Bounce rate

Analytics

When looking at the number of monthly single-page sessions, it makes sense to consider a few other metrics because not all those single-page visits are worth as much as the others. This is why the bounce rate is crucial to optimize.

Here's everything you need to know about bounce rate.

TRACK YOUR BOUNCE RATE

5 ⁺

Templates using this KPI
4 ⁺

Integrations using this KPI

What is a bounce rate?

The definition of bounce rate is the percentage of a web page's total visits, with the visitor leaving or clicking the back button without taking action, such as clicking on a call to action (CTA), visiting a second page, or filling out a form in a certain time period. There is an individual bounce rate per page and an overall bounce rate that serves as an average from the whole website.

It is not to be confused with the exit rate. Here's how to better understand the difference between the two:

Bounce rate measures the number of website visitors who enter and exit without visiting any other page on the website.
Exit rate measures the number of users who exit a website from a specific page, regardless of page views.

Both are good measures of engagement for a site’s content, and you want to keep them as low as possible. You read that right; achieving the highest bounce rate possible shouldn't be your goal.

Track your bounce rate today

How to calculate your bounce rate

To calculate a page's bounce rate, the total number of one-page visits is divided by the total number of entries to a website. For example, if your home page receives 500 visitors this month but 250 left without clicking on a second page, your homepage's bounce rate metric would be 50%.

Don't sweat it; you don't need to calculate it manually. Google Analytics 4 does it for you!

Bounce rate formula

Bounce rate of a page = Total number of single-page sessions / Total sessions

What is a good bounce rate?

Good bounce rate: low bounce rate.

When looking at the industry's benchmark, the bounce rate differs widely. The definition of a “good” bounce rate is also subjective based on the type of page and the traffic source. Most website bounce rates fall somewhere between 25% and 75%. But having a 50% bounce rate isn't necessarily a bad thing. A report shows the average Bounce Rate range is between 41 and 51%. Getting a lower bounce rate than 20% is almost unachievable, and you might check if you have a tracking problem.

Track yours with an automated report

What is a bad bounce rate?

Bad bounce rate: high bounce rate.

A high bounce rate means your visitors leave your website quickly, and you want to keep that number low, around the 35-40 mark. You need to optimize the SERP, your web pages, and your user experience to achieve that. More on that later.

Track yours with an automated report

Bounce rate KPI examples & templates

Your bounce rate can be (and should be) added to multiple reports. Here are some of them:

See this KPI in action here!

See this KPI in action here!

Google analytics report template

A report with all the most important metrics for your SEO strategy. Track all your web analytics, from single-page data, page load time, organic searches, and more.

See this template live

Digital marketing report template

From SEO to social media and PPC, this report gives you a good view of all your online marketing strategy metrics and overall online performance.

See this template live

Ecommerce report template

A report with all the most important metrics for your eCommerce site, like shopping cart abandonment, click-through rate, and revenue. Optimize your product pages to get better results in your report!

See this template live

Get 10 free dashboards for 15 days

TRY DASHTHIS TODAY

Bounce rate best practices

Here are some of the best practices you should remember while optimizing your website's bounce rate. Don't forget to add a tracking code (or a custom plugin) on GA to measure your marketing efforts!

Optimize the SERP

It all starts with the meta description, which can be found on the search engine result page, whether it's an organic or a paid search. They indicate what can be found on a page; believe it or not, people read them. The ranking factor is important because Google uses relevancy for its algorithm, so ranking high in the result can help with bounce rates. Other optimizations can include usability and page speed.

Boost user engagement rate on all pages

The cornerstone of your website lies in its content. Emphasize content marketing strategies and understand search intents to refine your copywriting. Enhance user engagement and lead generation through compelling CTAs or a table of contents guiding them to explore internal links. Experiment with pop-ups, conduct A/B testing and utilize white space strategically to create a visually inviting browsing experience. Prioritize site design optimization to ensure your potential customers are directed to conversion-focused pages. Never underestimate the significance of well-crafted landing pages.

Check performance by device and network

If you have a higher bounce rate or are doing pretty well, you must ensure all individual pages are well-optimized for different networks and devices. More and more people are visiting websites from mobile devices, so it's important that these versions are user-friendly for those mobile users.

Want to track all your KPIs in one easy-to-use dashboard?

Try dashthis free

Bounce Rate Synonyms

Although bounce rate is widely used, multiple synonyms can be used. Here are a few:

Bounce ratio, Bounce %, Bounce rate (%), Average bounce rate, Website bounce rate, Campaign bounce rate, Overall bounce rate, Page bounce rate, Session bounce rate, Site-wide bounce rate