The bounce rate is one of the many performance indicators of a website. If it is bad, it is important to analyse the causes and then to improve the site so that its owner can achieve his objectives.
What is bounce rate?
If you are looking for the definition of bounce rate, it is the percentage of visitors to a website who have only viewed one page. It is different from the exit rate. The latter refers to visitors who visited several pages and stayed on the site for a while before leaving.
It is important to understand the bounce rate definition. Indeed, the volume of sales made by an e-commerce site depends on it. If this indicator is high, this means that users have closed the website without visiting its other pages. They have not taken action (request for a quote, registration, purchase, etc.).
Bounce is also when the visitor leaves the browser open on the same entry page for a long time (30 minutes or more) without taking any further action.
What is the average bounce rate?
This indicator is analysed differently depending on the type of site. For example, the average bounce rate for e-commerce is between 20 and 40%. If it exceeds 50%, this is a bad sign. It will then be necessary to reduce it since so many bounces block your sales. The objective of an e-commerce site is to encourage visitors to place orders. To do this, they must not remain on the website's entry page.
On the other hand, for an editorial site, a directory or a blog, the average bounce rate can be between 40 and 60% or even more. And this is quite normal, since users may only consult one page of the site. When they have found the information they were looking for, they will close the tab without necessarily going to another article. For these types of sites, it is essential to analyse the time spent by visitors on this page. If they stay there for a long time, that's good news.
How can this rate be reduced?
You should know that Google takes into account the Google Analytics bounce rate to influence the positioning of your website in the search results. If it is high, then Google considers it to be of poor quality. This will hurt your SEO.
To reduce it, you must first determine the causes. A bounce occurs, for example, if your website is too heavy and takes a long time to be displayed. Internet users are increasingly impatient these days, so you need to improve the loading speed of your site to keep them coming back.
They may also leave your website if the content of the page is not relevant and does not correspond to what they are looking for. An outdated or difficult to use page can also drive visitors away. In order to convince them to stay on your site and engage with you, offer them a good user experience. This requires a well-designed, reassuring and professional site with comfortable navigation.