What is website bounce rate? How to lower It for better SEO

As a website owner, one of the most important metrics to track is the bounce rate. It’s a window into the visitor engagement on your website. But, what exactly is website bounce rate? And what qualifies as a good bounce rate for a site in your industry?

The bounce rate represents the percentage of visitors who leave your site without completing any action. (Forbes, 2021) A high bounce rate can point to several issues with your site. It also tells search engines like Google something about your website, which can impact your rankings.

While bounce rate has traditionally been used to measure visitor disengagement, new analytics tools, like Google Analytics 4, focus on more nuanced engagement metrics such as engaged sessions and engagement time, which provide deeper insights into user interactions.

Below, we explore the website bounce rate to help you understand what it means and how it affects your search engine optimization (SEO) performance.

Understanding website bounce rate

Website bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who leave your site without further interactions or actions. It’s the percentage of sessions without engagement—meaning the sessions:

• Didn’t last longer than 10 seconds
• Lacked a key event such as a signup or purchase
• Had less than two page views

Bounce rate is the opposite of conversion rate: the number of site visitors who convert from window shoppers into paying customers, newsletter subscribers, or social media followers. (Forbes, 2022)

Monitoring your website bounce rate allows you to understand how visitors use your site—and the pain points they experience.

Why bounce rate matters for SEO

While search engines haven’t explicitly confirmed bounce rate as an SEO ranking factor, industry experts occasionally speculate about it. For instance, a study by Backlinko showed that Google’s top search engine result pages (SERPs) closely correlated to sites’ bounce rates. (Backlinko, 2024)

Still, a high bounce rate can signify a user experience (UX), performance, or content problem with your site that can impact SEO. These can lead to negative experiences for customers, low site engagement, or poor conversions. In other words, websites with high bounce rates don’t offer enough value to visitors.

A high bounce rate can be due to factors that also affect SEO, such as:

• Slow page loading time
• Poor-quality web design
• Content that isn’t useful or relevant
• Lack of mobile-friendliness

Addressing these issues to fix a high bounce rate can also improve your SEO performance.

With the evolution of analytics tools like Google Analytics 4, the focus has shifted towards more comprehensive engagement metrics such as engaged sessions and engagement time. These metrics offer deeper insights into user interactions and can further inform SEO strategies.

What is a good bounce rate?

The benchmark for a good bounce rate varies based on your industry and the type of site you have, but anything from 26% to 40% is considered a “good” bounce rate. (Jetpack, 2024) Lower numbers are better, but landing below 20% may not be feasible. If your rate is below 20%, check your metrics for errors like duplicate code and improperly implemented tracking.

These numbers provide a framework for evaluating your site’s performance, but they aren’t hard rules. Instead, consider your targeted customer actions, industry benchmarks, and website objectives when determining your ideal bounce rate. For instance, if your top priority is educating consumers rather than motivating them to make a purchase, a higher bounce rate may not be unexpected or even negative. 

Common causes of a high bounce rate

There are several reasons your site might have a high bounce rate, including:

• Slow load times – Visitors want to complete tasks or actions quickly—if your page load speed takes longer than three seconds, they might leave without any interactions. Strive to have your pages load in less than 2.5 seconds.
• Poor web design – Cluttered or overloaded website designs can turn visitors away. Using inconsistent typefaces, many color palettes, and clashing colors can lead to a negative user experience, forcing visitors to leave your site.
• Bad navigation – Hidden or complex menus make it difficult for visitors to navigate your website. Avoid lengthy and inconsistent navigation with excessive submenus. Don’t give visitors too many options—aim to create a lean, simple menu.
• Irrelevant content – Visitors may bounce because your content is low-quality, irrelevant, or complex. Review your content pages to ensure they offer value, are legible, and keep visitors engaged.
• Traffic quality – Bounce rates can be heavily influenced by the quality of your website traffic. Visitors arriving from sources misaligned with your content or audience (e.g., irrelevant ads, untargeted campaigns) are more likely to bounce. Regularly analyze traffic sources to ensure they align with your website’s goals and adjust targeting to attract the right audience.

Also, review your site for other common problems, such as technical errors, blank pages, broken links, and misleading title tags. Ensure your website is mobile-friendly for convenient scrolling, reading, and clicking, as many people use mobile devices to browse and shop online.

How to lower your website’s bounce rate

Luckily, there are a few tactics you can use to decrease your bounce rate (and increase your conversion rate). Let’s zoom in on a few approaches.

Improve website load speed

Up to 70% of customers say page speed and load time affect their online purchases and half of visitors say they will leave a site if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load. (Search Engine Journal, 2019). You can improve page speed by:

• Optimizing images
• Using browser caching
• Limiting redirects
• Picking a faster hosting service
• Minifying JavaScript and CSS files

Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights and GTmetrix to analyze your page speed, and jump into your website builder to make any necessary changes.

Create relevant and engaging content

When people visit your site, they expect answers to their questions and solutions to their problems. That’s why it’s important to develop your content strategy accordingly. Your content should be informative, engaging, and designed to keep visitors’ attention on the page for as long as possible.

