{"id":1123,"date":"2011-05-25T07:17:23","date_gmt":"2011-05-25T11:17:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/?p=1123"},"modified":"2017-04-20T00:04:57","modified_gmt":"2017-04-20T04:04:57","slug":"the-bounce-rate-myth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/blog\/the-bounce-rate-myth\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bounce Rate Myth"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_1132\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1132\" style=\"width: 250px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/wp-content\/images\/pogo-stick-250-250.jpg\" alt=\"Pogo stick\" title=\"Don't judge content by bounce rate alone.\" width=\"250\" height=\"250\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1132\" srcset=\"https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/wp-content\/images\/pogo-stick-250-250.jpg 250w, https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/wp-content\/images\/pogo-stick-250-250-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1132\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Don't judge content by bounce rate alone.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>For advanced web analytics users, bounce rate is quite possibly the most popular stand-alone metric &#8212; analytics evangelist Avinash Kaushik suggests it\u2019s the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mpdailyfix.com\/bounce-rate-sexiest-web-metric-ever\/\" title=\"Bounce Rate: Sexiest Web Metric Ever?\" rel=\"nofollow\">sexiest web metric ever<\/a>. It&#8217;s certainly at the top of my list. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.google.com\/support\/analytics\/bin\/answer.py?hl=en&amp;answer=81986\" title=\"What does Bounce Rate mean?\" rel=\"nofollow\">Google defines bounce rate<\/a> as &quot;the percentage of single-page visits or visits in which the person left your site from the entrance (landing) page.&quot; It\u2019s great because it tells you right away that something is wrong with your website. Or does it?<\/p>\n<p>Analysts typically use bounce rate as a measure of poor quality content &#8212; or as an <a href=\"http:\/\/www.inc.com\/guides\/2011\/01\/how-to-reduce-your-website-bounce-rate.html\" title=\"How to Reduce Your Website\u2019s Bounce Rate\" rel=\"nofollow\">expression of dissatisfaction with your site<\/a>. But bounce rate has a lot more to say than simply &quot;your website stinks.&quot; In fact, it might even say something good!<\/p>\n<div class=\"pull-quote-box\">\n<div class=\"pull-quote\">Every web metric has more than one angle.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>As with all web metrics, <a href=\"http:\/\/doteduguru.com\/id5533-web-analytics-strategy-data-in-context.html\" title=\"Analytics Strategy: Data in Context\">we need context to provide meaningful insights<\/a>. Maybe one bounce means a visitor left because she immediately found what she was looking for or bookmarked the page to view it later. Every web metric has more than one angle.<\/p>\n<p>Look at &quot;time on page,&quot; often regarded as a positive stand-alone metric. Surely, the longer someone stays on your page the more engaged they are with the content, right? But maybe a long time on page means the visitor had a difficult time using or understanding the content. One metric never says it all.<\/p>\n<h2>What&#8217;s the Value of a Visit Without Action?<\/h2>\n<div class=\"pull-quote-box\">\n<div class=\"pull-quote\">Contrary to popular belief, a bounce does not mean a visitor didn\u2019t take action.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Answer: likely, none. Indeed, as <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/TimNekritz\/\" title=\"Tim Nekritz on Twitter\">Tim Nekritz<\/a> says in our <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=SJdhtFFUMcU\" title=\"Introducing Meet Content\">Meet Content introductory video<\/a>, &quot;Great content moves people to action.&quot; But contrary to popular belief, a bounce does not mean a visitor didn\u2019t take action.<\/p>\n<p>Here are common visitor actions that people don\u2019t often account for with bounce rate:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Followed you on Twitter<\/li>\n<li>Liked you on Facebook<\/li>\n<li>Mentioned you online<\/li>\n<li>Left a comment<\/li>\n<li>Bookmarked your site<\/li>\n<li>Emailed the web link to a friend<\/li>\n<li>Printed the page<\/li>\n<li>Watched embedded video or listened to embedded audio<\/li>\n<li>Recommended you to friends or peers offline<\/li>\n<li>Returned to your site later to take action or took action offline<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Some of these actions can be properly tracked with web analytics tools to reduce your bounce rate, including <a href=\"http:\/\/www.verticalmeasures.com\/tips\/goals-virtual-pageviews-and-event-tracking-in-google-analytics-2010\/\" title=\"Goals, Virtual Pageviews and Event Tracking in Google Analytics\">establishing events and virtual pages<\/a> for external links, downloadable files and user comments. Others, such as social media mentions or offline actions, require additional measurement solutions.<\/p>\n<h2>Make Your Bounce Rate Meaningful<\/h2>\n<h3>Segment new visitors <\/h3>\n<p>Loyal, repeat visitors will not take an action every time &#8212; they already know where to look for news and information &#8212; but the fact that they are returning and reading your content regularly is positive.<\/p>\n<h3>Narrow your definition of bounce rate <\/h3>\n<p>Kaushik uses time on page to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kaushik.net\/avinash\/2007\/08\/standard-metrics-revisited-3-bounce-rate.html\" title=\"Standard Metrics Revisited #3: Bounce Rate\">more narrowly define bounce rate<\/a> as &quot;the percentage of website visitors who stay on the site for a small amount of time (usually five seconds or less).&quot; To understand the complexity of measuring bounces by time on site, check out <a href=\"http:\/\/www.trendingupward.net\/2008\/10\/whats-wrong-with-bounce-rate\/\" title=\"What's Wrong with Bounce Rate?\">What\u2019s wrong with bounce rate?<\/a> by higher ed analytics expert Shelby Thayer.<\/p>\n<h3>Track all online actions <\/h3>\n<p>Not all analytics tools track all online actions by default. Make sure that your bounce rate accounts for links to Twitter, Likes on Facebook, PDF downloads, video views, user comments and print-button clicks.