There are many metrics that can be relied upon to get an idea of the performance of a web page or site as a whole, and you can infer what it represents or what some of these metrics measure exactly by reading the name of the metric, but some other metrics are a little obscure and very important to improve the site’s performance and make it popular with visitors. Such as (bounce rate), it may not be as clear as desired by novice website owners who seek to increase the number of visits to their sites or the sales value of their stores.
That is why we will explain to you in this article the importance of reducing the bounce rate, through the most important methods, practices and tips to improve the experience of using your site.
The concept of bounce rate
The bounce rate is the percentage of the number of sessions in which visitors visited only one page of the site without interacting with it to the total number of sessions. This means that the visitor increases the bounce rate when he visits one page, and decreases it when he visits more than one page in a session. itself or takes an action that shows that it is interested in the content of the site page that it visited, such as filling out a questionnaire or clicking on the (see more) button.
According to Google, a session in which one page of a site is visited without interacting with it is called a bounce rate, so the bounce rate is also the percentage of the number of bounces to the total number of sessions.
For example, if 1,000 people access your website pages during a specific period, then 300 of them visit only one page for several seconds and then exit immediately, and 700 of them visit at least one other page of your website, the number of bounces in this The example would be 300, and the total number of sessions would be 1000.
Note: Starting from here, when we indicate that a visitor has visited a single page, we assume that he or she did not interact with it, i.e. his session will be a bounce, unless we indicate otherwise.
The bounce rate can be calculated for the entire site or for just one page (or for a group of pages). If we want to calculate it for the site, we use the site’s statistics, i.e. the number of sessions for all its pages. However, if we want to calculate the rate for only one specific page, we must use the statistics of this page only, i.e. The number of bounces and the total number of visitors. In both cases, this relationship is used:
Bounce rate = number of bounces ÷ total number of sessions x 100%
If your site gets 200 sessions, half of which are one-page sessions, it will be:
Site bounce rate = 100 ÷ 200 x 100% = 50%
If you start 50 of these 200 sessions from your site’s home page, and 20 of them only include the home page, then:
Homepage bounce rate = 20 ÷ 50 x 100% = 40%
We would also like to draw attention to the existence of another rate similar to the bounce rate called the exit rate, which is a rate specific to pages only, and represents the percentage of the number of visitors who exited from a specific page of your site (going to another site) to the total number of visitors to the page. To further clarify the difference between the two rates, here is an illustrative example in the following paragraph.
An example to illustrate the difference between bounce rate and exit rate
In order to understand more the difference between bounce rate and exit rate, if your site consists of 3 pages (1, 2, and 3), and you had 8 sessions during a certain period, such that in 6 sessions visitors visited only one page, and in two sessions they visited More than one page as follows:
- Page 1 received four visits (4 sessions) that were bounces
- While page 3 received two visits (two sessions) that were bounces
- While the seventh session was as follows: The visitor entered page 1, then moved to page 2, then to page 3, then exited the site.
- As for the eighth and final session, it was as follows: The visitor entered page 3, then moved to page 2, then to page 1, then exited the site.
The bounce rate for the site in this example is equal to 75%, because 6 sessions out of 8 in which the visitor visited only one page of the site. As for the exit rate, it is calculated for each page separately, and the site pages have exit rates as follows:
- Page 1 : received 6 visits, 5 of which the visitor left the site after viewing the page without moving to another page, so the exit rate for this page is approximately 83.3%.
- Page 2 : It received two visits, and the visitor did not leave the site after moving to it on either of them, but rather moved to another page of the site, and therefore the exit rate for this page is 0%.
- Page 3 : received 4 visits, in 3 of which the visitor left the site without moving to another page after viewing it. Therefore, the exit rate for this page is 75%.
Note: The exit rate can be calculated from this equation (the number of visitors who left the site after viewing the page ÷ the total number of visitors to the page x 100%)
Also note that the page’s exit rate has no relationship to whether the visitor has visited other pages before visiting the page or not, as the visitor logs out of the page once when he exits it, whether he arrived at it from another site or from the same site.
It is worth noting that the bounce rate of a page necessarily affects its exit rate, while the bounce rate of a page does not necessarily affect its bounce rate or the entire site. Also, we will not benefit from calculating the site’s exit rate, because the number of visitors to the site that entered it is equal to the number of visitors who exited it, and therefore the exit rate for any site will always equal 100%.
The importance of knowing the bounce rate
The importance of paying attention to the bounce rate lies in the fact that it reflects the behavior of visitors on the site, and makes you able to know the extent of their satisfaction with the content of the site, and thus the possibility of taking measures to improve the site and raise its value for visitors. Essentially, the bounce rate is important for the following reasons:
- The bounce rate is related to the conversion rate. A visitor who bounces will not convert into a customer, so it may be possible to improve the conversion rate by reducing the bounce rate.
