I'm studying google analytics in an effort to improve my conversions. I'm getting a 68.7% bounce rate on my landing page. Google's 'conversion university' tutorial show an example bounce rate of 91%. Is my br of 67% above or below average? Thanks
I would say the bounce rate varies a lot depending on the industry. When someone bounces it means they only viewed your landing page, and did not click on a single other link to another page in your site. So, I've had some bounce rates that were really low, because to get to more information before a registration, the user had to navigate to another page and then were prompted on that page to register so the registration's page bounce rate was high but not the landing page. Then for other accounts I had a registration on the landing page, and when they would click submit, I would receive their information and get a conversion but they still would stay on the same page so the bounce rate was very high because the user got what they wanted on the landing page and didn't need to find more information on another page on my site. So to sum it up, I would say pay attention to bounce rate, but pay way more attention to your conversion rate and your CPA.
Something else cool in Google Analytics is the time spent on site. This is a good way to test how attention grabbing your headlines and top fold of your page is. (The top fold is what your traffic instantly sees when they visit your site witout scrolling down).
I agree, if you are worried that your bounce rate may be a bit high, take into consideration what kind of content you have on your landing page. If pertinent info is available there and the time spent on site is a few minutes, then likely your BR isn't very important. Furthermore, if for instance your site is flash based, a user can actually be doing quite a bit of navigating but still be on that "landing" page. This will also show up on time on site (which you can mod to see time spent on specific pages).
Thanks guys I appreciate the valid points raised. I read that bounce rate affected quality score, but is that effect worth worrying about? Probably not from your replies.
I think bounce rate depends on what is on the landing page. I've got some info on my page then I have an embedded form at the bottom which google may not recognise, therefore I may have people spending a few mins filling in the form and not clicking on any other link apart from when they get sent to the form completed page. I wonder if google would have the above situation covered?
If people are spending time to fill out the form, you would see a trend on the time on site. At the same time, the bounce rate on your home page is going to be lower because they are navigating to your "submited form" page. Likewise, a user will typically not hang around too much longer once the form is complete and that can appear as your one of your top "exit pages"...