A website’s bounce rate indicates how many people left a website without interaction. It’s similar to a ball which “bounces” away when it hits a wall. A reasonable bounce rate should be under 40%. Websites within 40% and 55% need improvement but still acceptable.
There are tons of metrics used in the market to measure the performance of a website. In this age of internet marketing, it’s not enough to know how many views a page gets. One of the easiest ways tells to tell if a webpage attracts and retains visitors is the bounce rate. Knowing how to interpret your bounce rate will tell you many things about your site’s performance.

What Is “Bounce Rate”?

In Google’s definition, a bounce rate is the portion of visitors who visits and interacts with your site. This percentage represents the number of viewers who leave the website after seeing one page. It is calculated by dividing single-page visits by the overall visits which a website receives.
The name “bounce rate” is used because it perfectly describes the characteristics of these views. A ball will bounce away after hitting the target without touching other parts of the wall. You can calculate your bounce rated manually or use a tracking system that automatically does the job (like Google Analytics.)

How Do You Check Your Website’s Bounce Rate?

One of the best ways to check your bounce rate is by using Google Analytics. Log in to your Google Analytics account and choose which website you’re going to use for this session. Under the “Reports” section, click the “Audience” drop-down arrow.

Click on the “Overview” option, and you will see the graph of your viewer count. Under the graph, you can see a figure with a percentage, this is your bounce rate. Take note that this is your website’s whole bounce rate and that each page has its own percentage. The steps will vary based on the software that you use for your website’s behavior reports.

What Is A Good Bounce Rate?

In general, the lower your bounce rate is, the better it is for your website. This means that most of the viewers from the traffic you receive usually check other links. In addition, they are more likely to be interested in the product or content featured on your site. Most websites on the Internet are under this criteria: lower bounce rate = good rate.

But the rule mentioned above does not always apply to all websites. There are billions of websites on the internet, with numerous variations and different audience retention needs. A lower rate is good if your website thrives on people checking out your other links (e.g., service pages and product showcase pages.)

However, if you’re running a blog, a high bounce rate is actually better. It signifies that people who visit your blogs and content do take the time to read your blogs. Websites with different purposes will also have a different threshold on what is considered low or high. Your low rate might be considered too high by others.

The general rule is this:

• Under 40% – good; it means that your visitors check other webpages.
• 40% to 55% – still okay; needs a bit of improvement.
• 55% to 65% – quite bad; you might need to make significant changes.

If your bounce rate is either under 20% or over 90% (on Google Analytics), this could signify a tracking error or something went wrong with the installation of the analytics plugin. The figures above are only a rule of thumb and might not be a representation of your site’s needs.

Reasons Why Your Bounce Rate Is High

Social media traffic and paid ads might be the culprit of your high bounce rate. When this happens, you might want to take a look at your social media marketing strategies. It is likely that your campaign is attracting unqualified visitors who are not really interested in your product or services.

Another reason why your bounce rate is high might be due to your blog posts. Most people who searched for blog posts are potential customers, but they are on the “researching” phase and are likely trying to figure out what they need. Blog posts usually have higher bounce rate than other pages.

Unfortunately, there are also possible malicious reasons as to why your bounce rate is skyrocketing. Examples are referrals and bot spams. You might also want to check out the configuration of your behavior reporting tool.