What does 'Bounce' actually mean?

[Ferox]

I see the term used around the place and it is mentioned in Google Analytics, which I just got working, but I'm not sure what 'Bounce' actually means.

Does it mean that the viewer comes to my site and leaves very quickly, or do they only see the one page of my site (no matter how long they are there) and then leave?

What does Bounce mean?

[jshaffstall]

A bounce is when a visitor lands on one page of your site, and doesn't visit another page in your site.

They could, potentially, look at that one page for a very long time, and still be considered a bounce.

Bounce rates basically measure how interesting other pages of your site are to your visitors. Depending on what your site is, you may or may not be worried about bounce rates.

A site that has product reviews, for example, might have a high bounce rate if the single page that someone lands on answers all their questions about the product so they don't need to go anywhere else on the site.

Jay

[Sevenheartz]

Was wondering that, too. Thanks Jay.

[AngelzSong]

Huh.. I didnt know that either. Thanks

[ghing]

thanks for that Information....

[WhoJayBe]

Just wanted to add that if your bounce rate is well over 50%, they say that's NOT a good thing...

[ghing]

Originally Posted by WhoJayBe

Just wanted to add that if your bounce rate is well over 50%, they say that's NOT a good thing...

can you tell us WHY????..

[Bloggeries]

ghing: I'd assume it's a bad thing because more than 1/2 the people who visit your site can't be bothered to dig deeper. I had 67% bounce for a long time, recently saw it in the 40% sometime as well.

I should add that if you have lot's of social bookmarking traffic.... Chances are you will always have a high bounce rate as they stereotypically don't stay long regardless of how interesting it may be

[QuirkyJessi]

On a side note, even though a high bounce rate is generally bad, if you have a regular readership, it could also be high because people are coming to check out the latest posts, stay on the front page, and then leave (or click through their RSS feed to finish reading a post on your site, and then close the page when they're done)....which amounts to them not visiting other pages and showing up as a bounce anyway.

[WhoJayBe]

I mean, there are plenty of ways to "try" and reduce your bounce rate... but I'll get back to you on that... I was actually going to write a post about it.