Bounce rate: what is and what measures the rebound frequency
It is not just a matter of numbers, but a journey into the user experience to gather useful data and insights to improve the relationship and interaction between our site and those who visit it. Bounce rate or rebound frequency is a metric that can “take sleep away” from those who manage a website, partly because there is no absolute value to refer to. For this reason, encountering a high bounce rate does not necessarily mean that the site is not working, although it tends to be the case that a very high rate could depend on some errors and problems even at the level of on-page SEO. So let’s delve deeper into this topic and to better understand what the bounce rate is, what it measures, and why it is important to keep track of these metrics to make the site more welcoming and engaging.
What bounce rate is
Bounce rate or bounce rate is a percentage that indicates how many visitors have left the site after viewing a single page, without interacting with it.
The expression bounce rate defines the percentage of visitors who leave the Web site after viewing only one page, bouncing and returning back to the search results page or to the Web site from which an outbound link departed. This means that their session lasted less than 10 seconds, did not trigger a conversion event, and did not include a second page or screen view.
This is an important metric for analyzing site traffic and getting a first idea of user behavior with respect to the proposed content, because it gives us an immediate cross-section of the engagement and interest sparked by our content or the structure of the site itself. It represents, in the digital realm, what happens in a store if a customer walks in, takes a quick look and walks out without interacting with the staff or touching any products.
What does bounce rate mean for a website
Bounce rate, then, measures how effectively our site captures visitors’ attention.
It is a thermometer of the first impression we leave, of the relevance of our content to the expectations generated perhaps by a title or meta description.
But that’s not all: it also reflects the usability of the site, the speed at which pages load, the clarity of navigation. In short, bounce rate is a complex indicator that tells us about how our site communicates and relates to those who land on it.
The causes of bounce rate: why people bounce off the site
People can “bounce” from a site for a variety of reasons, some of which may be related to the quality and relevance of the site itself, while others may be completely outside the control of the site owner.
Some of the most common reasons a bounce occurs include:
- Irrelevant or unsatisfactory content. If a user arrives on a page and does not find the information they were expecting or if the content is not compelling, they are likely to leave the site without interacting further.
- Poor User Experience (UX). Complicated navigation, confusing design, hard-to-read fonts, or a layout that is not intuitive can frustrate users and prompt them to abandon the site.
- Slow loading times. In a digital age where speed is everything, slow pages that take too long to load often lose impatient users who don’t want to wait.
- Technical problems. Loading errors, site crashes, or any other technical problem can disrupt the user experience and cause a bounce.
- Missing or ineffective call-to-actions (CTAs). Without a clear indication of what to do next, users may not know how to proceed or may not feel motivated to take further action on the site.
- Excessive or intrusive advertising. Too many ads or pop-ups can overwhelm or irritate users, leading them to leave the site.
- Outdated or outdated content. If content is not current or not kept up-to-date, it can lose relevance and value in the eyes of users.
- Lack of trust or credibility. Items such as negative reviews, outdated design, or lack of a secure connection in HTTPS can make users doubt the legitimacy or trustworthiness of the site.
- Incorrect targeting. If the traffic to the site is not well targeted, the people who arrive may not be part of the intended audience and therefore may not be interested in the content offered.
- Typos or accidental clicks. Users may arrive on a page by mistake and then leave it immediately.
- User intentions. Sometimes, users are only looking for quick information or confirmations and have no intention of navigating further on the site.
- Sufficient content on the entry page. Paradoxically, if a user finds exactly what he or she is looking for on the first page and does not need further information, he or she may leave the site after getting what he or she wanted, resulting in a bounce.
Difference between bounce rate, exit rate and pogo sticking
It is perhaps appropriate at this point to define precisely what the differences are between bounce rate, exit rate, and pogo sticking, metrics that at first glance may seem similar but actually provide different information about user behavior within a website.
As mentioned, the bounce rate is the percentage of visits during which the user left the site from the same entry page without interacting with it (e.g., without clicking on links, filling out a form, etc.). A “bounce” occurs when a user arrives on a page and then leaves without having visited other pages on the site.
Exit rate, on the other hand, measures how many times a specific page was last in a browsing session, regardless of the number of pages visited during that session. In other words, while the bounce rate considers only the sessions on a page, the exit rate takes into account all sessions, providing the percentage of all views of a page that led to an exit from the site.
