Bounce rate

The bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who leave the page immediately after opening your page. The bounce rate is probably not a direct ranking factor for Google. Whether a high bounce rate is good or bad for your website depends on the purpose of the page.

Wat exactly is the bounce rate?

Bounce rate and SEO

The bounce rate is probably not a direct factor for SEO. Hardly any correlations are found between bounce rates and search engine positions. A higher or lower bounce rate does not therefore directly result in a higher or lower position in Google.
Where does the bounce rate influence? This is probably used to measure the pogo sticking effect. The pogo sticking effect occurs when one visitor from Google clicks on your link and navigates back to the search results within a short time. Google thinks 'hey, the user did not come to the right page'. Even this has no direct effect on your rankings.
Google can use these signals from millions of sites to determine the type of content that users want to see for a search. Ultimately, a bounce rate can, via a very large detour, ensure that the type of content with a high bounce rate gets a different 'focus' from Google.

Influence of bounce rate on your site perfomance

Whether the bounce rate influences your site depends primarily on the purpose of your website. When you give a complete answer to a search query on a page, it is logical that the user then leaves your site (satisfied) without clicking through to perhaps return again.
On your homepage, which is usually a channel to the rest of your site, a high bounce rate is an indication that the user does not immediately find what was being searched for.
As a webs tore owner, a high bounce rate is not desirable at all. Visitors do not click on items nor make purchases.

How high can the bounce rate be?

The bounce percentage is easy to calculate with a simple formula. Bounce percentage = (page visitor with 1 page view / visit all page) * 100. So when 100 visitors visit your page and 30 of have left your site with only 1 page view then the bonce percentage is (30/100) * 100 = 30 %. You can measure the bounce percentage of the entire site in the same way.
Via Google Analytics you can view the bounce percentage of your entire site but also of your individual pages. By viewing the bounce percentages of your different pages, you quickly find out what works and what doesn't work for your site and target audience. With this information you can digest your site.

What are acceptable bounce rates?

A normal bounce rate varies greatly per niche and branch. The user intention is especially important here. Does a user want to buy products or are they just browsing for fun? Blogs and informational sites often have a high bounce rate. While e-commerce sites have a much lower bounce rate. The average bounce percentage on the web is around 40%.
These are normal bounce rates according to Google itself:

• 10-30% Online services
• 20-40% E-commerce
• 30-50% Lead generation sites
• 40-60% Content sites
• 70-90% Landing pages
• 70-98% Blogs

Tips to reduce the bounce rate

Would you like to to lower the bounce rate on your site? First consider whether this is necessary. Do you want to get more out of your webpage and hold visitors longer? Then it's a good idea to lower the bounce rate.

#1 - Great content

The most important factor for a low bouncer rate on a website is good content. Make use of clear headings that ensure that a visitor can quickly scan the content of the page. Pay attention to the readability of the text and do not use too long sentences.

#2 - Mobile friendly

Make no mistake about the number of visitors who view your page on a phone. Every page must also look attractive on a mobile. Do not use overly long headers that fill half a page, buttons that are too small to click on and ensure that the content of the page is loaded quickly.

#3 A relevant title and meta description

Make sure your title in meta description gives a good idea of ​​the content of your webpage. A visitor has seen your title and meta description in the search results and on that basis decided to click through. If your text does not meet expectations then a visitor will quickly click away again.

#4 Fast loading times

Research by Google itself shows that every millisecond counts. Does your page Load your page slowly? Then visitors will click away earlier and your bounce rate increasesr. Making a page faste.

#5 Simple navigation

Perhaps a visitor is willing to visit more pages on your website, but gets confused by unclear navigation. Try to have no more than 7 items in your main menu and keep the submenus short and well-arranged.

#6 ttractive click-through options / Call to action

Attractive click-through options below the article or a clear call to action can help your visitor click through easily.
Link on your page especially to other parts of your own website that are relevant to the visitor. By relevant we mean that it must be an addition or extension to the current article. Preferably you link to pages deeper in your website and not to the homepage. Create descriptive link texts that help your visitor.

#7 Search form

As a last attempt to keep your customer on your site you can always add a search form. Did the visitor not find what he / she wanted to find? Then they can search further via a search form.