Whats an acceptable bounce rate?

Commercial websites normally present larger bounce rates than non commercial ones. I tend to believe that this is one of the points that Google is using to serps.

 

I agree Bounce Rates helps them determine the SERPs
they would be fools not to use such statistics

Read my full argument if interested
http://geoland.org/2008/02/content-is-king-after-all/

 

There's not really a standard for what's acceptable in terms of bounce rate. It depends on the type of website you have. If you have a full-blown content site, then a lower bounce rate is better. But that also depends on the niche you're in. I wouldn't worry too much about bounce rate, it's the conversion rate and sales that's the main focus.

 

What if your not selling anything

 

How would that really work? It would require GA on every site. How could any SE give an advantage to a site that uses GA over one that doesn't?

 

I'm not going to repeat what everyone else said, but I agree with the niche aspect for this.
one thing you got to keep in mind is that if you submit your site to StumbleUpon + Buy Traffic expect your BounceRate to be reallllllllly high!

my gaming blog (link sig) had a bounce rate of 15-25% for the first 3 weeks, then I decided to put it on StumbleUpon and since then I've been at a BR of 40-55%

More traffic at the expense of BR...I guess its an arguable debate

 

Hi
ya as 20-25% bounce rate is good for your sites.

 

Then there's even less reason to worry about.

 

Your bounce rate should reflect where your traffic is coming from. I would expect higher bounce rates from social sites, but it should be lower for search traffic.

 

bounce rate is not acceptable at all, but as it is not possible to have 0% bounce rate then if you have bounce rate bet ween 40-60% then it is not a problem but if it is more than that then you have to take it seriously and must take some action to reduce it...

 

ideal bounce rate between 20 to 40%

 

Depends on how you are monetizing your pages
If it is adsense and the bounce rate is mainly because people are eaving your site via the adsense clicks then hey ho you are on to a winner

But if you have a 'win their hearts with content' type site then about 30 to 40% is aceptable

 

They don't need to utilize GA they track the clickthrough and bounce through the search engine and cookies. The clickthrough they DEFINETELLY track ... check the SERPs HTML code and you'll see it ... read more here http://geoland.org/2008/02/content-is-king-after-all/

 

Have managed to get my bounce rate down below 1%

 

Bounce rate still below 1%, gotta be happy with that

 

Bounce rate below 5% as traffic is increasing

 

Average bounce rates are between 40 & 60%. (average for all sites on the homepage)

But don't focus on that number.
It depends on what industry you're in, the quality of traffic you get, niche or general topics, etc ...

The only thing you should be focusing on is how to lower the bounce rate for traffic coming from a certain keyword. If you have a bounce rate above 70% for a certain keyword from Google, then this means that the content the visitor sees, did not respond to his expectations he had when searching for that keyword. You did a good job as an SEO for getting that traffic, but a lousy job in user expectations & conversions.

 

I would say if you're getting a consistantly high bounce rate of say 50 - 60% + then it's too high. I would aim for below 50% personally.

 

Hi I will chime in. I read that if you had to pick a bookmark 40% or lower is what you should be shooting for. The bounce rate for my blog floats around 30 to 31%. I would love to crack sub 30's but I havent yet.
I do think it depends on the content and niche but shoot for less than 40%