What is a "bounce"?
When someone visits your website the first page they look at - be it your home page or another page they were directed to for example by Google Adwords - is called a "landing page". If the visitor then leaves your site after looking at only that page then it is referred to as a "bounce". The overall bounce rate for your site is the percentage of people that arrive at your website and then leave without going any deeper into your site.
Is bounce rate the same as exit rate?
There is a lot of confusion between bounce and exit rates with many people suggesting they are the same. Bounce rate only refers to landing pages on your site. If for example I visit your website, look at a few pages and then after looking at your "services overview" page leave your site then I have exited your site at the services page (and not bounced). Only if the "services overview" page is the first page I see on your site and I then leave would it be a bounce.
Exit rates from pages are important and will be discussed elsewhere. Bounce rates are however much more important as they provide an indicator of how engaging your content is and how well tuned your marketing campaigns are.
Information on average bounce rates, what to do about high bounce rates and bounce rates and SEO continues in the "Web Analytics" category on the Resources section of this site - click below:
