0% or 100% What’s Wrong? Understanding Bounce Rate for a Website
Google Analytics defines the bounce rate for a website as the average of all single-page sessions on your website. This is a fancy way of saying the person didn’t do anything or, there was no interaction on the page.
Importantly, bounce rate does not indicate the length of time a person was on said page.
A large bounce rate is not a deal-breaker nor a disaster. A low bounce rate is not the deafening roar of approval.
Is lowering your bounce rates a business goal? Is having people click on more buttons or links a business goal? Or is increase sales of your products and services the business goal?
The overall website bounce rate is the average of all the individual page bounce rates.
Bounce rate is the number of bounces divided by the number of entrances.
Bounce rate = (#Bounce / #Entrances) x 100. For example if 100 people entered a blog post and 75 left then 75/100*100=75%. Bounce rate is 75% in this example.
Naturally, some pages will have a high bounce, some will have a low and some will have medium bounce rates.
For example, the global website bounce rate for the below image is 79.18% during the dates 26 July-1 Aug. The image is from Google Analytics/Reports/Behaviour/Site Content/All pages.
Dig in! What do These Column Titles Mean?
- Page Views – is the total number of pages viewed. Repeated views of the same page are counted. Page A->Page B->Page A are three pages views.
- Unique Page views – tells us the number of sessions during which a page was viewed at least once. A unique pageview is counted for each page URL + page Title combination. If a person refreshed the page, during the same session, then this does not increase the unique page view count.
- Avg. Time on Page – The average amount of time a user spent viewing a specified page or set of pages. For the above image that is for all the pages this report covers.
- Entrances – counts the number of people entering your site through that page. GA records an entrance for each page that a user begins a new session. Entrances are where the user starts their journey on your website – their entry page.
- Bounce – the percentage of single-page session in which there was no interatcion with the page. A bounced session has a duration of 0 seconds (session duration of 0, but this is not the Avg. Time on Page).
- %Exits – is calcuated as the (number of exits) / (number of pageviews) for the page or set of pages. % Exits indicates how often a user exits from that page or set of pages.
Interestingly, #5, Bounce Rate reads ‘the percentage of single-page sessions in which there was ZERO interaction with the page. The bounce rate number ignores the time a person spent on the page – the average time spend on the page.
“A bounce session has a duration of 0 seconds.” Session duration of 0 seconds because only one page was viewed in this session.
From above a session duration does not include the Avg. Time on the Page! Both bounce and session duration provide insight to help understand user behaviour on your website.
Don’t worry, I am Urban Renström, there is always science and research involved in everything I talk about, teach, and demonstrate.
From the analytics oracle themselves on bounce rate for a website Google says:
…if the success of your website depends on users viewing more than one page, then, yes, a high bounce rate is bad … On the other hand, if you have a single-page website like a blog, or offer other types of content for which single-page sessions are expected, then a high bounce rate is perfectly normal.
Help! What then is a Bounce for a Website?
Google Analytics Says a bounce is calculated as a session that triggers only a single request to the Analytics server.
A bounce is when a user opens a single page/post on your website and exits the same page without clicking on any buttons or links during that session.
In real-world terms – if a person arrives on a page and stays for 8 minutes and exits the page without clicking on any other button or link, then that one session has a duration of 0 seconds and a 100% bounce rate.
But, the Avg. Time on Page is still 8 minutes.
The bounce rate is half the story because a 100% bounce does not include the person’s length of time on that page. The session duration is 0 seconds because the analytics server requires two data points, only has one, and defaults to 0 seconds as the session duration.
Yes, the bounce rate is 100%, but the time on the page is 8 minutes (a lightbulb moment? And tapping the nose whilst looking sideways).
We must include the Avg. Time on Page to get the full picture of behaviours on a page.
Does Website Speed Impact Website Bounce Rate?
What do you think?
If someone must wait 10 seconds for a website to load will they wait around or leave? Google has the answer and the answer is people will bounce out of there faster than a bunny hops away from a fox in a hedgerow.