- There is a correlation between a low bounce rate and appearing in the first search results, although Google has indicated that it does not consider the bounce rate itself a page ranking factor.
- A high bounce rate tells you that you may have issues with your site that you need to address.
So, this metric is very important because it contributes to helping you achieve the main goals of the site (converting visitors into customers – satisfying visitors), and therefore monitoring and improving it is an important practice to make your site successful or maintain its success.
How to know your bounce rate from Google Analytics
It is not necessary for you to search for any data yourself to calculate the bounce rate for your site or its pages, as Google Analytics – as well as many other tools – provides bounce rate information in its various reports that include spreadsheets.
To know the bounce rate for your site or for one of the pages, go to the Google Analytics control panel, then from the side menu click on ( Behaviour ), then on ( Site Content ) from the drop-down list that appears, then on ( All Pages ) from the second drop-down list that appears. For you, as this picture shows.
You should now see a page containing statistics for all pages on the site, including the number of times each page has been viewed, the bounce rate for each page separately, the bounce rate for all pages, and other statistical information.
The following image indicates how to show a website’s bounce rate graph.
The graph will appear to you after you click on (bounce rate) as it appears in the following image.
Note that you can expand the range of the graph to include more days than it currently shows, and you can narrow it to include fewer days if you wish. You can also know the bounce rate for each day by hovering your mouse near or on the chart line.
If you want to see the bounce rate of a specific page, you can do so through the section under the graph line shown in the previous image, as a table appears that includes the site’s pages, and some information about them, including the bounce rate, the number of times the page is viewed, and other information. Information you may need to know.
You can show pages other than those currently appearing in the table by using the navigation buttons at the bottom of the table. You can also search for a specific page to find out its statistics using the search box located at the head of the table.
Note: The data shown in the section in the previous image is within the time range specified above the graph line, the tool by which it can be changed is indicated in the before image.
It is useful to note that there are statistics that are not related to any page of the site located in the second row of the table in the previous image. These numbers refer to the total or the average, depending on which tab cell they are in. The percentage in the Bounce Rate column (44.06%) indicates the average bounce rates for all pages of the site that are included in the statistics in the table, that is, it represents the site’s bounce rate within the specified time range.
Also, the bounce rate of the entire site within a specific time range can be known from the (Overview) section, which can be shown by clicking on the (Overview) item from the drop-down list that appears after clicking on the word (Behavior) located in the side menu in the statistics control panel. Google.
It is worth noting that it is possible to install and use the MonsterInsights add-on in WordPress in order to display Google Analytics information within the WordPress control panel, as you will be able to follow your site’s statistics without the need to go to the Google Analytics control panel page, but through a special page that can be accessed smoothly and easily without leaving the control panel. WordPress for your website.
For more information about Google Analytics and how to use it, see our comprehensive guide in which we explain in detail how to use this tool ( Explanation of Google Analytics to analyze your site’s data and develop its performance ).
When is a good bounce rate?
The bounce rate takes a percentage ranging between 0% and 100%, and a very high rate does not indicate that your site is popular with visitors, but rather it means that you have to know what makes visitors leave the pages of your site that have a high rate and do what is necessary to make them stay and interact with the page and go to Other pages.
The percentage at which a bounce rate can be considered high (bad) or low (good) varies depending on the type of website, its purpose, and many other factors, as does the average bounce rate for different types of websites.
For example, the average bounce rate for online stores ranges between 20% and 45%, and stores are a type of website with a low average, while blogs are a type of site with a high average, with an average rate ranging between 70% and 90%.
The following image shows the average bounce rates for the top website types according to Custom Media Labs .
The average bounce rate for a page also varies depending on its type and purpose, and the rate also varies depending on the source of the visit. Visits that come from email have a low rate, while visits that come from display ads and social media sites have a high bounce rate.
Therefore, there is no percentage at which the bounce rate is good, and if it is higher than it, it is bad, because average rates for websites vary depending on many factors, as we mentioned above, but if your site’s bounce rate is less than the average rates for its category, it can be considered good and sometimes excellent. If it is above average, it can be considered bad and needs improvement.
It is worth noting that it is not always necessary to reduce the high page bounce rate, as the page may be excellent in all aspects and have a high rate for a reason, but if you cannot find a logical explanation that makes the page bounce rate high despite it being good, then you will most likely need to Improve it and reduce the number of bounces.
We would also like to point out that a very low bounce rate (usually less than 20%) may mean that there is a problem with the tracking system that you use on your site, and you must make sure that your system is working properly.
Strategies to reduce bounce rate
Reducing the bounce rate is one of the effective ways to get the most out of the visitors you get by converting them into customers or getting them to perform the desired action on the web page. This is because visitors who bounce off the page are definitely not doing what you ask of them on it, whether your order is to buy a product. Or a service, filling out a questionnaire, registering on the site, etc. Therefore, it is necessary to reduce the bounce rate of your site pages unless there is a reason why this high rate is not important.
