What is Analytics bounce rate?

[goLfie]

I run a few sites and I'm looking at my google analytics and honestly it just looks like a bunch of gibberish to me. I've figured out what most of it meant but I still don't get this whole "bounce rate" thing. It says bounce rate and then underneath it says exit rate, Google makes it look like they are the same thing but at the same time a different thing. I wonder if they picked up this term from urban neighborhood schools because the teenagers where I live always say they are going to "bounce outta here" when they are about to leave. Any experienced "bouncers" in here that might be able to help me out?

[Austin]

Hey golfie,

Yeah google has a way of making that a little bit complicated by calling it "bounce" rate. A bounce rate is just the amount of single page views, or the percentage of people that hit the landing page (first page they see from entering via an external link) and then they left without viewing another. It's just a little bit different than exit rate, which is how many people leave from that page.

[Steve Krause]

Yes, Google Analytic is a nice tool. All the details of Bounce Rate Vs. Exit Rate / % Exit can be found here:

 

http://www.google.com/adwords/learningc ... 38069.html

 

You can use the Top Content report in the Content section to find out which pages are most popular on your site. Included in this report are:

 

* Pageviews: The total number of times the page was viewed across all visits.

 

* Unique Pageviews: Unlike Pageviews, Unique Pageviews does not count repeat visits to a page. So, if page A was viewed twice during a single visit, Unique Pageviews will only count it once. Pageviews, however, will count it twice.

 

* Time on Page: The average amount of time that visitors spent on the page is useful for learning if visitors are looking at the content or if they immediately clicked to go somewhere else. If they're leaving quickly, ask yourself:

o What information is missing from the page?

o Is that information on the pages they go to?

o Can you move more important information onto pages with short average times?

 

* Bounce Rate: The percentage of entrances on the page that result in the person immediately leaving the site. Non-entrance pages always have a Bounce Rate of 0.00%. A high bounce rate indicates that the page is not well matched to the ad or link that is driving traffic to the page.

 

* % Exit: Tells you the percentage of visitors leaving your site immediately after viewing that page. For example, if a page received 100 pageviews and 20 of them were the last pageviews on your site, the % Exit would be 20%. A high % Exit may indicate that something about the page turns your visitors off or it could simply mean that visitors are leaving after concluding their business on your site. Things that might turn away visitors include:

o A product price that is uncompetitive

o A landing page that doesn't match well with the advertising that directed the visitor to it

 

* $ Index: If you have assigned values to your goals, or if you have an e-commerce site (learn more about tracking ecommerce transactions), the $ Index indicates how often a page was visited prior to the visitor reaching a goal. The $ Index will be higher when the value of the goal is higher, and when the the page is visited frequently prior to goal completion. If you sort on the $ Index column, the top listed pages will show which pages are most valuable on your site . You can then analyze what's working well with these pages, and perhaps add the same characteristics to your other pages.

[robertosburn]

The definition of bounce rate is the percentage of people who arrive on your site and leave without visiting a second page. Bounce Rate was designed to tell you if you have the right audience coming to your pages and if you are meeting their expectations.