What is your Bounce Rate?

[UncoderMom]

11.15% New Visits
20.56% Overall
9.83% Forum index
5.79% .com page
# Direct Traffic 11,616.00 (75.65%)
#
Search Engines 2,447.00 (15.94%)
#
Referring Sites 1,289.00 (8.39%)
#
Other 3 (0.02%)

13,025 pages were viewed a total of 115,712 times

Stats from april 21st to march 21at. My sites traffic is down too.

--------------- Added [DATE]1243014083[/DATE] at [TIME]1243014083[/TIME] ---------------

Originally Posted by imported_silkroad

No. it is not. I have been over this with many sites.

Most sites that receive traffic mostly from search engine referrals (the long tail traffic) will see very high bounce rates.

This is because most users who search for content using a search engine will click on the site from, say Google, and then they will "go back" if they do not find what they need and select another site (from the search engine). This is the nature of "long tail" traffic.

Almost all sites with high volumes of traffic from search engines referrals have high bounce rates.

So, when you say (incorrectly) "all high bounce rates are bad" what you are saying is "all long-tail search engine referral traffic is bad" because you cannot high search engine traffic without having a high bounce rate.

This is a fact. I wish it was not a fact, but it is.

Forums with 95% of their traffic, which are millions of page views a month, will have high bounce rates. Sites with mostly direct traffic and referral traffic other that search engines, will have a lower bounce rate.

Folks who make blanket statements that "high bounce rate is bad" normally come from sites that have low page views and little traffic from search engine referrals. The proof is in the numbers of high volume sites with mega long-tail search referrals.

--------------- Added [DATE]1242997055[/DATE] at [TIME]1242997055[/TIME] ---------------



It depends on the nature and volume of your traffic.

See my earlier posts.

--------------- Added [DATE]1242997142[/DATE] at [TIME]1242997142[/TIME] ---------------



Then you, more than likely, have site with relatively low page views per month from direct or non-search engine referral traffic

The trick is to KEEP THEM FROM HITTING THE BACK BUTTON. LOL

Keeping your data relevant and your content rich will reduce your bounce rate. Organic, referred or direct.

[Spinball]

Flawed poll. We have 60.5% bounce rate . We have massive penetration into Google and vBSEO installed. The trick is to keep people once they get here. No idea how to do that at the moment.

[imported_silkroad]

Originally Posted by Justine

(large sites* - 5 million+ page views per month)

Sorry, but we don't need to grasp your message, because your message is incorrect.

If you have 5 million+ page views each month and most of your traffic is from search engine referrals, then please take a screen shot of the relevant data from Google analysts and post the images, showing your time period, page views, bounce rate and corresponding search engine referrals.

Sites with lots of direct traffic and referrals from other web pages get a much lower bounce rate than large sites with mega long-tail search engine referrals.

Frankly, Justine, I don't need a sidebar lecture on the topic (smile!), I want to see your facts :-) I do not think you have a site which gets massive search engine referrals and has a low bounce rate. All sites have the same issue. This is not theory, LOL, is this the nature of sites with massive search engine referrals.

Facts please!

PS: I have many sites with low bounce rates. They all have less traffic and a much lower percentage of search engine referrals. So, according to this poll, ROTFL, it is better to have a site with low traffic than a site with high traffic because the bounce rate is less? Not all sites are the same. You cannot make a blanket statement "low bounce is bad".... .that is why this poll is seriously flawed!

--------------- Added 24 May 2009 at 05:50 ---------------

Originally Posted by UncoderMom

11.15% New Visits
20.56% Overall
9.83% Forum index
5.79% .com page
# Direct Traffic 11,616.00 (75.65%)
#
Search Engines 2,447.00 (15.94%)
#
Referring Sites 1,289.00 (8.39%)
#
Other 3 (0.02%)

13,025 pages were viewed a total of 115,712 times

Precisely my point, thank you!

This site (above) has a relatively low monthly page view where most traffic is direct traffic. Search engine referrals only account for 16% of the traffic. Naturally, this site will have a lower bounce rate that a site with much more traffic that comes mostly from long tail search engine referrals.

--------------- Added 24 May 2009 at 05:52 ---------------

Originally Posted by Spinball

Flawed poll. We have 60.5% bounce rate . We have massive penetration into Google and vBSEO installed. The trick is to keep people once they get here. No idea how to do that at the moment.

Agreed !!

Folks who do not have massive long tail traffic do not understand this concept. If you try to lower the bounce rate, the effect is that you will lower the amount of long-tail search engine referrals.

It is very difficult to lower bounce rate on these sites. I once made a change that improved bounce rate about 8 percent, and I was happy. Folks who don't have a great deal of long tail search referrals and have mostly direct or site referrals do not grok this concept.

[Spinball]

I have simplified our CMS (vBAdvanced) home page today. Will be interesting if that affects our bounce rate. I suspect it will make little difference.
I think if we need to reduce the bounce rate, we need something to entice them in on EVERY page. A welcome notice at the top for all new visitors which contains something to grab their attention.

