Definition of Bounce Rate

The bounce rate is the percentage of hits or entrances on a page that lead to the individual leaving the website immediately rather than linking to another page on the site. Leaving the website as soon as you enter it can be referred to as a non-entrance. Non-entrances will lead to the page having a high bounce rate. This information implies that the specific webpage is not properly matched to the link that is creating web traffic. Changing the information for the link should improve the bounce rate.

In order to calculate the bounce rate, two pieces of information are needed. The first piece is the number of visitors to enter a specific page of a website and leave that specific page within a timeframe determined by analytic tracking software without visiting any other pages on the website. The second piece of information is the total number of visitors who entered the website at that specific page. Dividing the first number by the second number provides the bounce rate for that page.

External links:

• A Wikipedia explanation of bounce rate
• Google Adwords Learning Centre which includes information on bounce rates
• A short blog post summarising bounce rate
• An interesting blog post with a detailed discusson on bounce rate
• A YouTube lecture on Bounce Rate related to the above blog post