How to reduce your Bounce rate

Here are some proven tactics, as well as dashboards to track your progress and ways to share results as they happen.

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What are bounce rate?

A bounce is calculated when a user triggers only one request from the Google Analytics server, such as one page view, and exits without triggering any other request from the server. (Another pageview, a goal completion, etc.)

Your website’s bounce rate is simply the number of single-page sessions (bounces) divided by the total number of sessions.

Since there are no engagement hits after the initial pageview that would allow Google Analytics to track the length of the session, “Bounces” will lower your average session duration, as single-page views have a session duration of 0 seconds.

Here are some longer-form articles you might find helpful:

From understanding searcher intent to improving page load speed (and everything in between), here are all the things marketers say can reduce your website’s bounce rate.
In the first episode of Data Snacks, we share tips for segmenting your bounce rate by page so you can get deeper insights into how visitors behave on your website.
List of Tactics
  • Identify visitor intent. Use free tools like Google Search Console to identify which search phrases are used most by visitors to find your pages. From there identify those that have high impressions, but low clicks. Do those landing pages match the searchers intent? If not, adjust your content to meet the needs of the visitor.
  • Improve site navigation. Add search functionality to key areas of your website, like your blog or services pages, to make it easier for visitors to find what they need quickly. Build an internal link structure that enables visitors to easily find relevant content no matter what page of your website they’re on.
  • Use interactive content. Videos, images, calculators, quizzes, etc. – leverage multimedia content to engage your website visitors on page and keep them around longer.
  • Optimize page load speed. Use a free tool like GTmetrix to analyze your website’s speed. Pages that take too long to load can result in visitors bouncing from your website.
  • Ditch popups. While there’s evidence that popups in the form of delayed captures and exit intent generate conversions, they also annoy most readers. If you’ve implemented these on your website, consider testing specific pages without them in order to measure if the improved experience drives visitors to view more pages.
How to Track Bounce rate

When you monitor your impact as you implement your plan, you're also empowered to adapt your approach as needed in order to stay on track.

The following dashboard templates are plug-and-play and will allow you and your team to track progress toward the KPI and goal you've outlined.

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Want more options? Browse our library
Share results as they happen

Sharing results - good and bad - as things happen, allows you and your team to celebrate victories, do more of the activities that produce results, and course-correct when things aren't working.

Most importantly, it creates an environment where everyone feels in control of the company's performance next week, month, quarter, and beyond.

Set up a Scorecard and Alert in order to keep you and your team up-to-date on your progress toward the goal you selected earlier.


Track your progress toward these KPIs in real time

With Databox free, you can pull all your data into one place, set goals around specific KPIs, and track performance and discover insights in real-time.

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Recommended KPIs

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