A slow-loading website is the water torture of the internet. Open Google or FB or Twitter or Wikipedia or the NYTimes. How long do you wait to see something? How long before a menu opens? How long before you could scroll?
Now, run the same back of the napkin experiment on your own website. ‘And the survey says‘ speed matters. People are impatient, become unhappy and leave. And presto another bounce is measured in your GA report.
If your pages take greater than 3 seconds to load you are in deep trouble.
Does website speed affect bounce rate?
Yes, because people are ‘trained’ by their experiences using Google, Bing, Yahoo, and social networks expect fast loading websites and apps.
The bounce rate for a single web page
Dissecting the Google Analytic Bounce Rate for a Website
- Page Views – 260 are the total number of views of this page during the date range. This includes people arriving on the page, clicking to another page and then returning.
- Unique Page Views – 196 are the number of unique page views during the date range – where this page was the only page viewed during the session.
- Avg. Time on Page – 4:13 is the average time 260 people were on this page reading the words etc.
- Entrances – 184 of 196 people entered this page from outsite this website. Arriving from an advert, search, email, social media, bookmarks etc.
- Bounce Rate – 154 people (78.8% of the 196) arrived on this page from outside the website and then left this page without viewing any other page or clicking any other button or link on the page.
- % Exit – For 190 of 260 people (72.31%) this page was the last page then viewed on the website. And yes, 154 people, from the bouce rate metric, is part of the 190.
In other words, I would make my assessment of the data in Image #2 like this:
“Most people read everything on this page. Because of the avg time on the page, the user was satisfied enough or the page answered their questions to an extent they did not feel the need to take any further action. Because this is a course sales page, and if the sales were 0 during this reporting time, the offer/price/checkout process/course dates/testimonials or some other factor did not suit the visitor to take further action.“
Rule of Thumb for Website Bounce Rates
GoRocketFuel.com assessed 60 websites looking at the bounce rate for a number of websites that, I think, they manage or built. The monthly visitors on these websites ranged from 1K-1Mil.
The bounce rate of most of these 60 websites was between 26-70% an with an average bounce rate of 49%.
They assessed and classed website bounce rates like below:
- 26-40% Bounce rate is Excellent
- 41-55% Bounce rate is about Average
- 56-70% Bounce rate Higher than Average
- >70% is Bounce rate is Poor (except for blog posts, news sites, events, etc.)
The bounce rate for a website in the 25-30% range is better than excellent. Assuming all aspect of the Google Analytics installation is functioning correctly and properly.
Their assessment was that websites with a 40% bounce rate or lower are a result of a well-built theme, good hosting, professional design and meets the ‘needs of its users.
Baseline: Set your Website Bounce Rate
The bounce rate for your website is different from my website and different from the above rates.
Instead of trying to keep up with the Joneses and their fancy 29% bounce rate. I suggest you note a baseline bounce rate for your website, then seek to improve it in relevant areas.
The actions people take on the website is the most important metric, not the bounce rate.
Furthermore bounce rate is a continuum – 0% on one end and 100% on the other.
If you believe your bounce rate is outside the range you’ve set then make changes.
Consider the intent of the user and the purpose of the content.
Recap: What is a Bounce Rate for a Website?
Recall that Google Analytics defines a bounce as a session that triggers only a single request to the Analytics server.
In real-world terms when a user opens a single page/post on your website and exits the same page without clicking on any buttons or links during that session – that session is then a 100% bounce.
Worse, the bounce rate does not factor in the average time on the page which.
Therefore, both the bounce rate and the Avg. Time on Page completes the story.
Let me know in the comments section your biggest website bounce rate and Google Analytics problems.
Still not sure what Google Analytics is reporting. Or is a high bounce rate good or bad? Or if the average time on a page helping you makes sales? If you cannot answer either of these questions you are flying your website blind🦯. And you need professional web analytics help. Buy a 30-minute Google Analytics session and get a 20/20 vision of what your website is doing.
The #1 reason people pogo-sticks, people abandon your cart and people don’t pay is…🥁slow loading pages. Every extra second of time drops page views by 11%; Reduces customer satisfaction by 16%; and drops sales by 7%. Every 1 extra sec!
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