To solve any problem in any field, whatever it may be, the correct way to do so is by searching for the causes of the problem, and then dealing with these causes in a way that prevents them from causing the problem. If you want to solve the problem of the high bounce rate on your site or one of its pages, you must research The causes that lead to its rise, knowing them accurately, and dealing with them.
Here we will introduce you to the best strategies, practices, and methods that can help you reduce the bounce rate of your site.
1. Make the content easy to read and understand
If you enter a web page that includes an article that talks about the topic you are searching for, but you have difficulty reading and understanding it, you will most likely not continue reading the article, but will directly click the back button to return to the search results to find another article that can be read and understood easily, especially In this age where the Internet is filled with dozens of articles talking about the same topic.
In fact, the difficulty of reading and understanding the article is one of the most important reasons that leads to a high bounce rate. Therefore, you must be careful to make your articles understandable, clear, and easy to browse and read by following the following tips:
- Do not make the content of your page a single block, but rather divide it and organize it in a way that makes it easy to search and makes it easy to understand and assimilate the information contained through the use of sub-headings.
- Use numbered and unnumbered lists whenever you feel comfortable, as they make the content easier to read.
- Use illustrations and charts to display and explain statistics and numbers, as this makes it easy for the reader to understand and benefit from them.
- Use a table of contents, especially if the article is long and comprehensive, as this makes it easier for the visitor to access and view the content they want.
- Use examples if the idea is difficult to understand, as examples are one of the most important tools for simplifying ideas and communicating them to the visitor.
If you use the WordPress system to manage your site, there are some add-ons that make it easier for you to make your article easy to read and browse, such as the Yoast SEO add-on, which includes a tool for checking readability. We have explained this add-on in detail in this comprehensive article ( Explaining Yoast SEO to improve your site’s SEO ).
2. Use popups only at checkout
Although pop-ups have been proven to be effective in improving conversion rates and thus increasing sales value, visitors believe they are annoying when they are not relevant to the page content that the visitor is interested in, because they disrupt the user experience, which leads to them leaving the page and recording a higher bounce time. The bounce rate of the page and the website in general.
In fact, as a result of people’s intense hatred for pop-up windows, due to some wrong practices on the part of website owners, they still contribute to improving the conversion rate . You do not have to completely dispense with them if you do not want to, but you can use them only when you exit, and make them Features that reduce user inconvenience, such as the ability to close them easily.
If you use WordPress to manage your site, you can use the OptinMonster plugin to create pop-ups that appear when a user exits the site.
If you want more information about pop-ups, we advise you to review our comprehensive article on this topic ( Pop-ups and how to benefit from them on the website ).
3. Improved page loading speed
If the content of your page or site is wonderful and of high quality and is expected to attract visitors almost certainly, it will not benefit you if the speed of loading the page and displaying it to the visitor is not high, because in this case whoever enters the pages of your site will not wait for the content to appear to exit, but rather will exit before His appearance, meaning he will not know how impressive the content of your site is, as he will not wait to see it, especially if the page takes a relatively long time to display.
Many studies have shown that lower download speed is associated with higher bounce rates, including…
That’s an analysis of 11 million pages.
In addition to the effect of page speed on the bounce rate, it also affects the number of visitors because it reduces the site’s ranking in search results, as Google pushes very slow pages to the bottom, and loading speed is used as one of the factors in ranking search results , because it is important in the user experience it pays attention to. Different search engines pay great attention, and slow loading speed is one of the reasons for losing conversions in online stores.
You can measure the speed of your site’s pages and know some information about its performance by using free tools such as ( Page Speed Insights ) and ( GTMetrix ), and if you find that your loading speed is low (LCP is more than 2.5 seconds or 3 seconds maximum), you can improve it by Follow the instructions that we talked about in the comprehensive guide ( the most important procedures for increasing the speed of your WordPress site ), and in the article ( basic web performance indicators ).
4. Use calls to action and techniques
When the visitor performs the task you ask of him, interacts with the web page, and browses other pages of the site, he will not record a bounce, which will lead to a higher bounce rate. On the contrary, it will help you reduce the number of bounces and improve the conversion rate.
Therefore, you must make your call to your site visitors to take action convincing by using clear phrases and effective techniques such as a countdown timer , and not asking the user to perform many tasks on the same page, as this will push him not to perform any of them.
5. Get visitors interested in the page content
When you visit a page and notice that you are in the wrong place because it does not include what you were looking for or what you were hoping to find, you will immediately leave it, and so will any other untargeted visitor who comes to your site.
Therefore, you must be careful to attract visitors who are likely to be interested in what you publish on the site, and you must take this into account in all your plans to attract visitors, whether they rely on advertisements, promotion on social media, or even on visitors to search results (SEO).