To exemplify, if a user visits three pages sequentially on the site-Page A, Page B, and Page C-and then leaves the site from Page C, Page C will have experienced an exit, but not a bounce. If another user visits only Page A and then leaves, that will be both an exit and a bounce for Page A.
Pogo sticking, on the other hand, is a term that refers to specific user behavior in search engines that occurs when a user clicks on a search result, then quickly “bounces” back to the results page and clicks on another result. This may indicate that the user did not find what they were looking for on the first page and is continuing their search.
While bounce rate is a metric measured within our website, pogo-sticking is a behavior observed and evaluated primarily by search engines to assess the quality and relevance of search results. In short, it is not a metric that we can find in tools such as Google Analytics, but a concept to be understood and evaluated from an SEO perspective.
Bounce rate formula: how to calculate bounce rate
In quantitative and mathematical terms, as the image below makes clear, bounce rate represents the ratio of single-page sessions (the total number of users viewing a single page) to total sessions (the total number of entries on the site’s pages).
The formula for calculating the bounce rate is fairly straightforward. The bounce rate is obtained by dividing the total number of single-page visits (i.e., sessions in which the user left the site from the entry page without interacting with the page) by the total number of sessions or visits to the site. The result is multiplied by 100 to get a percentage.
The formula is as follows:
Bounce Rate = (Total number of single page visits / Total number of visits) / 100
For example, if a website receives 1000 visits in a month and 500 of these are visits in which the user left the site without interacting with the entry page, the bounce rate will be:
Bounce Rate = (500 / 1000) / 100 = 50%.
There is also a simplified and correct variant for calculating the bounce rate. In this case, we consider the number of unengaged sessions, and thus the total number of visits during which the user left the site from the entry page without any interactions, such as clicking on links, filling out forms, scrolling the page, and so on.
As such, the bounce rate formula becomes:
Bounce rate = Number of non-engaging sessions / Total number of sessions / 100
The bounce rate is then calculated by dividing the number of non-engaging sessions by the total number of sessions and multiplying the result by 100 to get a percentage. For example, if in one month there were 1,000 sessions on your site and 300 of those were nonengaging sessions, the bounce rate would be 30 percent. Therefore, out of 100 visitors, 3 left the site after seeing only the first page they came to.
In this view, the bounce rate becomes the exact inverse of the engagement rate.
The tools for measuring bounce rate
Measuring bounce rate is critical to optimizing our site’s performance because analyzing the data helps us identify content, design, or technical problems that may be invisible obstacles between us and our audience. Bounce rate optimization can therefore be an essential step in improving user experience and, consequently, our authority and online reputation.
In our support come various tools to calculate and measure bounce rate, starting with Google Analytics, which provides detailed data on user behavior, allowing us to see the bounce rate for the entire site as well as for individual pages, so we can identify which specific pages have engagement problems. In addition, Google Analytics allows the bounce rate to be segmented by traffic source, geographic location, device (desktop, mobile, tablet) and many other variables, thus providing an in-depth view of how different audience segments interact with the site.
Other useful tools are Hotjar and Crazy Egg, which, in addition to traditional numbers, provide heatmaps, session records and user surveys, features that can help us understand the “why” behind a high bounce rate, offering a more qualitative view of user behavior.
To make the best use of these tools, it is important to properly set up tracking codes on the website and clearly define goals and conversions. This allows us to distinguish between a bounce rate that may be natural for certain types of content (such as blog articles) and one that indicates problems that need to be solved (such as on an e-commerce site where a high bounce rate can mean lost sales).
We should also not overlook our SEOZoom: even if we do not directly display the bounce rate, we can understand site performance through other data that can influence the rate, such as keyword presence, search engine visibility, and the technical health of the site.
Bounce rate values: understanding a site’s bounce rate
According to Wikipedia, “many statistics systems set the bounce rate at 30 seconds”: if the user abandons the page within 30 seconds, he or she can be defined as disinterested in the content displayed. This approach attempts to distinguish between users who quickly left the page because it was not what they were looking for and those who may have read or looked at the content before leaving.
Over time, this benchmark value has been lowered and by a lot, and some commercial software applications set it at 5 seconds!
