🔍 SEO Insights What Bounce Rates are you experiencing? Strategies and Discussion

[Cedric]

We all know that a high bounce rate can be a silent killer for our websites. It’s something that has been boggling my mind, and I’m curious to hear your experiences and insights on this!

So, let's get straight to the point – What bounce rates are you currently observing on your sites? And more importantly, what innovative strategies and tweaks are you employing to minimize them?

Here are a few things to consider:

• Are your bounce rates relatively high or low?
• How does the bounce rate vary between different types of content or pages on your site?
• Are you implementing any specific SEO strategies or content modifications to decrease the bounce rate?

I'm particularly interested in learning about the unique and out-of-the-box strategies you folks are applying. It could be related to content structure, user engagement, page layout, or any other aspect that influences user behavior.

One thing that comes to my mind is optimizing your page load time. No one likes a slow website and for me it's an instant red flag. Another thing I'm positive about is the use of high-quality, relevant images that are, again, optimized for the web. Avoiding ads and annoying pop ups that disrupt the user experience, especially on mobile. And of course, content is king: Regularly update your content and keep it relevant to your audience.

So, what else can you think of to keep your bounce rate low? Share and learn from each other.

Looking forward to a lively and informative discussion!

 

[kensonplays]

According to my Google Analytics, I have a fairly high bounce. YIKES.


Not exactly sure how to improve the bounce rate, it seems pretty high. What is considered a high bounce rate, is 33% pretty high? Should I try lowering it to below 20% or so?

I'm assuming the majority of the bounce is from home page but not sure how to check for sure.

 

[Tracy]

According to my Google Analytics, I have a fairly high bounce. YIKES.

Looks like you need to upgrade to GA 4? They no longer use a "bounce rate"... it's changed to engagement rate apparently. So you are using the old GA that will soon be gone.

 

[kensonplays]

Looks like you need to upgrade to GA 4? They no longer use a "bounce rate"... it's changed to engagement rate apparently. So you are using the old GA that will soon be gone.

It is using GA4. There is still a way to get the "bounce rate" to show. See: https://www.vixendigital.com/google-analytics/ga4-bounce-rate/

 

[Tracy]

Yes... but bounce rate doesn't appear to be what it used to be... and a better metric is your engagement rate itself.


It's a more realistic metric as many of those "bounces" can be from bots unless you are specifically going through the process of excluding them (and good luck with that) and also from valid users.
That's why I no longer pay attention to the bounce rate, but the actual engagement rate, as that is a more truthful telling of your site.
BTW, this is for the period of Aug 27, 2023 until now for the site... I restarted with a new GA4 property since there was some issues with an add-on and getting it to report to the correct property number. I trash canned all the old property numbers and created a new one.

I think the most telling reason why "bounce" is not a big factor is this statement from that page you linked itself

For example, you might release a new article on your blog, one reader enters that page and reads your article for 10 minutes. They leave your page. With Universal Analytics, this would be considered a bounce and contribute towards your bounce rate. Whereas with GA4, this would NOT be a bounce because it would be classed as an Engaged Session.