What is bounce rate and how to reduce it?

User engagement is the key to success. If you manage to capture a potential customer's attention, it means you've just captured a lead that is already on the straight path to making a purchase!

One of the most discussed, and most often misinterpreted, parameters for engagement is bounce rate. By understanding what the bounce rate is and how to analyze it, you can not only improve your Google rankings, but most importantly, increase conversions on your site.

Table of Contents

• Bounce Rate - what is it?
• Note for analysis: Bounce Rate in GA4 vs. Universal Analytics
• How to reduce Bounce Rate? (Strategies ready for implementation)
• Is a high Bounce Rate a reason to panic?
• What to bring to the table about Bounce Rate

Bounce Rate - what is it?

Simply translated, bounce rate is a rejection rate. It denotes the percentage of sessions in which a user entered your site and left after a while, without making any interaction.

The task of search engines is to answer the user's query as accurately as possible and satisfy the user 's intentions as quickly as possible. If the user:

1. Types a query into Google.
2. Arrives at your site.
3. Immediately closes the browser tab or clicks "Back."

This, for analytics tools, is a "bounce," or a "bundle. The browser (like Google) recognizes that the user didn't find what he was looking for on your site. So it interprets this as a bad match to the query - resulting in your site appearing less frequently for similar issues.

Note for analytics: Bounce Rate in GA4 vs. Universal Analytics

It's worth knowing that the definition of bounce rate has evolved. Many people looking for an answer to the question "what is bounce rate" end up with outdated information.

• In the old Universal Analytics (UA): Every single page visit (without interaction) was a rejection.
• In Google Analytics 4 (GA4): Google has changed its approach, to be more precise and fair. Now the bounce rate is the inverse of the engagement rate.
  
  

This means that now, in GA4, a session is NOT a rejection if it meets at least one of the "session with engagement" conditions:

• Lasts longer than 10 seconds.
• Includes at least one conversion event.
• Includes at least two screen or page views.

Learn more about our solutions: AI-enabled data analytics - get even more out of your data!

How to reduce Bounce Rate? (Strategies ready for implementation)

If you're concerned about your site's bounce rate value, it could mean that users aren't finding what they were looking for on your site, or the site is scaring them away.

Here are some methods on how to reduce bounce rate that you can implement right away:

1. Page loading

Slow loading web pages are the most common "killer" of conversions and the reason why users click "Back". If a page takes longer than 3 seconds to load, a large portion of potential customers will lose interest and give up waiting.

What to do. Optimize images, use caching and check your page score in Google PageSpeed Insights.

See how we’ve helped other businesses

We’ve delivered successful implementations for companies such as Orange, T-Mobile, and Homla. Explore our case studies and see how marketing automation helped increase revenue and strengthen customer loyalty.

2. Site UX and responsiveness

Today's customer is impatient - especially those using mobile devices. If your site doesn't adapt to display on a smartphone, or it's hard to navigate, and buttons don't work - the user won't want to continue shopping.

Verify how your site displays on different devices and screen sizes.

Read also: Customer experience (CX) vs. personalization - what impact does it have on the customer experience?

3. Watch out for pop-ups and ads

These are effective marketing tools - as long as you use them in the right way. Nothing annoys users more than a pop-up window seconds after entering a site, which obscures all interesting content and which cannot be closed.

It is good practice to use pop-ups sensitively: only after scrolling 50% of the page or when trying to exit (exit intent).

Note: Google can penalize websites and cut off reach for using so-called intrusive interstitials.

Is a high Bounce Rate a reason to panic?

We answer: not always. Before you start looking for ways to reduce the bounce rate, it's worth looking at user intent first.

There are scenarios in which a high bounce rate means that the site is doing its job - the user got what they were looking for, quickly and without too much clicking. These are:

• Q&A type pages, dictionaries, recipes,
• Contact pages (e.g., with a phone number) that lead to conversions.

Does Google deny such behavior? It doesn't. If a user leaves your site but does not return to the search results (known as pogo-sticking), the search engine recognizes that their need has been met.

The % bounce rate alone won't tell you whether it's good or bad. It's worth putting this data into context and using supporting metrics for analysis.

Note: If your Bounce Rate is below 10-20%, you almost certainly have a bug in your tracking code configuration and this data is not being collected correctly! This is worth verifying.

Key takeaways about the bounce rate

The key to how to reduce bounce rate is to put yourself in the shoes of the user. Verify personally: Is the site fast? Is its content easy to read? Is it easy to find the next step?

If you want to make the customer stay on your site for longer - contact the Persooa team! Together we will increase the ROI of your store, in as little as 90 days.