In reality, there are no fixed values for establishing the optimal bounce rate, not least because the term itself is relative and varies as we said depending on the type of site; in general, a low abandonment rate means that users appreciate the organization of the content and the graphical appearance of the site, which convinces them to continue exploring other pages.
And then, we have to remember that bounce rate does not measure the time a user spends on a site’s page nor user engagement: this is a factor that creates quite a lot of confusion, while in reality it is possible for a site to propose a quality and very engaging page but, at the same time, have a high bounce rate, precisely because this metric does not calculate the duration of sessions on the site.
So, to clarify: bounce rate occurs every time a user enters the site, reads a page, and the analytics system does not record other useful signals because the person clicks on the browser’s back arrow, closes the browser window itself, clicks on an external link, or uses the browser’s search bar to move to other sites and other URLs.
To interpret the bounce rate correctly, we must then consider the following factors:
- Page type. Different pages have different bounce rate expectations. For example, a landing page with a sign-up form may have a higher bounce rate than a homepage that serves as a hub for other pages.
- Traffic sources. The bounce rate may vary depending on the source of traffic. Visitors from email marketing may be more engaged than those arriving via social media.
- Site goals. If the site is designed to provide quick information or answers to specific questions, a higher bounce rate may not be a concern.
- User behavior. Some users may only be interested in a quick read and then leave the site, especially on mobile devices.
- Industry affiliation. The “normal” bounce rate can vary greatly between different sectors. It is useful to compare your bounce rate with the average bounce rate of your niche market.
What are the ranges of the bounce rate
To understand bounce rate values, it is therefore more important to consider the specific context of the site and its pages. Typically, these ranges are considered:
- Low bounce rate (0-40%). Generally, a low bounce rate is desirable and indicates that most users interact with the site beyond the entry page. However, a value that is too low, especially if close to 0%, could also suggest a tracking problem, such as double loading of the tracking code.
- Average bounce rate (41-55%). This is considered an acceptable range for many sites. An average bounce rate suggests that the site is performing well, but there is always room for optimization and improvement.
- High bounce rate (56-70%). A higher value may be a cause for concern, especially if the site is designed to encourage multiple interactions per session, such as an e-commerce or service site. In these cases, the content, site structure, or targeting strategy may need to be analyzed and optimized.
- Very high bounce rate (over 70%). Such high values are often a warning sign, indicating that users are not finding what they are looking for or that the user experience is lacking. However, for some types of content, such as blogs, news, or landing pages with a single conversion goal, a higher bounce rate may be normal.
In any case, bounce rate needs to be evaluated in relation to site-specific goals and in combination with other metrics to gain a more complete understanding of user experience and behavior.
What the studies say: the average bounce rate for sites
While there is no fixed, objective figure, most studies and reports have nonetheless shown that the average bounce rate is between 41 and 51 percent.
A recent analysis by Databox supports these figures, indicating that the average bounce rate for all sectors was around 44 percent.
Going even more deeper than this, EduBirdie ‘s team took into account a small sample of sites to study the average bounce rate and to try and estimate the “good” values. According to this study the majority of websites presents a rebound frequency between 26 and 70%, and more specifically it is possible to see a sort of ranking system of bounce rates:
- 25% or less: something is probably broken (like a wrong Google Analytics installation, for example).
- 26-40%: excellent. It is an indicative value for a well built and professionally designed website, that matches the users’ need.
- 41-55%: average.
- 56-70%: higher than normal, but it could make sense depending on the type of website
- 70% or higher: very high value, that might point out site’s problems (but also be linked to the uniqueness of the pages).
Generally, it is believed that a very high bounce rate means that the majority of visitors that lands on the site are not truly interested to the offered (and placed in SERP) content, that they did not appreciated the design or yet again that they did not find what they were looking for. But also having a bounce rate equal or below 25% could be a problem: these values depends as previously stated on an error inside the analytics implementation, or on a site’s building mode that forces users to do at least one action before leaving (such as gateway or landing pages he has to go through before actually reaching the main site), thereby undermining the users experience itself.
On average, then, a high value of rebound frequency (correctly computed) is symptom of several deeper problems of the site, and more specifically of a not ideal user experience or poor targeting of the pages, from which could result consequential SEO difficulties.
