What exactly is a bounce rate? Well, the bounce rate of a page refers to the amount of people who click through to enter a site, but leave after reading only that page. As you can imagine, a high bounce rate is certainly an online marketing problem. If that number is too high, then the entirety of your online presence is highly devalued, because nobody is looking at the rest of your website. This is why it is very important to keep track of this number, so that you can actively work to bring it lower. Here’s a few reasons why the bounce rate might be the most important factor in a successful website…
SERP Ranking
Every time an internet user leaves your site after viewing only one page, you are not just losing that customer, but potentially a whole lot more future business. This is because websites with higher bounce rates are going to suffer lower and lower SERP (search engine results page) ranking. Google’s algorithm places site with higher bounce rates at a lower priority, making their rankings suffer. The reason for this is that the Google algorithm is meant to match users up with intriguing content. A lower bounce back rate, according to Google, means that your site is much more enriching.
Audience interaction with site
The entire point of having a website, from a marketing perspective, is to get people to explore the site and find more things that are relevant to them. This is what makes your website relevant in the modern, constantly changing world of the internet. If fewer and fewer people are doing this (a symptom of a high bounce back rate), then what is the point? Why even have a website? The entire purpose of online marketing is to get people onto your website. But if all they are doing is leaving as soon as they enter it, then it was essentially a worthless click.
Increased sales
To look at the situation in a straightforward fashion, the longer that an internet user stays on your website, the more likely that person is to purchase something. That is why you want to work on having as enriching as site as you possibly can, so that more people become interested in buying your product. This audience interest is what is measured by the bounce rate. To put it simply, having a low bounce back rate means that people are more likely to make a purchase.