Why is Bounce Rate so important?

Bounce rate, often lauded as the most important web metric, is a visit that consists of only one page being viewed (Reed College, 2015). When a website is viewed and then left, without any other clicks on the site, it is known as a bounce. This can be measured in aggregate, as in the percentage of all website visitors who visited a page on the website and left, or it can be measured for any individual page on the website. (Kaushik, 2010).

Four main scenarios register as a bounce. They include a user:

• clicking the back button
• closing the browser window or tab
• typing a new URL
• or just doing nothing, since a session typically times out after 30 minutes (Kelly, 2012).

Bounce rate can also help identify problems on a website. For example, a high bounce rate could mean that a website has a poor design that seems confusing or unappealing to visitors, such as sites with video ads that auto-play, or the load time may be too high and visitors don’t want to wait (Ledgard, n.d.). Another issue that a high bounce rate could discover is that a website is attracting the wrong people. For example, a visitor may have used a search engine to search for shoes to buy. After clicking a link, the visitor may realize that a particular site just reviews shoes and doesn’t sell them. The website may need to reevaluate what keywords it uses and how it advertises itself in order to attract visitors who are looking for what the website actually offers (Ledgard, n.d.).

The bounce rate can also help marketers with measuring the effectiveness of an email campaign. For example, an email might tell subscribers about an exciting new product that company’s website is now offering. A large percent of people may click the link in the email to the product’s webpage, but then may exit that page without clicking anything else. This high bounce rate may be an indication that the email does not accurately describe what is offered on the web page. A look at the bounce rate in this situation might alert marketers to an issue with content or a call to action (Kaushik, 2010).

While marketers strive for a low bounce rate, sometimes a high bounce rate is acceptable. For example, blogs might have a high aggregate bounce rate, because visitors might come to the website to read the latest blog post, then leave. To get a better measure on bounce rates in this scenario, Kaushik recommends measuring bounce rate for new visitors instead. New visitors may sign up for a newsletter, or read the page’s “about the author section,” which show engagement and may make them repeat visitors (Kaushik, 2010). Another page that might have a high bounce rate is a “contact us” page. Visitors may click to the page to find a business’s address or phone number. In this case, the page did its job and a high bounce rate is not a bad thing (Kelly, 2012).

Marketers can improve bounce rate by using A/B testing. A/B testing is when one of two or more versions of a page are randomly shown to page visitors. The goal is to see which version delivered the desired outcome, or a lower bounce rate in this case. The pages could vary in many ways, including layout, color, different elements, and a multitude of other ways (Kaushik, 2010).

For example, MedaliaArt used A/B testing to see which version of these two home pages would have a lower bounce rate. Version 1 had a large banner promoting the holiday sale, while Version 2 displayed the holiday sale information much smaller and in a sidebar (Chopra,.

Version 1

Version 2

The company worried that the large promotional message would irritate visitors, but the test showed that Version A had a much lower bounce rate (Chopra, 2010).

In this case, there were not a lot of changes between the pages, but pages that have many differing elements make A/B testing more difficult, because marketers can’t know which elements made one of the two pages more effective. However, A/B testing is a simple way to test how successful a page is, and the results may be surprising (Kaushik, 2010).

References:

Chopra, P. (2010, Jan. 7). Using A/B split testing to reduce bounce rate by 20% for an eCommerce store [blog post]. Retrieved online from https://vwo.com/blog/using-ab-split-testing-reduce-bounce-rate-ecommerce-store/.

Ledgard, J. (n.d.). Bounce rate: 14 ways you are driving people away from your landing pages [blog post]. Retrieved online from https://kickofflabs.com/blog/bounce-rate-14-ways-you-are-driving-people-away-from-your-landing-pages/.

Kaushik, A. (2010). Web analytics 2.0: The art of online accountability & science of customer centricity. Indianapolis, Indiana: Wiley Publishing, Inc.

Kelly, K. (2012, Feb. 12). What is bounce rate? Avoid common pitfalls [blog post].  Retrieved online from http://www.blastam.com/blog/index.php/2012/02/what-is-bounce-rate.

Reed College of Media. (2015). Lesson 2: Basic Web Metrics. West Virginia University. Retrieved online from ecampus.wvu.edu.