Website Bounce Rate
Content Relevance and Suitable Links are Key Factors for Web Traffic
Jan 6, 2009
Website Bounce Rate is a term commonly used by professional website traffic analysts to determine the website’s effectiveness. Website Bounce Rate means the average percentage of initial visitors to a site who, instead of continuing with the other pages within the same site, opt to switch over to another site within the prescribed time-out period.
How to calculate Website Bounce Rate
The Bounce Rate for any particular page is the number of visitors (who viewed the page and left within the timeout period) divided by the total number of visitors who entered the site on the same page. This is easy to calculate only if it’s done properly through a reliable software measuring web traffic.
On the other hand, the Bounce Rate for a web site is the number of web site visitors who visited only a single page of a web site per session divided by the total number of visitors to that web site. Again it’s simple primary school mathematics, isn’t it?
High and Low Bounce Rates
Bounce rates are used as a yardstick to measure the effectiveness of an entry page. An entry page with a low bounce rate means that the page retains visitors to view more pages and make them stay longer on the web site.
A high bounce rate indicates either the site entry pages are not relevant to the information the visitors are searching or the pages have not been imaginatively created to arrest and sustain the visitors’ attention.
A website traffic analysis expert from Google.com states: "It is really hard to get a bounce rate under 20%, anything over 35% is cause for concern and above 50% is worrying." (From Google Support ) Appreciating the fact that blogs are different from standard websites, the analyst suggests that a 50% bounce rate for blogs should be construed as normal and a 75% rate should be cause for concern.
How Bouncing takes place
If a visitor does any of the following, he or she is said to have bounced the website:
- While visiting a site, clicking onto a link to a different page on a different web site
- Closing an open window or closing a tab
- Typing out a new URL to change sites
- Clicking on the "Back" button wanting to leave the site
- Session timeout.
There are no standard norms specifying the minimum or maximum time by which a visitor must leave in order for a bounce to occur. Analysis of duration of time for the session timeout to occur is mostly done through the analytics tracking software. A commonly accepted session timeout is of 30 minutes duration.
There is a valid argument that the duration has to be interpreted according to the nature of a website. On an ecommerce site, where the sole aim may be to sell producer’s services online, the bounce rate is a critical factor and a useful measurement tool. Websites that only offer information or sites which prompt the customers to make contact via email or phone may have higher bounce rates.
How to Improve Bounce Rate
Visitors are unlikely to click to another page of a different website when the landing page has all the relevant content. It is a question of optimizing web pages and connecting them into a meaningful web creation. Assuming the visitors want more information, the web designers must ensure navigation points easy to access and also position the links around the content.
Experts recommend a two-step program to lower the bounce rates. First of all, test the site initially with a group of regular and seasoned website visitors. Seek their feedback information to make improvements to the website. Secondly, add links to more information either at the bottom of the copy or still preferably within the body of the content.