The average rebound frequency per site’s category
And so, another study – performed by Clicktale – tried to determine the average levels of bounce rate per site’s category, revealing that for each blog page the rebound frequency is generally established between 70 and 90%, for informational sites it drops down to between 40-60 % while for those sites providing services it should stay between 10-30 %. For an ecommerce, more specifically, the average bounce rate should be at 33,9%.
Back to the quoted Analytics guide: Google clarifies that a high rebound frequency is not always a problem or straight “bad”, because closely depends on the analyzed site. If the success of the site “depends on the fact that the users displays more than one page, then yes, a high bounce rate is bad news”, they explains from Mountain View, because – for instance – if the “homepage is the access door to the rest of the site (i.e for new articles, products pages, checkout elaboration) and a large percentage of users only view your homepage, a high bounce rate is not a target to aim to”. On the other hand, “if you have a single-page site like a blog or if you offer other kind of contents for which is normal to expect single-page sessions, then a high rebound frequency is perfectly understandable”, they reassure us in the end.
Going back to the aforementioned Databox report, then, the highest bounce rates were found in the consulting, professional services and IT vertical sectors. According to experts, this could be due to their complex offerings: visitors may arrive on a site looking for specific information or solutions, and if they do not quickly find what they need, they bounce.
Complex services can lead to a higher bounce rate if the website does not effectively communicate the value proposition. Or, the exact opposite situation, readers may have found what they needed, decided to contact the company immediately, and left the site soon after.
What is an optimal bounce rate
Talking about an “optimal” or ideal bounce rate is complex because, as mentioned, this figure varies depending on the type of site and specific goals. For a blog, for example, a rate of 70-80% might be normal, while for an e-commerce a similar value would be alarming.
In general, a bounce rate between 26% and 40% is considered excellent.
However, rather than chasing an ideal number, we should focus on understanding the needs and behaviors of our audience and then constantly work on improving the site according to this data. The real goal is to create a user experience such that visitors are enticed to stay, explore
High bounce rate: understanding when the bounce rate is really high
Clearly, a high bounce rate can be a red flag. Basically, it indicates that a significant number of visitors do not find what they are looking for or are not stimulated to explore beyond the first page they visit. This can be due to several factors: perhaps the content is not relevant or engaging enough, perhaps the design is not intuitive, or the page takes too long to load. A high bounce rate calls us in and asks us to investigate and take action to turn that first, fleeting encounter with the user into a deeper, longer-lasting dialogue.
Yet, as we said, much depends on the site: metrics taken individually and not contextualized in a design and strategy are not really useful.
For example, users on a site that is event-focused often just want to know the day, time, and location of the event of interest: when they get the information (and perhaps as quickly as possible), they leave the page and the site. Thus, that site’s bounce rate will inevitably be high, but it is not a critical factor because it fully intercepts the needs of its real users.
For an e-Commerce site, on the other hand, customers are likely to linger a little longer and so ideally the bounce rate should be lower; an upward trend in bounce rates is a signal that might alarm online shopping sites because it indicates that users are leaving the site very quickly and almost certainly this translates into fewer sales (but one must always analyze actual conversions to be certain).
The most common causes for a high bounce rate
In any case, although it does not directly affect ranking and is not necessarily problematic, bounce rate is an element that needs to be monitored and analyzed within a conscious SEO strategy: a high value, if calculated and contextualized correctly, can in fact be a symptom of deeper problems in the site, such as deficiencies in user experience or poor user targeting, and more generally is a telltale of weaknesses in SEO.
In order to interpret the bounce rate’s metric the right way we need to analyze:
- Intent and behaviour of users, modalities of interaction with the pages.
- Site tipology.
- Tipology and quality of web page.
- Tipology of contents.
- Tipology of business field.
- Traffic quality.
- Tipology of marketing channel.
- Tipology of visitor.
- Tipology of device used.
If, after all these assessments, the bounce rate is high or negative, the moment has come to intervene: among the most frequent ones there could be a low pages loading speed, a low quality design of the pages, a missing match between content and keywords, a poor mobile optimization and so on.
To only focus on the rebound frequency and try to fix its rate still is not useful to solve the core problem. It is instead useful to understand why the bounce rate is high and solve the detected criticalities, because this is the optimization work that makes the most sense (and generates the most results) for site’s performance.
