A “bounce rate” is defined as the percentage of visitors who leave your site without taking any action. This rate is important because it gives insight into how valuable your website is to your audience. High bounce rates are correlated with low conversion rates, which can negatively affect your customer relationships, sales and overall bottom line.
Your bounce rate can be easily calculated in Google Analytics. You’ll find an overall bounce rate for your website, as well as single-page views for each web page’s performance. Other important statistics to look at in Analytics are total visitors, average number of pages per visit and dwell time.
What is a Good Bounce Rate?
Average bounce rates vary among industries and the type of website you’re running. Overall averages range between 26-70%. But even if you fall in the normal range, there is always room for improvement. The longer people stay on your site, the more likely you are to convert them into customers.
Here is a breakdown of what a good bounce rate looks like:
- 80%+: Horrible
- 70-80%: Poor
- 50-70%: Average
- 30-50%: Very good
- Less than 20%: Might be a tracking error
How Can I Improve My Bounce Rate?
If your bounce rate is not as good as expected, you’re probably wondering what you can do to make it better. Here are some of the best practices for improving your bounce rate – and your overall site!
- Improve the user experience. Take an objective look at the ways you can make your site better. If you’re unsure, conduct a survey and ask your customers for feedback.
- Optimize your calls to action. Your calls to action should be clearly posted on each page. You only have seconds to connect with visitors, so let them know what you want them to do.
- Assess page load speeds. A fast site is essential these days. People aren’t going to wait around for your content to load, so use Google PageSpeed Insights to see which pages are taking too long.
- A/B test your pages. A/B tests can help you understand what works better for your audience. You can split test basically anything – images, headlines, call to action buttons, colors, layouts, etc.
If your bounce rate isn’t where you want it to be, rest assured that there are ways to improve it. But first, make sure that you have the proper framework in place. Magna Technology builds and optimizes websites for the best performance. Once this is in place, you can make the necessary adjustments and see lower bounce rates.
