undoIT

I have read a couple of articles that correlate bounce rate and search engine performance (at least for Google). I'm trying to figure out what exactly is considered a bounce and some other stuff, so I made a list of questions:

1. What is the duration for a single page visit until it is no longer considered a bounce when a visitor leaves?

2. What if a visitor lands on a page, and then visits another page within 5 seconds and then closes the browser. Is that considered a bounce?

3. When external links are opened in a new window (i.e. target_blank, rel="external", onclick=... etc) is it considered a bounce? Is there any difference between using HTML and Javascript to open a new window?

4. If opening external links in a new window is considered a bounce, does it change anything if the user then comes back to the site which has remained opened and then starts browsing around?

TIA

Electric Studio

Good questions, anyone with the knowledge?

__________________
Electric Studio
Recent work include: Sarahs Flowers | 22GT Racing

MikeMcD

I can comment on a couple of those for you, but I'll send an email to a couple Google folk I know and see if I can get you something straight from the horse's mouth.

How's that?

MikeMcD

Got a reply from Adam Lasnik from Google (Adam is one of Googles Search Evangelists):

I know that doesn't hit you with much in the way of specifics, but that said, I wanted to post it because thought his reply does kind of give you an idea of their thinking on bounce rates. (and I really appreciate him answering me back on a Saturday night - that's pretty cool)

I also shot pretty much the same email to Matt Cutts. If he gets back to me I'll be sure to add it in here.

It might be nice to get some input from someone in Google Analytics re: bounce rates. I think that might give you a pretty good clue as to where their minds are.

I'll see what I can find out for you.

MikeMcD

So Matt Cutts did get back to me. Unfortunately he didn't have much to add but he did send our little list of questions on to Avinash Kaushik (Avinash is the Google Analytics Evangelist). Here's what Avinash had to say:


Michael,

Matt forwarded your questions, my answers below.

1. What is the duration for a single page visit until it is no longer considered a bounce when a visitor leaves?

Bounce is a Visit level metric.

The definition is simple, if there is a Visit (a session technically speaking) with just one page view in it then it is considered a bounce. IE Someone came to your site, saw just one page, did not other action, left your website.

If you want to get a graduate level explanation about bounce rates and a business / marketing perspective on it here it is:

http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/2007/...unce-rate.html


2. What if a visitor lands on a page, and then visits another page within 5 seconds and then closes the browser. Is that considered a bounce?

No bounce.

Remember time has no bearing on bounce computations. Just page views. In this case there are two page views in a session. No bounce.

The WAA standard definition of bounce rate, and that of Google Analytics, only considers the page view. Time has no bearing on the equation.


3. When external links are opened in a new window (i.e. target_blank, rel="external", onclick=... etc) is it considered a bounce? Is there any difference between using HTML and Javascript to open a new window?

Depends.


If in your external link popping strategy you are also sending a "hit" back to GA, as in this strategy....

http://www.google.com/support/google...n&answer=55527

Then the behavior you describe won't be considered as bounce because you have just sent a "hit" (a page view really) back to GA.

If in your external link popping strategy you are not sending a hit back to GA then if the person comes to your site, clicks on a link to leave the site, then that is a bounce.

Note that with Event Tracking (advanced AJAX, Flash, Flex, Video etc) released by the GA team Analytics can handle a lot more complex scenarios intelligently. Say if I come to your site. Watch the video you did with me at SES and leave. Most tools would consider that bounce. But if you are using GA and have event tracking for your videos (or 100% flash site) then that won't be considered bounce. In fact GA will accurately compute how long I stayed on your site, how much of the video I watched etc etc.


4. If opening external links in a new window is considered a bounce, does it change anything if the user then comes back to the site which has remained opened and then starts browsing around?

See above for first part of your answer. It depends on how you have encoded the external links (with ga tracking or not).

For the second part....

A session in Google Analytics (and pretty much every other web analytics tool out there) is "29 mins of inactivity". So I come to your site. See just one page. Go away to say google or whatever. Come back in 15 mins (or under 29 mins). Do another click. That's still the same session. No bounce.

Hope this helps.

-Avinash.

Intermediate Level SEO

I live and breath bounce rates. I'd be delighted if Google decides that sites with lower bounce rates for certain terms should rate higher for those same terms. I've long thought this was overdue and I'm expecting it to move from being an experimental factor to a major one soon. Wouldn't you, if you were Google, work on this?

I think that a bounce rate is the single best measure of the effectiveness of a page.

This is because I organize my educational website as a big sales funnel where each page on the site is like a step in a classic (ie face-to-face) sales call. If you organized your sales process as just one page, it would mean a lot less.

The entry pages are like a salesmen saying, "Hello, would you like to talk a little?"
The next page is like a conversation in which the salesmen and prospect discuss the product. Information is exchanged, trust is built.

The click from this page to get to the service link means that the prospect is intrigued and wants the benefits and features that he's learned about (actually, she....most of my customers are Moms).

And the sign-up page is the page that resolves all the sales inhibitors (ie, do I trust these people? Is the price too high? What if I change my mind?). If I can resolves enough of them, I can get them to enter their credit card and click enter.

Then, the real fun begins.....

nonsense

Darn! There I was thinking I was really cool because I felt I had mastered the art of Adsense placement. People come to my site, like what I offer, and usually leave by clicking on a Google Ad. And for being efficient at ad placement I am penalised by having a bounce registered against me??

MikeMcD

No... not at all. What did you read that made you think that?

Joyce Sullivan

yeah,I got it

onlineseo

Read this informative article on Search engine optimization and Bounce Rate at : http://www.seohawk.com/blog/google-b...-seo-rankings/

Search engine optimization is not just about links and back links. There are indications that Google might be using parameters such as bounce rates to gauge effectiveness of your website.