Bounce rates can help businesses infer on a page's return on investment.

It may take a few tries before a business can find the sweet spot.

Google is more than a conglomerate of robots and algorithms. They hire experts to add a human element to bring audiences the best content.

Bounce rates are one of the metrics that businesses can use to assess the progress and optimization of their pages.

HOUSTON, TEXAS, UNITED STATES, April 13, 2023/EINPresswire.com/ -- No website is ever perfect, and there's always room for improvement. According to Actual SEO Media, Inc., one of the best ways to broach the subject of improving a website is by checking its current bounce rate. Knowing what "bounce rate" is and how it could affect a website's standing is important to note as a business owner.

A website's bounce rate is the percentage of visitors that leave a site or page without interacting with it. These actions, or lack thereof, could include clicking on a link, filling out a questionnaire or other form, buying a product, or interacting with videos or images. The higher the bounce rate percentage, the more serious the issues the webpage may have.

When gauging bounce rates, the goal for any webpage is to reach the lofty range of 30% to 50%. After all, no webpage is going to have a perfect conversion rate. The average bounce rate is between 50% and 70%, and this range is the main aim for most websites. Anything higher than 70% means that there are major issues plaguing that specific page or website.

Of course, these are just overall numbers. The specific ranges may differ depending on the industry and the source of the traffic. Bounce rates can also wildly differ depending on what type of page it is. For example, blogs and dictionaries tend to have higher bounce rates than retail sites. If a business wants to see if its bounce rates are average for its industry or field, it's best to compare with other similar pages and sites.

The Importance of Knowing About Bounce Rates

Actual SEO Media, Inc. has narrowed the list to three main points to know about bounce rates.

1. Obviously, if there's a high bounce rate, a lot of people are not interacting with the page or site. That also means that everyone bouncing from the page isn't converting. If a business can fix the reasons why everyone is bouncing, it can also increase conversion rates.
2. Bounce rate may (or may not) be used as a ranking factor on search engines, mostly Google. The lower the bounce rate, the higher the pages tend to rank on search engine result pages (SERP).

3. Knowing that a page or portions of the website have high bounce rates allows the business to know that there's still room for massive improvements. It could be issued with content, user experience, layouts, or even the page's writing. Although bounce rates won't pinpoint the exact cause, they can help a business realize where there's work to be done and help get the ball rolling.

Another point to note is that bounce rates are a separate metric from exit rates. Their main difference is how the user arrives on the page. For example, bounce rates measure the percentage of users that arrive on a page and quickly leave after a moment. On the other hand, exit rates measure the percentage of users that come from another source (on the same website) before leaving or closing the site.

If a user comes to a page straight from a SERP and then hits the back button, that's considered a bounce. The user didn't interact with the page and instead "bounced" off of it. On the other hand, if a user comes to a page, clicks on a link, peruses the next page, and exits from the second page, that's not a bounce. That's considered an exit because the user didn't initially enter the website from the second page.

When reviewing the various metrics of different pages, bounce and exit rates provide two different connotations. In the same vein, if a page has a high exit rate, there might be an issue there as well. When a business decides to do some housekeeping, pages with high bounce and exit rates should be targeted first.

Reasons for High Bounce (or Exit) Rates

Knowing why users are bouncing off a website or page is the first step to fixing or updating it to retain future users and increase a page's ranking on the SERP. There are several reasons why people would bounce off a page.

- The page wasn't as expected - Obviously, if users click on a link expecting one thing only to find that the page they land on doesn't have what they were looking for, they're going to bounce. For example, if they click on an ad or organic link that looks like it should go to a landing or webpage about cats but end up on a page about dogs, they're not going to look further.

- Ugly or unappealing design – First impressions are important in any field, and the first impression that a user gets off a page or website may make or break their decision to stay. If a page looks aesthetically displeasing, the bounce rate will be higher than other pages.

- Bad user experience – Not only does a page need to look great, but it also needs to work great. If a page lags, doesn't load quickly or is hard to navigate, it will cause the bounce rate to increase.
- The page is doing exactly what it was designed to do – Not all pages with high bounce rates are "bad" per se. Some do what they were designed to do too well. For example, dictionary pages. Their whole purpose is to provide users with a concise definition of a word. Most users would simply look at the definition and bounce, meaning that the page provided exactly what they were looking for.

The Exceptions to High Bounce Rates

Although bounce rates are a metric to consider, businesses shouldn't place too much weight on them. As mentioned before, some well-optimized pages will simply have high bounce rates because of what they're meant to do. Another common instance of pages having high bounce rates occurs with freshly built sites or newly created pages.

These newer pages may be well-optimized, but they may also sport some suspiciously high bounce rates that can send any business owner into a panic. However, there's probably nothing wrong with them. It will take some time for newer pages to rank properly on search engine result pages, which means during that period, these pages may have higher bounce rates than "normal."

For example, a page may be set to the geotag "Hollywood." Although the most obvious Hollywood would be the one in Los Angeles, search engines think differently. To these complex algorithms, there's a "Hollywood" in every state. Users can click on these pages can tell the difference between their Hollywood and a town in another state, but search engines might not get the hang of it for several weeks or even months. That's why in most cases, bounce rates can be subjective.

Understanding the factors behind high and low bounce rates will allow businesses to optimize and design their websites for search engines better. Lower bounce rates usually translate to higher conversion rates and higher page rankings. Periodically reviewing older pages and checking their bounce and exit rates can help a business catch issues that might have occurred since the last review. An experienced SEO company can help think up of more effective solutions to help lower bounce rates as well.

As a leading Houston SEO company, Actual SEO Media, Inc. grants its clients methods to expand their online presence. By harnessing the power of search engine optimization, the company helps businesses expand their online visibility and establish a stronger presence on the Internet. The company believes that taking time to optimize pages will further increase brand awareness online. For more information, contact the office at (832) 834 - 0661 or by email at info@actualseomedia.com.

Jamin Mootz
Actual SEO Media, Inc.
+1 832-834-0661
email us here
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