Analyzing Website Bounce Rate

We’re going to dive into analyzing website bounce rate as a prime example of a data-set that can be used to tell a story, but only when read correctly.

Your website bounce rate refers to the number of users that land on a page of your site and then immediately leave before scrolling to/engaging with other pages on your website. 

Before we do that, it’s important to understand that organizations ranging from sports teams to large business corporations read data to gauge where their business stands, and what steps they can take to improve. The unfortunate reality is that reading the data incorrectly will have a negative impact on how you’re perceiving the story that the data tells. 

Data Then vs. Data Now

Numbers (data)  tell a story that the human eye alone has a difficult time putting together. For example, baseball General Managers focus on launch angles, ball-spin rates, and on-base percentages today; while 20 years ago, batting and earned run averages were the main focus. Simply put, the numbers tell a different story today than they did in the past because they’re being interpreted in a more effective manner.

Now let’s build off the baseball example and compare it to marketers today. 5 years ago, bounce rate (the number of visitors that visit 1 page on your site and then leave immediately after) was a huge statistic; a lot of marketers will still argue that this statistic significantly matters today. But let’s look at it from a different approach, what that statistic alone doesn’t reveal is how clear and concise your message is.

Suppose a user makes their way to your site and the pages are so convoluted that they have to scroll through numerous other pages just to get the answers that they’re looking for (and they may never get that answer). Chances are, they probably leave frustrated after scrolling through multiple pages without a clear solution. 

The user left unhappy, but our bounce rate % decreased because someone scrolled through multiple pages of our site and spent more time than necessary on our pages. With the way bounce rate has traditionally been read, a decreasing bounce rate is a win. 

Compare that to a site with clear messaging where a user immediately finds what they’re looking for after the first page and then leaves satisfied and/or ready to reach out with intent to buy; bounce rate % now increases because the user left after finding valuable information on the first page that they visited. 

Don’t Completely Ignore Bounce Rate

Now after reading through this post you’re probably thinking bounce rate should just go away, right? Wrong.

Let’s go through an example where bounce rate can be valuable and will correlate with another dataset. 

Perhaps your website page-load speed is slow, let’s say 7 seconds for a full page load. You’ll probably also notice your bounce rate is high because you’re losing users attention; we’re all competing for user attention and a slow page just won’t cut it.

You then run a report on gtmetrix and take the appropriate steps to speed up your site; either internally or with a website analytics consultant. Your page load speed isn’t perfect after improvements, but now has a fully load time of 3.5 seconds; half the time compared to before! Your bounce rate will most likely go down and tell a story that users are having a better experience on your site and therefore aren’t leaving as quickly. 
So to contradict the whole subject of this post, bounce rate doesn’t matter, until it does!

Understanding How to Read The Data

Going off of the fact that analyzing website bounce rate does indeed matter, it only matters when read correctly. By looking at it alone, you’re not getting much value. But by looking at it with other data-sets, it can paint a much better picture. 

Watch the correlation between bounce rate and the below factors: 

• Organic reach: are users naturally finding your pages and do the terms they’re searching for align with your company messaging?
• Conversions: are users performing the actions on your site that you deem not only most valuable to your business, but the user themself. 
• Referral Channels: which sites are sending people to your site, and are they websites with authority? 
• Site speed: are your pages loading in 3 seconds or less so that you’re not losing the users attention?

In other words, what happens to my bounce rate along with these other factors? 

Enhancing each dataset is crucial to your search engine optimization strategy. In a hypercompetitive era that we’re now in, reading datasets together rather than individually can help you gain a competitive advantage. 

The Data Story

We predominantly focused on bounce rate and how it can correlate with other data factors as you try to optimize your website. But this was just one example as to how data can tell different stories depending on how it’s read. 

The takeaway is to remember that the data tells the right story only when read correctly. When read incorrectly (bounce rate by itself), the story has a much different outcome and can lead to misconceptions regarding the next steps you should take to improve your online presence.

For help on analyzing website bounce rate, reach out to learn more.