If you’ve spent any time reviewing your Google Analytics account — or any other web analytics program — you’ve probably come across the term “bounce rate.” Most webmasters agree that a low bounce rate is preferable, as it signals a positive user experience. But how exactly is this metric calculated? And what can you do to lower it?
Bounce Rate Defined
Bounce rate is best defined as the percentage of visitors who leave a website or webpage without clicking through to a second page within the site. If half of the visitors on your homepage click the back button in their browser without visiting a second page, for instance, your homepage would have a 50% bounce rate. It’s important to note that bounce rate can be given to either entire websites or pages. A site-wide bounce rate is the average rate of all pages.
What’s a Good Bounce Rate?
There’s really no easy answer to this question, as it depends on your objective. Landing pages used in pay-per-click (PPC) marketing campaigns tend to have a high bounce rate (some as high as 100%), whereas websites designed for organic search traffic may have a 30% site-wide bounce rate.
How To Lower Your Site’s Bounce Rate
There are several different steps you can take to lower your site’s bounce rate, one of which is to check and make sure all of your internal links are working as intended. If a link is broken/dead, visitors will have a difficult time accessing multiple pages within your site; thus, resulting in a high bounce rate. http://www.brokenlinkcheck.com/ offers a free-to-use tool that’s perfect for checking the function of your links. If you notice any broken, fix them immediately.
Another helpful tip to lower your site’s bounce rate is to interlink your content together. In other words, add links to relevant pages in your articles/content. Visitors will notice these links, some of whom will click them to learn more about the linked content. As long as the visitor clicks at least one link within your site, they won’t be counted as a bounce.
Of course, you should also make sure your site’s navigation is clear and easy to find. Placing all of your links in the footer will lead to a high bounce rate, as visitors may have trouble locating it. Placing them directly underneath the header or in a convenient sidebar, however, will have the opposite effect.
