Feb 18, 2009
A bounce as measured on a website statistics package like Google Analytics, is where someone only visits one page on your website before going to another website.
If you have a directory website, and people find what they are looking for on that one page ranked top of Google, then they don't need to go any further. Its a good bounce. If you have a bad page ranked top, they may have to browse through your website to find what they ACTUALLY want. More page views could be BAD in this instance!
If your article ranks top for a search phrase, and you tell them all they need to know on that one page, why should it be anything more than a bounce. I don't expect to get an SEO job every time someone finds my site top of Google, but my articles certainly serve to promote SearchMasters as an SEO and Web development expert! I could get a job next week because someone saw my article today? Who knows?
Google - tell the whole story, not just half a story. Bounces are not necessarily bad, bounces can be good!
8 Comments
Tom - Feb 18, 2009
What kind of people do they hire at Google now a days. Bounce can be an amazing thing showing you are doing your job sending people to the right page.
Google themselves must be one of the companies with the highest bounce rate in the world.
If they use bounce rate to determine high ranking pages they are set to be taken over by a new technique that understand search better then the people currently employed at Google...
Scott - Internet marketing - Feb 21, 2009
Michael
Good entry. I have always looks at the google analytics bounce rate as a "lower the better" metric. But your point is well worth considering. If we could only track precisely where our visitors go after the so-called "bounce." Perhaps we can one day establish a mental telepathy cookie to place in their brains so we can track them forevermore?
Vanja - Digital Partners - Feb 27, 2009
Great topic. Thanks for posting a view on it.
I think the points raised are valid. I think the article made a few assumptions without stating them leading to misunderstandings.
Without understanding the motivations of the user and their interaction with the content of your landing page you could be making be making changes on the page to the detriment of the users experience even thou you could be bringing the bounce rate down.
Harvey - Mar 31, 2009
I have thought this exact thing for some time as well. Bounce rate stats need to be considered in context, just like anything else.
I run a site with an 80% bounce rate yet an average stay of 3-4 mins. It would seem people are reading the whole page then leaving, which is actually fine in this case. All indications suggest they are leaving with a smile on their face, rather than 'bouncing' in frustration.
Hi Michael,
Thanks for your article. It helped me better understand bounce rate.
One thing I'm not sure I understand - let's take the directory example...
What kind of directory is it? Does it provide hyperlinks to a organized list of resources?
Or is if simply a list of phone numbers and addresses?
If there are hyperlinks - shouldn't the bounce rate decrease?
IF my understanding of what "bounce rate" means - people come to the page and then leave (via the "back" button??) then I would assume they did NOT find what they were looking for.
As a marketer and copywriter, my goal is generally to get someone to take the next step - sign up, order, join or something. Action is the key word.
So my question is: where do all the bounces go?
Regards,
Andy
Allan - Feb 18, 2009
They should "repent" for "ceasing" to mention an edge case example? Now that's what I call poor word selection!
The article was about stopping bounces; not "all about bounces". They're not mentioning these "positive bounces" because they're irrelevant to the article and would likely only serve to confuse its intended audience.
Your point is *maybe* worth a footnote, but to say they should "repent" for a "half-story" is positively ridiculous.