What is bounce rate? For any business or marketer who has a Google Analytics account, this is one of the biggest questions out there. A high or low bounce rate matters depending on the single-pages it is correlated with. On the other hand, if a bounce rate is calculated for every single page on a website, then it might average out.

Do not panic. There are certain instances that this metric is critical. Yes, Google does take it into consideration with SERP and Google Core Algorithm updates, but it is not the end all. 

The best Denver SEO company is here to tell you, yes it matters and no it does not matter. Here is the breakdown! 

What is a bounce rate? 

Google Analytics states that a bounce rate is, “a single-page session on your site. In Analytics, a bounce is calculated specifically as a session that triggers only a single request to the Analytics server, such as when a user opens a single page on your site and then exits without triggering any other requests to the Analytics server during that session.” 

Alright, so what the heck does that mean? This means a bounce rate that is calculated on a single-page measures how many people click on the page and abandon the page without clicking elsewhere on the website. If someone is consistently going to a website’s service pages and leaving immediately, this can start to warn Google that the content on this page is not relevant. 

A bounce rate can also be measured for the entire website. Neil Patel breaks it down into simple math for us! “When a bounce rate is measured for the entire website it is all the bounces across every single page of the website divided by the total number of visits across all pages on the website.” 

With this being said, the next questions that clients ask is “Does bounce rate matter?” Yes, but it depends. 

Why and when it matters 

First thing first, there is no clear cut percentage to say that a bounce rate is good versus bad. As the best Denver SEO company in the area, we often tell clients anything under 50 percent is an excellent bounce rate and anything over 70 percent might be concerning. 

Clients often consider a high bounce rate with a website that is not doing its job. This is because the website could be doing great, but that single page with downloadable information could be making the bounce rate increase. Another notion to consider is that people are clicking on the page they want, leaving and coming back at a later date. This could account for the recurring users in Google Analytics. 

If you notice a website’s homepage has a high bounce rate, this matters. The homepage is the first page that a searcher is viewing. Why are they not navigating through the other pages? Is it properly optimized for mobile? Is it ranking in the wrong industry? This is when bounce rate is critical to understand. 

Another instance when  bounce rate matters is for PPC ads. If the landing page of the PPC advertising is extremely high, people could be abandoning the page without taking any action. This could be the page is not optimized with the right keywords or content or the advertisement is not reaching the right target audience. On the other hand, it could show that the leads that are not qualified are abandoning the page and the other leads are following the CTA. There are two perspectives to look at this notion with. 

Denver Media Group is the best Denver SEO company who can handle all of your on-page and off-page SEO while maintaining social media management practices! For more information about SERPs, Google Analytics or SEO- give our professionals a call today!