Bounce

The category of engagement when considering basic web analytics includes page exit ratio, single page visits (bounces), bounce rate and page views per visit. With web analytics, marketers are able to measure success in the same way they would any campaign or project. Metrics such as the bounce rate tell you about the average behavior of a visitor  (Hansen, 2014). Although the number of visitors are still important, the ability to hold the attention of an individual or to induce the individual to participate in some sort of activity is critical.  Websites need to be engaging in order to achieve a purpose and measuring a bounce rate can help analyze that engagement. Ideally, a brand should have a stable and growing audience of engaged visitors.

A bounce rate is the single page view visits divided by entry pages. If a bounce rate is being calculated for a specific page, then it is the number of times that page was a single page view visit divided by the number of times that page was an entry. If bounce rate is calculated for a group of pages, then it is the number of times page in that group was a single page view visit divided by the number of times pages in that group were entry pages. A site-wide bounce rate represents the percentage of total visits that were single page view visits.

Crate & Barrel’s consistently tests its website according to Kohnen (2013). While measuring analytics the company decided to reduce choices on the site. When those choices were reduced, conversions went up and bounce rates dropped (Kohnen, 2013).  By viewing analytics, Crate & Barrel was able to adapt its website better for its audience.

Once a company identifies pages with troubling bounce rates, its important to analyze who exactly is coming to the page, why are they going to the page and what is it that they probably want to do (Quinn, 2011). This takes the bounce rate measurement from quantitative to qualitative. Performing A/B and multi-variant tests when making even minor changes to the site can help lead marketers into the right direction, just like Crate & Barrel (Quinn, 2011).

According to Kusinitz (2014), its important to be realistic on benchmark averages for bounce rates dependent on the type of website. Realistic expectations include:

Content Website: 40 – 60%

Lead Generation: 30 – 50%

Blogs: 70 – 98%

Retail Sites: 20 – 40%

Service Sites: 10 – 30%

Landing Pages: 70 – 90%

Choosing the right keywords to match the website’s content, not attracting the most number of visitors, will also compliment your bounce rate (Kusinitz, 2014). In addition, web developers should create multiple landing pages with unique content and keywords for different buyer personas (Kusinitz, 2014). Bounce rates can also help identify and diagnose issues with a particular website such as usability issues, including unorganized content or unresponsive layouts, page loading time or convoluted messages.

By analyzing the bounce rate of a website, a brand can fine tune its website in order to better serve its purpose.

Hansen, M. (2012, February 21). Measuring engagement with Google Analytics. Retrieved January 2, 2015, from https://megalytic.com/blog/measuring-engagement

Kohnen, C. (2013, February 27). How Crate & Barrel keeps their website looking awesome: Testing. Retrieved January 12, 2015, from http://www.examiner.com/article/how-crate-barrel-keeps-their-website-looking-awesome-testing

Quinn, M. (2011). How to reduce your website's bounce rate. Retrieved January 14, 2015, from http://www.inc.com/guides/2011/01/how-to-reduce-your-website-bounce-rate.html

Kuzinitz, S. (2014, July 7). How to decrease your website's bounce rate. Retrieved January 2, 2015, from http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/decrease-website-bounce-rate-infographic