One of the key metrics you will often see talked about when discussing website visitors is the bounce rate. This is defined as the percentage of visitors who visit a webpage without an action, ie clicking a link. For example a bounce rate of 50% would mean that half of the visitors to your site leave without clicking a link.
What is a good bounce rate?
As a rough guideline, a bounce rate in the region of 26 to 40 percent is fantastic. between 41 to 55 is normal, and 56 to 70 percent is below average, however this may not be reason to worry.
Because the bounce rate measures clicks, a user that doesn’t click on anything will still be seen to have bounced even if they were to visit your site, dial your phone number and place the biggest order you had ever received over the telephone.
Like many metrics a bounce is a useful guide, but its not the be-all and end-all.
How do I improve my bounce rate?
If we assume that a high bounce rate means that people are not finding want on your site, then we have two options.
Change your content
You can add more content, or change the content on your site so that people are more likely to find what they are looking for.
Add calls to action
What do you want people to do? giving them an instruction such as “Click here to get a free quote” will increase the likelihood of them following.
Change your targeting
Are you attracting the wrong kind of visitor? If they are coming via PPC then you can add negative keywords, for example if you provide a oil tank cleaning service adding fish as a negative keywork would help reduce wasted clicks.
With organic traffic its not as simple, while you can change your content it may not be possible to completely avoid the traffic from the visitors that are bouncing. This is why any guidance on what is a “good” bounce rate needs to be take with a pinch of salt.