Web Metrics: Bounce Rate

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(Moyers, n.d.)

No matter the size, every business should be tracking website metrics. But what in the world are website metrics, anyway?

Website metrics are defined as “a variety of measurements made on a given website in order to better track its performance and statistics” (Airfocus, n.d.). These metrics fall into different categories such as foundational, visit characterization, engagement, and conversion (Reed College of Media, 20201). 

Website metrics can help a company learn more about their customers, what’s working well, and what’s not working well (Reed College of Media, 2021). This information can be used to make decision about the direction of the company in the future. While it’s great to have a lot of information, numbers and measurements can be very confusing and overwhelming.

Let’s break things down and explore a very important metric known as the bounce rate. 

A bounce is “a single-page session on your site,” according to Google Analytics.

Bounce rate, which is in the engagement category, is defined as “the percentage of users who left after viewing a single page on your site and taking no additional action (Google Ananlytics Acadmy Courses, 2021).

The average website has a bounce rate of 40.5%, but that can vary by industry. For example, retail sites have an average bounce rate ranging from 20% to 40% while lead generation sites have an average bounce rate that ranges from 30% to 50% (Patel, n.d.)

                                              (Patel, n.d.)


It’s very troublesome to think of a website user leaving a website without even taking action. If users are leaving the website, it could mean that something is confusing or the content on your website isn’t captivating.

According to Patel (n.d.), there are several things that could be causing issues with bounce rates, including: 
• pop-up ads, surveys, music, or streaming videos
• ad and landing page messages
• the load time of pages
• the design of the landing page
• the search engine ranking of a page
• links to external sites

This data can help businesses improve their website to help retain users and motivate them to stay on the website longer.

Patel (n.d) also describes different ways for businesses to improve their bounce rate. Some of the actions they can take include “providing their audience with relevant content’ building a clear navigation path/menu/linking to a glossary page that defines industry terms; speeding up page load using the Google Page Speed plugin; maintaining top rankings for branded terms; getting rid of pop-up ads; and reducing external links.”

Tops Products, an office supply company, was receiving a large amount of inbound traffic from referrals from an automobile website.

The company noticed that their website had a very high bounce rate. 82 out of every 100 people, or 82% of people, were leaving the landing page immediately after arriving there. After realizing how big of an issue this was, the company used a 301 redirect code to help the website receive and maintain traffic (Eckerle, 2013).

After making this adjustment, the bounce rate decreased by 39% and there was a 400% increase in their conversion rate (Eckerle, 2013).

This is a great example of how bounce rate is just one very important web metric that can help businesses figure out the real story behind their numbers.



References:

Airfocus. (n.d.). Website metrics: What are website metrics? Retrieved from https://airfocus.com/glossary/what-are-website-metrics/.

Eckerle, C. (2013, March 14). Search engine marketing: Ecommerce site turns an 82% bounce rate around for a 400% conversion increase. Marketingsherpa. Retrieved from https://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/case-study/sem-ecommerce-site-conversion-increase.

Google Analytics Academy Courses. (2021). Google Analytics for 
Beginners: Unit 2. Retrieved from 
https://www.google.com/search?q=google+analytics+academy&oq=g
oogle+analytics+academy&aqs=chrome.0.69i59l2j0j0i395l2j69i60l3.2
279j1j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8.

Google Analytics Help. (2021). Bounce rate. Retrieved from 
https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1009409?hl=en#:~:text=About%20bounce%20rate&text=Bounce%20rate%20is%20single%2Dpage,request%20to%20the%20Analytics%20server.

Moyers, S. (n.d.). What is a good bounce rate? How to audit & reduce bounce rate. Spinx. Retrieved from https://www.spinxdigital.com/blog/know-about-bounce-rate/.

Patel, N. (n.d.) How to increase conversions by analyzing bounce rate analytics. Neilpatel.com. Retrieved from https://neilpatel.com/blog/bounce-rate-analytics/.

Reed College of Media (2021). Week 1 lesson: Intro to web analytics and 
the basics of web analytics. Retrieved from https://ecampus.wvu.edu/webapps/blackboard/execute/displayLearningUnit?course_id=_155927_1&content_id=_7582539_1&framesetWrapped=true.

Terry, D. (2017, May 1). Why are website bounce rates so important? The Brit Agency. Retrieved from https://www.thebritagency.com/inbound-marketing-blog/why-are-website-bounce-rates-so-important#:~:text=Bounce%20rates%20are%20important%20because,page%20alone%2C%20then%20clicking%20away.

Comments

  1. lschoolcraftFebruary 3, 2021 at 7:02 PM

    Hi Alexis!

    You did a great job with this assignment, both of your articles were well put together and easy to digest. If I were someone just starting out, or someone who didn't understand why my analytics didn't line up, this post would have definitely helped me with understanding what was going on.

    I really liked that you broke down what analytics were at the start and then lead into the break down of bounce rates. Everyone is at different levels of their career, and educational journey and may not have known that information!

    Bounce rates are something that every person who has a website of their own (whether that be a portfolio, business page, or store) they should be well aware of what bounce rate metrics are and how to keep an eye on them. Without understanding these metrics, people could be missing big red flags that would be holding them back from growth.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Alexis RogersFebruary 4, 2021 at 6:26 PM

      Hi Leah!

      Thank you so much for the kind comments. I'm so glad it came across as easy to digest!!

      As someone who is very new to these topics and can get easily overwhelmed by them, my goal was to break it down into something that people at different levels of their learning journey could understand.

      Bounce rates can definitely be huge red flags for businesses. They can help show what's working well and what's not working in terms of design and content.

      Delete
  2. CarlosFebruary 3, 2021 at 7:41 PM

    You bring up a great point. The bounce rate for the websites will be different based on the type of business or organization. Bounce rates range between 26%-70% and averaging between 45%-65% (Schneider, 2020). The user is looking for specific content to meet their needs, and if they are distracted or engaged, it will affect their user experience (Schneider, 2020). Just like an individual would feel pressure at a store if a sales representative interrupts their shopping experience. This same person would appreciate assistance if they walked into the Department of Motor Vehicles to in and out quickly.

    Schneider, D. (2020). Bounce rate: understanding, measuring, and tracking for growth. Similar Web. Retrieved February 1, 2021, from https://www.similarweb.com/corp/blog/bounce-rate/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Alexis RogersFebruary 5, 2021 at 5:52 PM

      Hi Carlos,

      Thanks for the great insight!

      Design plays a huge role in bounce rate as well. According to Wiltshire, it takes users only 0.05 seconds to develop an opinion on your website with 94% of the first impressions relating to the design of the website (Wiltshire, 2020).

      This is super important because if users are immediately turned off by the design when they get to a website, they won't convert. They could be missing out on exactly what they need because of the design.

      References:

      Wiltshire, E. (2021, January 26). Web design trends and statistics (2021) [Infographic]. SocialMediaToday. Retrieved from https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/web-design-trends-and-statistics-2021-infographic/593965/.

      Delete

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