What is bounce rate?

Posted in: SEO FAQ by Jazz on July 23, 2009 | Comments Off

A bounce occurs when a web site visitor leaves a page or a site without visiting any other pages before a specified session-timeout occurs.
There is no industry-standard minimum or maximum time by which a visitor must leave in order for a bounce to occur. Rather, this is determined by the session timeout of the analytics tracking software.

A visitor can bounce by:

• Clicking on a link to a page on a different web site
• Closing an open window or tab
• Typing a new URL
• Clicking the “Back” button to leave the site
• Session timeout

The Bounce Rate for a single page is the number of visitors who enter the site at a page and leave within the specified timeout period without viewing another page, divided by the total number of visitors who entered the site at that page. In contrast, the Bounce Rate for a web site is the number of web site visitors who visit only a single page of a web site per session divided by the total number of web site visits.

Bounce rates can be used to help determine the effectiveness or performance of an entry page. An entry page with a low bounce rate means that the page effectively causes visitors to view more pages and continue on deeper into the web site.

Google.com analytics specialist Avinash Kaushik has stated: “It is really hard to get a bounce rate under 20%, anything over 35% is cause for concern, 50% (above) is worrying.”