This week’s Google Analytics video teaches you a little something about Bounce Rate – what it means, and when it’s worth worrying about (hint: not always, if you’re a blogger).
If you’d like to see the other videos in this series, here they are.
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Hello there! I'm Sister Diane and I have two grand passions: making crafts and making media. That's what I write about here, and sometimes, I get all thoughtful about internet culture and creative small businesses. Thanks for stopping by! Would you like some tea?   
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Google Analytics Tricks for Crafters: Bounce Rate17 comments to Google Analytics Tricks for Crafters: Bounce RateLeave a Reply |
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Brilliant, thanks Diane, I've never really understood this before but you made it so clear. Heading off to play in my Analytics now.
Awesome! Thanks, Kirsty – I learned a lot in the process of making this one.
Awesome! Thanks so much, Diane. Your videos always make things totally clear.
Thanks for your detailed description. There's so much to learn!
So interesting. Who knew I'd find this sort of graph nerdiness compelling? You know that giant spike you have on the notebook tut from Stumble Upon? I have that same spike from you when you accidentally linked to me last week. ;) Haha!
I'm pretty new to the Analytics, so these are super helpful. Thanks. :)
Really?! Oh, that's funny! I'll have to accidentally link to you more, then. :-)
What an excellent series of videos on Google Analytics. You've totally helped me understand all those numbers and terms when I'm looking at my website stats. Thanks!
Thank you for these. I really appreciate you taking the time to explain these features to us.
I always wondered what bounce rates were. Thanks for the clear explanation.
I agree that the bounce rate is a figure that can be taken with a grain of salt, especially when a site like StumbleUpon sends a lot of traffic your way. But what about the amount of time people spend on a page before bouncing off elsewhere? Maybe the Bounce Rate percentage isn't nearly as important as the seconds or minutes visitors spend on a certain page. Also, do you think one's bounce rate is more significant when it is viewed in the context of an actual website as opposed to a blog? A ceramic artist whose site I have worked on worried that people were only visiting her blog. When we looked at the analytics for her site and then her blog, the figures were quite different.
All great questions, Mari!
I agree that “Average Time on Site,” as the metric is called on Analytics, is also an important piece of information. You can totally argue that the longer someone spends on a page, theoretically, the more interesting it must be. But keep in mind that there are lots of factors that contribute to how long people spend on a page. If the page is text-heavy, it might simply take longer to read than an image-heavy page. But in this case, Average Time on Site doesn't really tell you much about how interesting people found either page.
So, like any web metric, there are nuggets of information to be had, and lots and lots of variables.
In terms of blog vs. website, definitely bounce rate will be often be very different. As I said in the video, the majority of a blog's readers will tend to look only at the front page where the new content is. So the bounce rate on the main page may be higher overall. Bounce rates on individual posts might be a more authoritative source of information.
A website is more often built in hopes that people will visit more pages than just the homepage. So in this case, a high bounce rate in the homepage may indicate that the homepage isn't enticing readers to explore more deeply.
Another blog vs. website idea to consider is that web users are growing accustomed to the fact that a static website won't change often, but a blog will. So possibly, your client's readers are simply gravitating to the part of her site where they know the newest material is.
…I'm starting to geek out a little here, but in some ways, the better the quality of the blog content, the more interest it will “earn” for the static parts of the website. If your client wants people looking at the static pages, then perhaps the blog pages need to offer more eye candy and informational value, so readers become curious and are inspired to poke around for more information.
Anyway – sorry to go on and on like that.
Interesting! I've been looking around to know if there is a page where you can see who is linking to you each day but there doesn't seam to be an easy way to find new referrals that pop up`, something most other statistics has!
Hanna, if you go to the Traffic Sources link, and then look for Referring Sites, that tells you who's linking to you. Then all you have to do is narrow your date range to a single day.
Again, I'm loving these Google Analytics tutorials. I especially appreciate that you're willing to show us the innards of your own blog traffic in the process. That teaches me a lot. I'd read somewhere that a blog shouldn't have a bounce rate of more than 20%! Now I take comfort from knowing that a 50%-80% range is just fine for blogs, and I look to the average time and number of return visitors to supplement my sense of what's going on. Keep 'em coming!
Thank you, Shae! Wowee – wouldn't I love a 20% bounce rate! I wonder if anyone outside the, um, adult entertainment field gets that kind of rate. :-)
Diane– Everything you do is awesome. Will you marry me? (don't take that too seriously, I marry my favorite yarns on a regular basis)
But seriously, I have been a fan of yours since your earliest podcasts, and the wealth of information you provide is stunningly generous, easy to follow, and your personality is genuine and likable. Kudos to you!
Terri
P.S. Should I hire a band or a DJ? :)
Hee hee – you're awesome, Terri! This works out well, because my parents are wedding photographers! :-) Thank you for the kind words – I'm so glad you're finding my stuff useful.