How to correctly interpret the bounce rate metric in Google Analytics?

The high bounce rate of your site is not a reason to panic!

The high bounce rate of your site is not a reason to panic!

Say you're blogging. And blogs tend to have a high bounce rate. This is due to the fact that the visitor usually acts on this principle: he visits the page of the blog post, reads it and leaves.

But a very low failure rate is an occasion to beware and think about any technical problems on the site.

For example, as it was written in this article, incorrect integration of the Google Analytics tracking code can lead to a distortion of the bounce rate.

Each time you want to analyze the bounce rate, you need to remember the following important factors:

user behavior scenarios;
type of site;
landing page type;
landing page quality;
type of content;
traffic quality;
type of marketing channel;
type of visitor;
device type.

Now let's look at these factors in more detail.

1. User behavior scenarios

But how should a user interact with your site?

If the pages of your site do not respond to a user’s request, he will immediately leave the site and you will be denied.

The actions that the user must perform on the page of the site should be consistent and ultimately turn into an endless cycle of actions.

We give a simple example: a user visited the page of your service, then switched from it to the case page for this service, and then on a thematic article that confirms your competencies. At first glance this seems complicated, but in reality it is much simpler.

2. Type of site

Different types of sites have different bounce rates. At the beginning of the article, we looked at an example of a blog site. Indeed, for most blog sites, a high bounce rate is normal, but no one forbids you to create a consistent scenario of actions on the blog page that will lower the bounce rate.

3. Landing page type

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Suppose a user visits the contact page of your site. This means that he is looking for specific information, after which he is likely to leave your site, and you, in turn, will be counted rejection.

4. Landing page quality

If your page contains too much advertising, illogical and irrelevant text, but does not contain an explicit “motivation for action”, then most likely the bounce rate will again be high.

We made our own test on this topic: we placed an advertisement on the article page and measured the bounce rate for 2 months. At the exit, we got this result: before the introduction of advertising, the bounce rate was 35%, after the introduction - 61%.

5. Content Type

If you create content that is difficult to read, the user can bookmark the page to return to it later, which will also give +1 to the bounce rate.

6. Traffic quality

If the internal SEO optimization of your site and the site’s content policy are incorrect, then visitors who are absolutely not interested in the content will visit the site.

7. Type of marketing channel

Different marketing channels have a different bounce rate.

For example, traffic from social networks often has a higher bounce rate than from search networks.

8. Type of visitor

Typically, the rate for new visitors is much higher than for returnees.

9. Type of device

If your site is not optimized for mobile devices, then traffic from mobile devices will be with a high bounce rate.

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