Bounce Rate
Demystify the most commonly misunderstood metric—learn how to read bounce rate in context as opposed to treating it as a universal score for "good" or "bad" performance.
What bounce rate actually measures
Bounce rate is actually pretty simple. It is, explicitly, the number of visitors who exited a your website after viewing just one page. For these users their entrance and exit point is exactly the same.
There are a number of reasons why users may visit a website and leave without navigating to any other pages that are not inherently bad. Understanding the context of a bounce is critical to effectively evaluating this metric.
A common misconception
High bounce rate does not automatically mean a webpage or website is failing. There are a number of legitimate, neutral reasons a visitor might bounce. For example: a user arrives at your website looking for your business address—they find it in your website's footer and close the page. Analytically this visit would record a s a bounce, but the user successfully and easily accomplished their goal and moved on.
Why context is important
Expectations for bounce rates differ by the type of page it pertains to. If you spot a high bounce rate on your website, evaluate the type of page it's occurring on to determine if there is actually a cause for concern.