The Basics of Measuring Bounce Rates

               
                                                                                                                                          (Shrestha,2018)

Metrics Measurements in Web Analytics
The basics of measuring Bounce Rates      




(Sumner, 2016))


        The Basics of Measuring Bounce Rates


Bounce Rates

The Bounce Rates Defined

Bounce Rates play an important role in Web Metrics when measuring the quality of visits to a marketer’s website.  Most analytics’ tools can quickly provide Bounce Rate data in a very easy to understand way.  Simply stated, the Bounce Rate metric measures the percentage of visitors who click on the website ‘instantly’ and leave just as quickly (Kaushik, 2018).

Looking at Bounce Rate from a customer’s perspective, it identifies how much time they spent, looked, the actions taken, and how they left.  This metric helps to evaluate the quality of traffic and specifically how and where the website is succeeding and failing the visitor’s expectations.
The Bounce Rate is generally measured in two ways.  It provides the percentage data on the number of visitors who click on only one page of the site.  Second, it shows the percentage of visitors who stay on the site for a short period of time and then leave (e.g. five seconds or less).  The latter measurement is generally preferred by most analysts.  This particular tool is promoted by CoreMetrics, Yahoo Web analytics, WebTrends and Google Analytics.  It only takes one hit of a page-view during a visitor’s session to register the ‘Bounce Rate.’ 

Rationale 

The Bounce Rate metric is formulated to give an understanding regarding percentage of traffic engaging with the website.   From Google’s perspective, Bounce Rate measures the visit quality noting that a visitor entering the ‘Landing Page’ and exiting immediately shows that the visit is not relevant.
A quick or short ‘Bounce Rate’ is an indicator the ‘Landing Page’ needs to be tailored to more accurately provide the information and or service. (McCarthy, 2012). 

Examples of Bounces 

Bounces occur in a variety of ways on a website.  For example, in the diagram below, Visitor A and visitor B have both bounced.  Looking at the diagram, it is likely that visitor A didn’t find what he was looking for and bounced off the site after five seconds.  However, visitor B maintained a session for five minutes and twenty-two seconds, locating the content and then bouncing off the website. 
      (McCarthy, 2012)
The time each visitor spent on the website is commonly referred to as the Dwell Time.  It is important to note Dwell Time is correlated with positive User Engagement. When Dwell Time and Bounce Rate are correlated with each other, a reliable insight is gained that shows how engaged a specific visitor is with specific content on the website (McCarthy, 2012).

"“While it may feel like you’ve poured your heart and soul into creating the content on the website, quality is in the eye of the visitor, and short page dwell times can indicate the content is not capturing the visitor’s interest.  Something about the content is not grabbing their attention."
Duane Forrester – Public Outreach, Bing Search Engine

In summary, Bounce Rates in conjunction with Dwell Time is an Analytic Metric that anyone analyzing Bounce Rate should consider.  When there is a high Bounce Rate with a low Dwell Time, it is safe to say the content of the website is not meeting the needs of the visitor McCarthy, 2012).  Once again, when a fast Bounce Rate occurs, an opportunity exists to take corrective action on the website to improve the Bounce Rate and at the same time improving the customer Engagement.

References

Shrestha, I. (2018, January 21). Web Analytics. Retrieved from http://ishworshrestha.com.np/service/376-Web-Analytics.html

McCarthy, P. (2012, April 11). When is a Bounce not really a Bounce? Retrieved from https://www.google.com/search?q=Web Analytics Bounce Rate Graphic&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi0zsaI-enYAhVPF6wKHcwfAAcQ_AUICigB&biw=1600&bih=720#imgrc=DSrLckjRqBMnmM:

Kaushik, A. (2018). Standard Metrics Revisited: #3: Bounce Rate. Retrieved from https://www.kaushik.net/avinash/standard-metrics-revisited-3-bounce-rate/


Sumner, J. (2016, November 2). Why you Shouldn’t let High Bounce Rates Stop your Heart. Retrieved from https://sumnerdigital.com/why-you-shouldnt-let-high-bounce-rates-stop-your-heart/ https://www.kaushik.net/avinash/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/indextools_time_trend_bounce-2.png

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Basics of Measuring Conversion Rates

Image
                                                                                                                    (Shrestha,2018) Metrics Measurements in Web Analytics The basics of measuring Conversion Rates   (Cutler, 2014)   The Basics of Measuring Conversion Rates Conversion Rate (Imagex, 2016) The Conversion Rate Defined In the field of Web Metrics, Conversion occurs when a visitor of the website completes a tangible action.  An example would be a purchase made by a customer, the completion of a form, or a specific task.  The Conversion Rate is determined by the total number of visitors or customers completing an action that is bein...
Read more
How Blurb uses Web Analytics to monitor Visitor and Performance James C. Morrison Jmorrison_642_w5 Executive Summary        Blurb is a book publishing company founded in 2005 for the more sophisticated self-publisher.  Its estimated revenue is between 10 and 50 million dollars.  Blurb identifies itself as self-publishing marketing platform that allows anyone to design and publish professional quality books and e-books.  These professionally bound books can be promoted and sold online through the Blurb website.  The company has been in business since 2005 and houses a design team of professionals who are internet and media experts helping customers bring their photos and printed stories to life.  Free downloadable software is provided by the company to all potential customers.  Blurb uses web analytics to track and promote its products and services.  Advertising and Web Analytics tools are employed for the purpo...
Read more
Image
Comparing Google Analytics to Momently Analytics tailoring analytics for bloggers                                                                                                                           February 5, 2018 Jim Morrison Tailoring Analytics for Blogs      There are a variety of analytics tools available for social media websites.  During the past week, Google Analytics has been linked to this blog.  Analytics plays an important role for bloggers in identifying not only the blog traffic, but other actions, like time spent on each page, bounce rate, and the relative value each page contributes to the overall goal of the Blog....
Read more