Is Your Website’s Bounce Rate Healthy?

Many of our clients ask us to assess their bounce rate. While it’s an obsessively analysed statistic for some, it’s a bit of a tricky one when it comes to saying for sure what a ‘good’ number might be. 

For starters, Google Analytics requires two clicks to measure this number accurately. Meaning all users who click onto your site but not off (for instance they close the tab, or the computer dies) are never recorded. 

Secondly, bounce rates are entirely dependent on industry and traffic type, so it is hard to compare rates business to business. That being said, we can give you a good general overview of a healthy bounce rate and how to improve it. 

Bounce Rate: The % of single-page visits to a website 

(This is how Google defines bounce and isn’t completely accurate, but close enough)

What’s a Good Bounce Rate?

Bounce rates are entirely dependent on your industry and what is standard within that realm. For some businesses, conversion is quick, like a tow truck company. People only seek out that service when they need it now. For others, people need a little more time to research and assess their preference, like personal accountancy. That’s why these numbers are hard to assess and even harder to compare.

The below numbers show a generalised range of bounce rate valuations. 

<20% – This is good, almost too good, maybe too good to be true. Check your tracking for errors.

20-40% – The sweet spot. Generally speaking, you should aim for a bounce rate under 40%, but as we said, this is dependent on the industry.

40-55% – The average. There’s definitely room for work, but this area is still showing a decent return.

55-75% – Higher than average. Consider a website audit and prepare yourself for an overhaul. You have room for improvement.

>75% – Very high, but normal for news, blogs, or information related pages. This could possibly also be an error in your site’s tracking or accessibility.

Why Is My Bounce Rate High?

There are legitimate reasons why your bounce rate may be high, or your data skewed. If you’re currently running a Pay-Per-Click campaign, you need to reassess your results. These (as well as visits through social media sites) often have higher bounce rates and could be throwing off your numbers. Make sure to look at the source for perspective on bounce rates.

It would help if you also broke down your bounce rate by page. While the home page should naturally have a lower bounce rate, blogs and informational pages naturally have a higher one. Looking at the stats page by page will allow you to remove outliers. 

Why Are People Leaving Early?

You need to put the work in to assess why exactly it is that people aren’t sticking around on your site. It could be several different reasons from the content not being attention-grabbing enough to the website’s design being outdated and boring. 

People know that beneath your result on Google, is another one with the same service or product offering. You have to grab them from the get-go with a clear and appealing site. Another killer of conversion is a slow loading site. Ensure that your page is loading faster than a potential customer has time to say “next”.

How Do I Decrease My Bounce Rate?

Do an internal audit to guarantee you have attractive, engaging copy, clear and informative headings and page names, sound design, and an easy-to-navigate site. People should find it easy to move on to their next step from your homepage; if not, they’ll click out, and you could lose them forever.

It’s 2021, so ensuring that your site is mobile friendly is also non-negotiable. Make it your goal that anyone linking to your site through a search engine on their phone has a pleasant time engaging with your site. 

Ultimately, bounce rates are subjective and shouldn’t rule your strategy, but they can be a good gauge of whether or not your website is up to par with others in the industry.

Zib Digital is a leading specialist in SEO and digital marketing work. Get in touch to learn what we can do to enhance your digital presence, get better results in Google or create a better-converting website.