What’s a Bounce Rate and why should you care?

Before diving into this article, I’d like to remind you to get Google Analytics, or some sort of analytics program installed onto every page of your site.

Don’t worry if you’re not a technical person. Your web designer should be able to do this for pretty cheap. It’s a very simple cut-and-paste procedure that only takes a few seconds.

When a visitor comes to your site, the program will track the visitor through your site. It will measure several key metrics including, but not limited to:

• How they found your site
• How long they stayed on each page
• How long they stayed on your site
• How many pages they loaded
• Which links they clicked on
• etc…

It can actually get somewhat confusing, because these numbers can all be interpreted in different ways to mean different things. It takes a bit of training and experience to really get a good understanding.

One of the easier metrics to interpret is your bounce rate. This is simply calculated as the percentage of visitors who visited your site, then left immediately without viewing any other pages. Maintaining a low bounce rate is crucial in maintaining the profitability of your marketing campaigns.

For example:

Let’s assume that you’re running a direct mail campaign at $0.50 per piece. Every letter instructs the reader to visit your web site and sign up for a networking event. The landing page is a simple web form with a submit button and no other link. Cutting your bounce rate in half, you double the ROI of your campaign.

And this doesn’t just apply to landing pages. The bounce rate of your main site can serve as an indicator of how easily your visitors can find information, or the effectiveness of your navigation.

Every company is different. And every web site has a different purpose. Because of this, there’s no universal standard acceptable bounce rate. Although anything over 50% should be a cause for concern.

Take a few weeks and evaluate the bounce rate for your own site. You might be surprised by what you discover about your customers and their browsing habits.