<\/p>\n<h3>Track offline actions <\/h3>\n<div class=\"pull-quote-box\">\n<div class=\"pull-quote\">Understand web content that encourages offline action so you can measure it.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>One of the things analytics can&#8217;t tell you is what actions people take offline. But don\u2019t let that deter you from learning. Conduct user research. If prospective students inquire by phone or email, ask them how they learned about your institution. Understand web content that encourages offline action so you can measure it.<\/p>\n<p>You can&#8217;t automatically tie offline action feedback to web analytics, but you can identify it as a <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Performance_indicator\" title=\"Performance indicator on Wikipedia\">key performance indicator<\/a> alongside your analytics data to identify trends, including successes and unmet goals.<\/p>\n<h2>Prepare Your Content for Action<\/h2>\n<p>Our content plan needs to recognize and account for the many ways people take action. Content can\u2019t be measured by clicks alone. We need to define the right combination of web metrics to support our measurement goals.<\/p>\n<p>However, while no stand-alone web metric is enough to make informed decisions, bounce rate is often a great place to start. It may not account for every action a visitor takes, but it accounts for a large chunk of them and is a great lead indicator for content problems.<\/p>\n<p>For learning more about bounce rate and ways to effectively use the metric, check out Kaushik&#8217;s post <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kaushik.net\/avinash\/2007\/08\/standard-metrics-revisited-3-bounce-rate.html\" title=\"Standard Metrics Revisited #3: Bounce Rate\">Standard Metrics Revisited: #3: Bounce Rate<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>How do you evaluate bounce rate at your institution?<\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/wwworks\/4750433191\/\" title=\"Pogo stick photo by woodleywonderworks on Flickr\">Photo by woodleywonderworks \/ Flickr Creative Commons<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For advanced web analytics users, bounce rate is quite possibly the most popular stand-alone metric &#8212; analytics evangelist Avinash Kaushik suggests it\u2019s the sexiest web metric ever. It&#8217;s certainly at the top of my list. Google defines bounce rate as &quot;the percentage of single-page visits or visits in which the person left your site from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[127],"tags":[67,50,52],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Bounce Rate Myth | Meet Content<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Bounce rate is a popular metric for identifying poor quality content, but it has a lot more to say than simply &quot;your website stinks.&quot; It might even be positive.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/blog\/the-bounce-rate-myth\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rick Allen\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/blog\/the-bounce-rate-myth\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/blog\/the-bounce-rate-myth\/\",\"name\":\"The Bounce Rate Myth | Meet Content\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-05-25T11:17:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-04-20T04:04:57+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d3e40b514e15560916ba3b6fb2518aa1\"},\"description\":\"Bounce rate is a popular metric for identifying poor quality content, but it has a lot more to say than simply \\\"your website stinks.\\\" It might even be positive.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/blog\/the-bounce-rate-myth\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/\",\"name\":\"Meet Content\",\"description\":\"Empowering higher education to create and sustain web content that works\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d3e40b514e15560916ba3b6fb2518aa1\",\"name\":\"Rick Allen\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/be76a4374dcc6803c24130f023afb15b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/be76a4374dcc6803c24130f023afb15b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Rick Allen\"},\"description\":\"Rick Allen has worked on the web in higher ed his entire career helping shape communications and content strategy. As principal of ePublish Media, Inc., a content strategy consultancy in Boston, Mass., Rick partners with organizations big and small to drive and sustain bold goals.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/blog\/author\/rallen\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Bounce Rate Myth | Meet Content","description":"Bounce rate is a popular metric for identifying poor quality content, but it has a lot more to say than simply \"your website stinks.\" It might even be positive.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/blog\/the-bounce-rate-myth\/","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Rick Allen","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/blog\/the-bounce-rate-myth\/","url":"https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/blog\/the-bounce-rate-myth\/","name":"The Bounce Rate Myth | Meet Content","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-05-25T11:17:23+00:00","dateModified":"2017-04-20T04:04:57+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d3e40b514e15560916ba3b6fb2518aa1"},"description":"Bounce rate is a popular metric for identifying poor quality content, but it has a lot more to say than simply \"your website stinks.\" It might even be positive.","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/blog\/the-bounce-rate-myth\/"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/","name":"Meet Content","description":"Empowering higher education to create and sustain web content that works","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d3e40b514e15560916ba3b6fb2518aa1","name":"Rick Allen","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/be76a4374dcc6803c24130f023afb15b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/be76a4374dcc6803c24130f023afb15b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Rick Allen"},"description":"Rick Allen has worked on the web in higher ed his entire career helping shape communications and content strategy. 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