How to evaluate your bounce rate

DEFINITION OF BOUNCE RATE

To complement this definition, it is important to have benchmarks based on the type of site. A bounce rate carries different weight depending on whether you run an information site — where users read a single article — or an e-commerce site — where the goal is to reach the basket page and complete a purchase.

The KISSmetrics study from 2011 provides some key figures on how bounce rates vary across different sectors.

• Retail site with well-targeted visitors:
  → Average bounce rate between 20% and 40%
• A simple page with a single action such as “Buy”:
  → Average bounce rate between 70% and 90%
• Web portals (MSN, Yahoo, etc.):
  → Average bounce rate between 10% and 30%
• Service sites including FAQ sites:
  → Average bounce rate between 10% and 30%
• Content sites with strong search engine visibility:
  → Average bounce rate between 40% and 60%
• Lead generation sites aimed at sales:
  → Average bounce rate between 30% and 50%

SO, IS YOUR BOUNCE RATE GOOD?

To know whether your bounce rate is good, you first need to define your objectives — which will differ from one business to another, and even from page to page within your own site.

To do this, you need to take several elements into account:

• The type of page (contact, product, landing page)
• The CTAs (Calls to Action) present on the page
• The acquisition channel

FOR A SHOWCASE OR INFORMATION SITE

If the objective is for users to read an article or discover your offering, there may not necessarily be a second page to visit. In these cases, a high bounce rate does not necessarily mean your content was not viewed. To complete your analysis, you should look at the time spent on that page, which will indicate whether visitors are staying long enough to read your content.

FOR AN E-COMMERCE SITE

The objective is very clear for a product page: the visitor should add the product to their basket or continue browsing similar products. For an online shop, a good bounce rate should be fairly low — between 20% and 40%.

As you will have gathered, depending on the type of site and your objectives, the bounce rate will be analysed very differently. It remains important to consider the bounce rate as part of a broader set of metrics — on its own, it tells you very little.

3 TIPS TO IMPROVE YOUR BOUNCE RATE

1/ PAGE LOADING SPEED

According to certain studies: “57% of users leave a site if it takes more than 3 seconds to load. And 80% say they will never return.”

It is important to test your page loading speeds (via Google’s tool or another) in order to improve your loading times. These tools will highlight the areas to improve.

2/ READABILITY AND READING COMFORT

Readability of your content is essential. It is equally important not to obstruct reading with aggressive pop-ups (secondary windows that appear without being requested by the user).

3/ THE ORGANISATION OF YOUR CONTENT AND THE HIERARCHY OF YOUR INFORMATION

The structure of your site matters — the more intuitive it is, the more it will encourage visitors to explore other pages.

To facilitate navigation between your pages, you can for example use breadcrumb trails. They act as signposts, help visitors orientate themselves on your site, and improve web accessibility.

Correctly analysing your bounce rate is what enables you to optimise your pages based on your target audience and your objectives.