. Content Sites: 40-60%. Retail Sites: 20-40%.
We Can Help With
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