question on bounce rate

what determines a "bounce"?

Ive heard one page view only and Ive heard leaving in less thatn 15 secs.

I added an extra ad to my site and it is increasing my bounce rate. Im thinking the ad is getting peopls attention and they are clicking on it thus leaving my site quickly.

What's your question exactly? Bounce rate is determined by how long visitors stay on a page. The lower the rate is, the better. So, for example, if your bounce rate is over 60%, it means your site content must be revised since most visitors leave immediately after they see the page.

Hope this answers your question.

alpha4 said:

What's your question exactly? Bounce rate is determined by how long visitors stay on a page. The lower the rate is, the better. So, for example, if your bounce rate is over 60%, it means your site content must be revised since most visitors leave immediately after they see the page.

Hope this answers your question.

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I was asking what constitutes as a bounce. You say its determined by how long visitors stay on a site? What if they are immedietly clicking an ad when they enter my site? It may not be the site thats a problem it may be that they just like the ad.

so basicaly what Im asking is: Does it matter HOW a person leaves my site to consider it a bounce or do they have to literally close the window or type in a new site in the URL bar, etc.?

KeyzDT said:

I was asking what constitutes as a bounce. You say its determined by how long visitors stay on a site? What if they are immedietly clicking an ad when they enter my site? It may not be the site thats a problem it may be that they just like the ad.

so basicaly what Im asking is: Does it matter HOW a person leaves my site to consider it a bounce or do they have to literally close the window or type in a new site in the URL bar, etc.?

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Okay I just sounded like a complete ass. I'm removing my post to prevent misinformation from spreading. Thanks for the correction guys.

Bounce rate is not about time, it is about pageviews. I PV bouncerate 2 PV or more no bouncerate.

polocolto said:

Bounce rate is not about time, it is about pageviews. I PV bouncerate 2 PV or more no bouncerate.

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Yep.

Bounce rate represents the percentage of initial visitors to a site who "bounce" away to a different site, rather than continue on to other pages within the same site. A bounce occurs when a visitor only views a single page on a website and then leaves the site without visiting any other pages before a session-timeout occurs.

Bounce Rate equals the total number of visits viewing only one page divided by the total number of visits.

@OP - If the ads are making your visitors leave your site rather than visit other pages, then yeah your bounce rate will go up. Not necessarily a bad thing.

Yes, Bounce rate isn't related to time, but to the number of pages the visitor views - if the visitor arrive to a page and exit from it without viewing other site pages, it's considered a bounce. If he continues to view different pages on the site, he didn't bounce. as alpha4 said, above %60 is considered to be a bad bounce rate.

blibli1 said:

... as alpha4 said, above %60 is considered to be a bad bounce rate.

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Actually that kinda depends on what your doing with the site.

Take for instance (hotboy's "microniche road to riches" method), a 4 page minisite targeting a longtail keyword and advertising with adsense. Those sites are basically just one content page, plus a contact page, about us page, and a site map page. The only reason for the extra pages is to make the website seem more legit. The true purpose of the site is for people to land on the first page, see an advert they like enough to click, and then leave by that adsense ad.

The same thing for a microsite promoting a single product. The purpose of the landing page is to get you to click on the "buy now" button which will usually take you're visitor off site to a payment processor. If they're checking other pages then your not keeping them focused on the target.

A good microsite page has no fluff. The only choice the visitor has is to either to buy the product or click and go to somewhere else. In those cases a high bounce rate is to be expected.

On the other hand if your building an authority site, a blog, a forum, or any other website with the intention of engaging the visitors and holding them on your site for a while, then yes a high bounce rate is bad.