One of the top web analytic metrics that should be taken seriously is bounce rate. This occurs when a visitor finds your site but fails to stay longer than a few seconds or if there is only one page view. (The exact definition varies depending on the brand of web analytics tool.) During a marketing campaign this calculation is one of the simplest numbers to understand but may not always be the easiest to analyze.
There can be countless reasons why a visitor would “bounce” out of your site but the top sources of a high bounce rate include undesired content, poor site design, or a confusing layout. By factoring in the source of the incoming visitor and available comparative data, changes can be made to the site, keywords, or any other variable. Generally, anything higher than a 50%-60% bounce rate should be a cause for concern.
While the analysis of bounce rates will be reserved for a future and more in depth article, below are a few questions you should consider when looking at your rate:
- What pages have the highest bounce rate?
- Maybe there is a simple design or layout flaw.
- What sites are linking to my pages in return causing a higher bounce rate?
- Your incoming links may not represent the page’s content correctly.
- What keywords are causing a high bounce rate?
- Keep in mind that search engine marketing is a continual process.
To summarize, bounce rates are invaluable pieces of information when optimizing a marketing campaign and should be one of the top metrics used in your analytics reports.