[imported_silkroad]

Originally Posted by Spinball

I have simplified our CMS (vBAdvanced) home page today. Will be interesting if that affects our bounce rate. I suspect it will make little difference.
I think if we need to reduce the bounce rate, we need something to entice them in on EVERY page. A welcome notice at the top for all new visitors which contains something to grab their attention.

FYI, the following might work for you.

I was able to reduce bounce rate about 4 or 5 percentage points around a year ago just by moving Similar Threads to the top of the thread view (showthread) versus at the bottom. This is because users that come to visit via search referrals will bounce off if they don't see something they like, and will go back to their Google SERPs.

The problem is that, on a long-time referral to a post, Similar Threads does not work in showthread_showpost (or I could not get it to work). Adding a cloud tag at the top is not very effective, or at least is was not effective for us.

We never had any luck with vBadvanced because 95 percent of the traffic is from long-tail search referrals. Home page direct hits are such a low percentage, that the bounce rate of direct hits are insignificant.

If your have massive traffic from SERPs, then moving Similar Threads to the top of showthread might work for you as it did for us.

[EagleNick]

/// March 31 - April 30 ///

• Overall site bounce rate - 28.94%
• Main page (ie. portal) bounce rate - N/A
• Forum index page bounce rate - 9.28%
• URL (optional) - http://www.lineolatedparakeet.net/forums

[Zagis]

Apr 23, 2009 - May 23, 2009

38,23% New Visits

32,45% Overall
9,44% Main index (portal)
9,80% Forum index

[UncoderMom]

Originally Posted by imported_silkroad

Sorry, but we don't need to grasp your message, because your message is incorrect.

If you have 5 million+ page views each month and most of your traffic is from search engine referrals, then please take a screen shot of the relevant data from Google analysts and post the images, showing your time period, page views, bounce rate and corresponding search engine referrals.

Sites with lots of direct traffic and referrals from other web pages get a much lower bounce rate than large sites with mega long-tail search engine referrals.

Frankly, Justine, I don't need a sidebar lecture on the topic (smile!), I want to see your facts :-) I do not think you have a site which gets massive search engine referrals and has a low bounce rate. All sites have the same issue. This is not theory, LOL, is this the nature of sites with massive search engine referrals.

Facts please!

PS: I have many sites with low bounce rates. They all have less traffic and a much lower percentage of search engine referrals. So, according to this poll, ROTFL, it is better to have a site with low traffic than a site with high traffic because the bounce rate is less? Not all sites are the same. You cannot make a blanket statement "low bounce is bad".... .that is why this poll is seriously flawed!

--------------- Added 24 May 2009 at 05:50 ---------------



Precisely my point, thank you!

This site (above) has a relatively low monthly page view where most traffic is direct traffic. Search engine referrals only account for 16% of the traffic. Naturally, this site will have a lower bounce rate that a site with much more traffic that comes mostly from long tail search engine referrals.

--------------- Added 24 May 2009 at 05:52 ---------------



Agreed !!

Folks who do not have massive long tail traffic do not understand this concept. If you try to lower the bounce rate, the effect is that you will lower the amount of long-tail search engine referrals.

It is very difficult to lower bounce rate on these sites. I once made a change that improved bounce rate about 8 percent, and I was happy. Folks who don't have a great deal of long tail search referrals and have mostly direct or site referrals do not grok this concept.

Well, This time last year... my bounce rates were almost the same except I had almost 500,000 page views a month and my search engine referrals were way higher. What then?

If I dig up a few months prior to that I had more then 750,000 page views on average. I wonder what my rates where then. hmmm


I know where all my traffic is going.. LOL Im guilty myself. FACEBOOK.

--------------- Added [DATE]1243264692[/DATE] at [TIME]1243264692[/TIME] ---------------

Okay skill road. I'd have to say your theory is a little flawed too.

Here is just an example....



* 32,998
Visits

* 453,249
Pageviews

* 13.74
Pages/Visit

* 8.56%
Bounce Rate

* 00:15:40
Avg. Time on Site

* 5.00%
% New Visits



*
Direct Traffic 21,355.00 (64.72%)
*
Referring Sites 6,179.00 (18.73%)
*
Search Engines 5,461.00 (16.55%)
*
Other 3 (0.01%)


Thats just one of my 30 day pulls. I can show you dozens more all with around a 10% average bounce rate.

Heres another from the same time year before this one.



* 43,164
Visits

* 793,287
Pageviews

* 18.38
Pages/Visit

* 7.87%
Bounce Rate

* 00:18:39
Avg. Time on Site

* 5.48%
% New Visits

# Direct Traffic 33,535.00 (77.69%)
#
Referring Sites 7,914.00 (18.33%)
#
Search Engines 1,715.00 (3.97%)

[lasto]

Ive had a few cheques Bounce during this credit crunch does that count

[UncoderMom]

Originally Posted by lasto

Ive had a few cheques Bounce during this credit crunch does that count

HAHAHA Dont think so. LOL