It’s very common for website owners to measure the basic performance of a site based upon Bounce Rate, a common misconception is to observe a high bounce rate and think something is wrong and the site is under performing, however this isn’t always the case.
Bounce Rate
Bounce rate is single-page sessions divided by all sessions, or the percentage of all sessions on your site in which users viewed only a single page and triggered only a single request to the Analytics server.
Sometimes a user can be on a page for 30 minutes without clicking and this would be considered a bounce.
An average Bounce Rate will vary depending on the site, typically for ecommerce site you would see figures as low as 20% or as high as 80% all being considered normal. For us selling Printed Banners it is typically 65-80%
Low/High Bounce
We understanding that people staying on a site and looking around is like having people in your shop looking at various products, this has to be good right? But not if they don’t buy anything. Equally if someone walks into your shop picks up one item and buys it, then that is good right?
Let’s consider – your campaigns are good, you land people on the correct product page, they have no need to go to another page and they find what they are looking for, they then go away so a bounce is recorded. They may need time to think about the purchase or decide on size, colour or anything else. They prefer to call you by phone to discuss the product and they pay over the phone. The more times this happens the higher your Bounce Rate will become, even though your great performing adverts are working well for you.
Before you consider Bounce Rate as a valid measurement you need to fully understand the behavior of your visitors and understand how and when people complete the purchase.
