What You Bounce Rate Means

Analyzing a website's bounce rate is one of the best ways to determine how well an audience is connecting with a particular site. The bounce rate is the rate at which individuals land on a web page and immediately leave without leaving through a link on the page. Everyone should strive for a low bounce rate. But we should also keep in mind that they type of web page in question will determine if a bounce rate is good or bad.

If your high bounce rate is mostly from people who came to your site through organic means (putting in a search query) then a high bounce rate definitely means you have some problems. Website owners spend a lot of time, and in most cases a lot of money, to make sure their site is ranking for particular keywords. Visit http://dukeo.com/bounce-rate/ for more information about bounce rate. If you invested time and money to have your site rank, and it is, but visitors are not staying then you are wasting time and hurting your business.

If visitors are finding your site because they are clicking sponsor ads or another site, then having a high bounce rate is not the kiss of death. If you're visitors are leaving quickly after coming from a sponsored ad and they are leaving quickly, maybe they are responding to your call to action which is exactly what you want to them to do. And if they are finding because another site linked to you and are backing out fast, that doesn't reflect on your SEO; so while it's not ideal it's not absolutely horrible either.

Even though not all high bounce rates are bad, no high bounce rate is ever good. One way to ensure that your visitors get comfortable on your site is to make sure it is they can understand the layout and navigate it with ease. Computers used to be the only way people could get online but now smart phones and tablets are changing that. So your website needs to be friendly to all types of devices. The different section of your site should be prominently marked. A search function is another necessity. Font needs to be easy to read; meaning it needs to be big enough and it colors that is easy on the eyes.

You also want to go easy on the ads. For more information about bounce rate, follow the link. I know you need ads because you want to actually make money but they can turn visitors away if they are too blatant. If an advertisement is the very first thing a visitors see when they visit your website, you're doing something wrong. You have to give your visitors something first before you try to sell them something; so make sure the first thing you give them is a look at your great content.