- Delay of page loading
Speed has been a Google ranking factor for years now, so we should always give due consideration to any kind of aspect related to it: a slow site offers people a poor fruition and too long waiting times for page loading could push users to definitely leave the site for good. There are actually multiple interventions we can operate in order to optimize performance and speed, and the use of tools such as Google’s PageSpeed can give more practical indications about the most critical areas, like images optimization or the restriction of third-party scripts.
- Misleading headlines and snippets also negatively affect bounce rate
We often say this: tag title and meta description should comprehensively and convincingly summarize the content offered on the web page. Sometimes, though, these snippets are not that well builded and this could mislead users, that click on a SERP link expecting a certain kind of answer that, once landed, they cannot really find on the page.
This can either be the result of an honest mistake or a straight attempt to do keyword clickbait, but the final effect is the same and the solution is immediate: to revision the page content and accordingly orientate both the title and meta description, trying to improve the offered text in order to intercept the true search intent of the visitors.
- The impact of technical errors on pages
When the rebound frequency is exceptionally high and the analysis of the time spent on the page by users marks a presence only a few seconds long, there could be some technical issues such as empty pages, a 404 error or wrong loading.
In order to replicate the experience of the users we need to display the page according to the settings of the browser and device used the most by our audience, or check on Google Search Console if there are any relevant indications (Coverage report, for instance), searching for a quick solution.
- Beware of bad links from other sites
Some other times we are not even the real cause of the problem: as Amelia Willson on SEJ reminds us, it is also possible that a high bounce rate could depend on referral traffic, and on a link in particular bringing not qualified visitors or that have a type of misleading anchor texts and context.
Occasionally, this is the result of a poor copywriting work, where the writer or editor linked the site in the wrong part of the text or maybe made a mistake on the reference: when this happens, we can try to get in touch with the linking site and ask for the correction or total removal of the link.
In the most critical cases – even of negative SEO tactics – we may resort as nuclear option to Google’s disavow tool: to remove this bad links will not reduce the bounce rate, but will signal to the search engine not to take into account that specific connection in order to assess the quality and relevance of our site.
- Analysis of page type: affiliate landing page or single-page site
The SEO expert also indicates another specific case: who works with affiliations or own sites of one single page could naturally have a high bounce rate, without for that to be concerning. If you are an affiliate – says Willson – “the whole point of your page may be to deliberately send people away from your website to the merchant’s site”, therefore “you’re doing the job right if the page has a higher bounce rate”.
Same thing would be for a single-page website, “such as a landing page for your ebook or a simple portfolio site”: it is normal that sites such as these “to have a very high bounce rate since there’s nowhere else to go”.
- The weight of low-quality or unoptimized content
Users might rebound from site because its contents are just plain bad, therefore working from a SEO copywriting perspective could bring direct and immediate results, increasing the time spent by people to actually read what it is published on the pages.
- When bounce rate is high due to bad UX
The presence of ads, pop-ups, the incessant appearing of subscription buttons and other intrusive CTAs could be one of the reasons pushing users to prematurely abandon the site. Or, there could be some obstacles on the navigational path created for users, like a missing search box or menu voices not correctly viewable from mobile.
How to reduce bounce rate
This is the summed up picture on rebound frequency, but the Search Engine Journal’s article also suggests us some best practices that could be useful to solve the problems.
First intervention is on the relation between content and Research snippets: “Whatever you’re advertising in the SERPs, your content needs to match and live up to the hype”. For that, “Don’t call your page an ultimate guide if it’s a short post with three tips, Don’t claim to be the “best product” if your user reviews show a 3-star rating” and so on. Moreover, it is important to keep relevant elements in the “above the fold” part of the page, the first one shown to users.
Great attention must be dedicated to technical aspects too: the site must be fast, minor elements reduced and the navigation within the site (or a long page of contents) optimized, in order for all these elements to truly contribute to provide a better experience to people, encouraging them to stay on the site rather than abandon it immediately.
In general, to reduce bounce rate, it is important to carefully analyze user behavior, identify any problems, and work to improve the overall site experience, content quality, and targeting effectiveness.
Finally, there is a simple way to reduce site bounce rate: experiment with different exit intent popups, which are triggered when it looks like the user is about to leave the site, offering promotional discounts, linking to useful content related to what the person was already reading, requesting feedback, and more. In this way we can capture the reader’s attention and convince him to interact with the site, preventing his “harmful” bounce.
