Bounce Rate: Understand it and avoid errors in your analysis

Bounce Rate
Bounce Rate

Do you know what the bounce rate is? Learn the concept here and how to use it to avoid errors in your metric analysis!

Analyzing metrics in executing a digital marketing strategy is an essential part of ensuring your goals are being met.

To do this, most marketers use Google Analytics, a Google tool that provides managers with quantitative and qualitative data about websites and mobile applications. There is a lot of data, such as the number of users, sessions, where they came from, where they are from, etc.

One of the key metrics, the bounce rate (or bounce rate), is often the target of considerable concern and doubt. Do you know this metric? Do you know what it really means and represents? Do you know the difference between it and the exit rate?

Solve this and many other questions in this article that will simply and objectively explain everything about bounce rate, from how you analyze it to the main mistakes you make.

But after all, what is bounce rate?

As defined by Google Analytics itself, the bounce rate indicates “the percentage of single-page sessions (ie sessions where the person left your site on the landing page without interacting with it) ) ”.

Therefore, this fee is attributed to visitors who entered your site through a landing page and, for some reason, left that site without taking any action within your site.

This can happen in a number of ways: users clicked the “Back” button in their browser, closed the page/tab, went to a link to another site – within their own page, typed in a new address, or simply went idle long enough. (30 minutes by Google Analytics default).

Bounce Rate x Exit Rate

It is important to understand the difference between these two. While bounce rate represents visitors coming in and out of the same page, without interacting with the site, the exit rate only shows visitors who left that page. This way, the bounce rate applies to the landing page; The exit rate refers to the page that the visitor leaves the site, that is, the exit page.

What is the acceptable bounce rate for a site?

The value of a bounce rate being high or low depends on a number of factors, such as business market, site objective, page objective, and so on. However, there are some average numbers according to the type of site. See the values ​​generally found in the main markets:

  • Retail – 20-40%
  • Simple Landing Pages – 70 to 90%
  • Portals (example: MSN, G1) – 10 to 30%
  • Service Sites / FAQ – 10 to 30%
  • Selling Services (Lead Generation) – 30 to 50%
  • Content sites – 40 to 60%
  • Blogs – 70 to 98%

Data were taken from this QuickSprout post. 

Do you believe your rate is high or can be improved? Read this article for tips on lowering your bounce rate. In the meantime, make sure you are analyzing it correctly and keeping the goals of your page and the experience of your visitors in mind.

What are the best practices when analyzing it?

Before you despair, make sure you are doing a good analysis of the bounce rate and it is, in fact, bad. To do this, understand some practices that you need to keep in mind to assist your analysis of this metric.

Segmentation

Targeting can help in a very positive way of analyzing overall metrics, including bounce rate.

If you segment your data by location, for example, you will often find that visitors from somewhere other than your business location leave the page without interacting, leading to a high bounce rate for that region.

Other forms of targeting that can help your analysis are New Visitors vs. Recurring, Source, Devices, etc. It is essential to always consider what type of targeting might show users different interests that would cause them to have no interaction with the site at that time.

User Experience

When checking the bounce rate of your blog or specific page, the main factor to keep in mind should always be the user experience.

If the user entered, for example, directly into a contact page, it is common for them to find your business phone or email and close that page. This is positive! He found the information he needed at that moment.

Another example would be a relatively high bounce rate, but with an equally high average time. This means that while the visitor is leaving without interacting with the site, they are reading the content, and this is also a good result.

Which way?

Perhaps all that person needed at that time was that specific knowledge. If he took the time to read, the chances of him coming back later are high.

Get to know some of the top bounce rate analysis errors

It is important to understand the bounce rate so that your analysis is done correctly and the panic to improve it is not generated for nothing. There are some issues that can lead you to misinterpret your bounce rate.

Analytics code misconfigured

Incorrectly entering the Google Analytics tracking code on your site may cause bounce rate data to be changed erratically.

For example, if you place code on one page and it doesn’t replicate to another page on your site, it may count as a bounce when the visitor moves from page to page.

Setup and installation may seem simple and obvious, but it’s easy to make mistakes. Avoid them with this complete Google Analytics guide and learn how to install. To make sure everything is ok, use Tag Assistant.

Event Configuration

The bounce rate is calculated, as already said, according to user interactions. If it enters a landing page and downloads a PDF file, for example, without an event related to that action, Google Analytics will not be able to “capture” it as an interaction.

Therefore, this user will be mistaken for bounce rate once they interact with your site. Make sure your account has events configured for actions of this type and avoid this error.

It is important to understand the bounce rate clearly so that you can actually analyze whether it is disrupting your goal in content marketing, even if indirectly, or if that number is just diverting your attention from something more important.

If you still have a question or would like to share your experience with us, please submit a comment!

And if you want to find out how to lower your bounce rate and create better results for your site, check out our complete SEO guide:

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