Bounce rate: What is it and how to improve it?

Do you have a website and don't know which metrics to evaluate to know how well your business is doing? The reality is that there are many, but few are as important as the bounce rate.

Many visitors can enter your page and that is a good sign, but if none of them interact with your content, you will not achieve the goals you set. 

Analyzing this will reveal important data about the behavior of your users, so it's time for you to value this information.

Do you want to know how to measure the bounce rate? Get comfortable and find out with us below:

What is the bounce rate?

The bounce rate reflects in detail the behavior of your users when they access your site.

We define bounce rate as the number of people who leave your page without interacting with what you have published. Meaning that they don't comment or click on a link.

Your goal is to attract as many users as possible and get them to take some action on the site. It doesn't matter what it is, since it will show that the content is provoking engagement in the visitors.

Is there a good bounce rate?

Chances are you want to know the best way to eliminate the bounce rate, i.e. reduce it to 0.

We're sorry to tell you that this is almost impossible to achieve because all websites have bounce rate, some lower than others, but they have it.

So, the right question is: what is my healthy bounce rate?

The reality is that there's no perfect bounce rate, as this will depend on the type of page you have. A digital store with a landing page is not the same as an informative website, for example. Users will have a different behavior and you have to adjust the metrics to their characteristics.

Depending on the objectives of your site we will set a higher rate than others. In some cases we find websites with an ideal bounce rate of 20%, while others have 40%, so there are no identical cases.

How to calculate the bounce rate?

Do you know what the good news is? Calculating the bounce rate is very easy, so you will be able to know it in a matter of minutes. To do this you must divide the number of users who leave the website after viewing the first page and don't interact, by the total number of visitors.

Imagine you have a sports news page and you receive 100 visitors on average per day and of them 40 leave without taking any action. What does this mean? That you have a bounce rate of 40%.

It's a simple formula that you can do quickly. We recommend you to do it every month to study how your users have been behaving in the last few days. The numbers you'll get will surprise you!

Is abandonment rate the same as bounce rate?

There are thousands of specialists who mention abandonment rate as an important metric and this is where some get confused. 

Are abandonment rate and bounce rate synonymous?

The answer is no, they are different indicators that you have to evaluate in different ways. Let's look at it in detail:

• Bounce rate measures the total number of visitors who leave your website before interacting with the content.

• The abandonment rate tells you the users who have abandoned specific pages of your website after interacting.

See the differences? You should study each one separately, otherwise you will make decisions based on a misinterpretation of the numbers.

5 Tips to reduce the bounce rate of your website

If you've come this far, we're sure that you've measured your bounce rate and the result was not what you expected. Don't worry, this happens to all of us and the best thing is that it has a solution.

There are several ways to reduce the bounce rate:

1. Readable content

When we have our website we focus on optimizing it as much as possible to appear in search engines. So first you must focus on certain items.

One of them is readability. Yes, a text can be optimized, but if it isn't readable it's unlikely to rank. Remember that Google is a user pattern detector, so you can't fool it so easily anymore.

So, how can you improve? Improve the structure of your website through h1, h2 and h3 headings that are distributed throughout the text. 

Also make sure to use simple words and always in the present tense to encourage the user to take an action. Apply it and you will see how your bounce rate will be reduced.

2. Improve the quality of what you offer

Closely linked to the previous point: optimization is important, but the quality of the content is even more important.

Focus on creating texts that solve the reader's search intention, so that their problem or doubt is solved. What will you get in return? A lower bounce rate.

3. Beware of pop-ups

Do you know what bothers a reader? The appearance of those invasive pop-ups that hinder the consumption of any content.

There are even some that are so bold that they don't close until your reader takes an action. Make sure to remove them so that their experience is not affected.

4. Keyword relevance

Yes, keywords are critical in today's content marketing. If you want to reduce your bounce rate, focus on quality keywords that are related to your user's search queries.

How can you do it? The best way is through keyword research that focuses on the reader's needs. 

Once you do it, you will organize a series of keywords with their synonyms and long tails that will increase your chances of positioning your website in the first places.

5. Focus on meta descriptions

When we talk about SEO many people forget about meta descriptions, being one of the key factors that will reduce your bounce and abandonment rate.

Because although it does not directly influence the positioning, it tells the reader what he or she will find on your website. The user will enter because the meta description caught his attention, so you will attract a more qualified audience.

Do you see the importance of measuring the bounce rate? We have no doubt that it is an indispensable metric that everyone should know about. 

Do you take into account the bounce rate of your website? What other indicators do you study every month to evaluate the health of your website? Let us know in the comments.