For example, if you want the home page of your company’s website that sells web hosting to rank high in search results for a specific keyword, you should target a word that when a user enters it into the search box they hope a page similar to your website’s home page will appear.
In this case, if you target the phrase (best web hosting company), your page bounce rate for visitors coming from search results will likely be high or low, because most likely when someone searches for this keyword phrase they are hoping to find a comprehensive review. For the company that the review writer believes is the best hosting company.
It is also worth noting that you should never try to deceive visitors by using clickbait titles, which means creating sensational titles that do not reflect the content (even if they are indirectly related to it). The days when such methods were effective are over. You will certainly not achieve the benefit you were hoping for in this way.
6. Make your site mobile friendly
It is almost impossible to find an adult these days who does not own a smartphone. Smartphones have become an important part of most people’s lives, including your visitors who use their phones to access the content, products, and services you provide to them.
In fact, about half of emails are opened using smartphones, and 40% of YouTube video views are from them, and it is likely that more than half of your site traffic comes from them. Therefore, the lack of mobile compatibility of your site greatly affects the bounce rate, because browsing and reading is difficult. From mobile it will cause you to leave your site immediately.
If you notice in Google Analytics reports that the bounce rate for mobile visits is high while the bounce rate for desktop visits is good, then the problem most likely lies in your site not being compatible with mobile phones.
You can use the ( Mobile Friendly Test ) tool from Google to see if a page is compatible with smartphones. All you have to do is enter the address of the page you want to test, then click the (Try URL) button, then wait for a few seconds until the result appears.
If you want a more accurate way to test mobile compatibility than the method we just mentioned above, or if you discover that your site is not mobile compatible and you are using the WordPress system to manage it, review the article ( How to make your site responsive and smartphone-friendly ) to learn how to test your site accurately. And how to make it compatible with mobile if it is not.
7. Constantly updating the website content
If some of the articles on your site that you wrote in 2010 explain how to perform a task in an outdated way and can no longer be applied, then you should seriously consider updating or deleting them and writing alternatives to them, because such articles do not attract the visitor to stay on the site when they reach them. Anyone who searches the Internet for something prefers to get the latest information about it.
For example, if your site publishes articles and explanations about WordPress, then if something is updated in the system that is related to some of your site’s articles, you have to update them to match the updates that have been made. If you have an article that explains how to insert an image before and after modification in WordPress You added it before the launch of the component editor. You should update it after the new editor was launched. This is because your method was based on the old classic editor, which many people will not use after this update to the WordPress system.
8. Make external links open in a new tab
One of the practices that reduces the times visitors bounce from the site is to make external links open in a new tab different from the tab in which your site page is currently open, because this will make it easier for visitors to return to your site after they finish browsing the external link that you included for them, especially since it is in Sometimes the visitor may click on other links on the pages to which the external link takes them. After a few minutes of browsing in this way, they will need to click the back button several times to return to your site.
Also, opening external links in new windows allows you to save your website’s hosting resources. In this case, because your site page will remain open, the user will not need to reload it when he returns to it, and this will save the resources that he would have consumed as a result of unnecessary page reloading.
If you are using WordPress, you can use the WP External Links plugin, which automatically makes external links on your site open in new tabs, or you can set the link to open in a new tab from its options in the plugin editor, by placing a check mark next to Open Link in a new tab, as the following image shows.
Also, do not add external links unnecessarily, as this increases the likelihood that the visitor will leave the page, and leads to a higher bounce rate.
9. Place internal links to enhance the user experience
Placing internal links well on your site pages contributes to making the visitor’s experience better, because this makes it easier for him to obtain the information he needs, and also prompts him to visit other pages of the site, and thus does not record a bounce and raise the rate, but on the contrary. completely. Internal links also protect you from isolated content, help Google crawl site pages, and improve their ranking in search results.
Therefore, add internal links on your site pages in a way that makes the user experience better, by linking related articles to each other whenever this is logical and useful.
For example, we are talking here about adding internal links, so it makes sense to refer to our article ( Inserting Links on a WordPress Site ), which explains in a practical way how to add links in WordPress. In this case, if you do not know how to add links on the site, you can click Click on the article title to learn the correct ways to do this.
You do not necessarily need to use all of them, but only if you see that there is a need for it. For example, one of the best ways to reduce the bounce rate of a web page is to reduce its loading time if it is slow, but if it is not slow, this method will not benefit you much.
And here, dear reader, we have finished introducing you to the bounce rate and its importance, and how to know whether you can consider your site’s bounce rate to be good or not, and we have informed you of the most important methods, practices and strategies that allow you to reduce it if it is high, in addition to how to apply these methods and benefit from them. In conclusion, we point out that you should always strive for a bounce rate lower than your current site’s rate, even if it is good, in order to maintain its success and continuous progress.