To achieve this, leverage audience intelligence and analytics tools to identify your audience’s needs and boost engagement rates. Create content that directly addresses their pain points, tells a compelling story, and incorporates visuals to capture their interest.

One way to ensure relevance is through a descriptive domain: a URL that reflects your brand’s essence and immediately communicates what visitors can expect. If you’re considering a domain refresh, Name.com offers a domain name search tool to help you get started.

Simplify navigation and user experience

Complex navigation structures and low-quality UX can lead to frustrations and a high bounce rate. A menu with too many options can keep visitors from finding the information or products they want. Pages with distracting images, excess color, and complex forms can also be unappealing to visitors.

If this is the case for your digital hub, consider refreshing your website design. Limit the options on your main menu and use clear, concise labels for navigation links. Adopt more whitespace in your design and eliminate excessive content, color palettes, and graphics. 

Average bounce rate by industry

Bounce rates vary significantly by industry, and it’s vital to understand the average bounce rate in your sector when evaluating your website performance. For instance, the average bounce rate in ecommerce is 38.7%, and averages for other key categories include: (Statista, 2023)

• Health and beauty – 51.6%
• Electronics – 46.6%
• Outdoor and sporting goods – 37.2%
• Home goods – 41.6%
• Specialty products – 32.3%

The case differs for blogs, where an acceptable bounce rate can be as high as 70-90%. (Capturly, 2023) 

How to monitor and analyze your bounce rate

There are three ways to monitor and analyze your bounce rate:

• Google Analytics 4 – Google Analytics 4 is a free tool you can install on your site, offering a more nuanced approach to tracking user engagement. Instead of focusing on bounce rate, GA4 provides insights through engagement metrics such as engaged sessions, engagement time, and engagement rate. These metrics help you identify how users interact with your site on both a general and page-specific level, enabling you to pinpoint areas for improvement more effectively. 
• Heatmaps – Use heatmap tools like Hotjar, Crazy Egg, and Mouseflow to visualize where visitors click and scroll on your website. This allows you to identify engagement patterns and drop-off points.
• Session recordings – Also known as replays, these are renderings of actions taken or completed by visitors when browsing your website. They help you discover why people leave your site.

Google Analytics is the most accessible tool for website owners to check bounce rate.

The impact of mobile optimization on bounce rate

Sites that aren’t optimized for mobile users (or that aren’t effectively optimized to keep visitors scrolling) can send visitors packing. For instance, a website with horizontal scrolling on mobile or no mobile navigation hurts the user experience. Visitors spend more time figuring out how to use the site instead of completing the targeted actions.

Given mobile devices account for more than 50% of web traffic, you need a mobile-friendly and responsive web design. (Statista, 2024) Mobile-optimized sites improve the user experience, allowing visitors to stay longer on your site and interact with your content.

Improve Your Bounce Rate and SEO Effectively

The website bounce rate is an important metric that speaks volumes about your site. It allows you to analyze visitor engagement and site performance, potentially addressing issues that hurt the user experience like low load times, complex navigation, and cluttered web design.

Name.com offers everything you need to create a responsive and user-friendly website. Start by buying the perfect domain name to establish your online presence, and choose from a wide range of TLDs to find the one that best fits your brand or purpose. Once you’ve secured your domain, use our website builder to easily set up an engaging and professional site.

To complement your website, Name.com also provides professional email solutions, helping you establish credibility and streamline communication with your audience.

With Name.com, you can build a standout website while keeping the process simple and accessible.

 

Sources:

Forbes. Five Ways to Reduce Your Bounce Rate. https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbescommunicationscouncil/2021/06/24/five-ways-to-reduce-your-bounce-rate/ 

Forbes. The Importance of Conversion Rate Optimization. https://www.forbes.com/sites/georgedeeb/2022/02/03/the-importance-of-conversion-rate-optimization-cro/ 

Backlinko. We Analyzed 11.8 Million Google Search Results. https://backlinko.com/search-engine-ranking

Jetpack. What is a Good Bounce Rate for a Website? https://jetpack.com/blog/what-is-a-good-bounce-rate/

Search Engine Land. Nearly 70% of Consumers Say Page Speed Impacts Their Purchasing Decisions. https://www.searchenginejournal.com/nearly-70-of-consumers-say-page-speed-impacts-their-purchasing-decisions/290235/

Statista. Bounce rate on e-commerce websites worldwide as of September 2023, by product category. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1423813/online-shopping-bounce-rate-by-industry/

Capturly. Average Bounce Rate by Industry 2024 [Benchmark]. https://capturly.com/blog/average-bounce-rate-by-industry-2023-benchmark/

Siege Media. What Is a Good Bounce Rate? [2024 Data]. https://www.siegemedia.com/strategy/bounce-rate#

Statista. Percentage of mobile device website traffic worldwide from 1st quarter 2015 to 4th quarter 2023. https://www.statista.com/statistics/277125/share-of-website-traffic-coming-from-mobile-devices/