Objective: Analyze your site pages' bounce rates.
Features used: Dashboards, Page Comparator, Zoning Analysis, Session Replay
Time: 20 min.
Bounce rate basics
Bounce rate differs depending on the industry and acquisition channels. It also depends on the kind of page. Below are guidelines on expected bounce rate:
- Home page: around 20%
- Category page: around 40%
- Product page: around 60%
Bounce rate calculations
Different analytics tools define bounce rates differently:
- Contentsquare bounce - users who leave a site after having seen only one page, even if they interacted with that page
- Google Analytics bounce - users who leave a site without having any interaction with the page
Learn more about how Contentsquare calculates bounce rate here.
Bounce rate context
Depending on the context of the page, a bounce can be a good bounce, or a bad bounce.
Here are some examples:
- On a store locator page, it’s good if users come to the page, get the information needed and bounce.
- On a content page, it’s good if users spend a lot of time reading and interacting with the content.
- On a content/buying guide page, it can mean you have helped users make their choice...on another site.
- On a product details page (PDP), users can view the details of the product or click on in-store availability, bounce and make a purchase at a different date.
Analyze global increase in bounce rate on your site
Step-by-step
A quick way to view your key metrics is through Dashboards, which provides a personalized interface for tracking KPIs all in one place.
1. If you haven't created a dashboard, easily set one up using built-in templates. Navigate to Dashboards and begin with the 'Site overview' template for automatic population of your key metrics.
Learn how to create your first Dashboard and analyze your data using the Site Overview dashboard template.
2. Update the line chart that shows the Number of sessions/Conversion rate by incorporating Bounce rate as a metric. Keep the 'All Users' segment to identify potential factors contributing to a spike in bounce rates during specific time periods.
3. Compare bounce rates for different devices during the selected time period to rule out issues exclusive to any one device.
3. Remove bots and spider traffic by applying the segment conditions users who 'do not match' 'bots and spiders' to check that bounce rates have not increased due to bot traffic.
4. To identify which pages are driving up the bounce rate, go to Page Comparator and compare the period with the normal bounce rate to the period with the increased bounce rate, and identify the page(s) with the highest difference. Remember to check that there is a significant number of visits on the pages chosen.
Page Comparator can help diagnose a bounce rate increase on a specific page template (i.e. list/product/category home) which may have a specific UI/UX issue. We will investigate this within zoning.
- If all pages in a specific universe/category are affected, discuss with your e-merchandiser about your offerings (i.e. not enough exclusive products or subsidiary brands, absence of a recently released product or a certain size).
- If specific product pages are affected, you may want to look at pricing (uncompetitive price), delivery (fee, time) or out-of-stock issues. Use Zoning to analyze the interaction with the price on the product page. You may also want to confirm that your product page bounces are due to expected behavior i.e. Bounce users are interacting on the check-availability or click-and-collect features (refer to “good bounces” section).
5. If you still have not identified what is driving high bounce rates check any campaigns and analyze conversion rate. Make sure your acquisition team is directing traffic to in-stock items and that they are targeting the right user.
Analyze a site page with a high bounce rate
Step-by-step
1. If you are not sure which pages have the highest bounce rates go to Page Comparator and sort pages from a selected mapping by Bounce Rate
2. The Page Comparator will give you initial insight as to why your bounce rate has increased. Compare the segment 'Bounce sessions' with the segment 'Non-bounce sessions' using the analysis context and apply this comparison to the pages where you have seen the highest bounce rate increase.
- If the Load time is higher for bounce visits - it might be due to a technical issue on the page or page elements taking a lot of time to load for certain users. You should consult with your IT or development team.
- If the Activity rate is lower for bounce visits - it may be that the content is not engaging or is misunderstood by the visitor. Check if there were content changes made on the page or if there was a new campaign redirecting to this page.
- If the Scroll rate is lower for bounce visits - the reasons behind this can be similar to a lower activity rate. It can also mean that users are not encouraged to or aware that you can scroll further down the page, potentially missing content of interest. You should use scroll down arrows or show the beginning of content further down the page to encourage users to scroll.
- If the Time spent is lower for bounce visits - the reasons behind this can be similar to the ones behind a lower Activity rate or Scroll rate (see above).
3. Remove bots and spider traffic by applying the segment conditions users who 'do not match' 'bots and spiders' to check that bounce rates have not increased due to bot traffic.
4. Identifying problematic in-page elements with Zoning analysis
If you want to further analyze what could be responsible for the increase in bounce rate or the Page Comparator is not giving you the answers you were looking for, you can create a zoning of the most problematic pages to identify which in-page elements could be impacting your bounce rate. Compare the segment 'Bounce sessions' with the segment 'Non-bounce sessions' and identify which elements have the biggest difference on the following metrics.
- If the Exposure rate is lower for bounce visits on elements below the fold line - It can mean that users are not encouraged to or aware that you can scroll further down the page, potentially missing content of interest. You should use scroll-down arrows or show the beginning of content further down the page to encourage users to scroll.
- If the Exposure rate is lower for elements that are supposed to be important for users, such as a “Call to Action”, you should consider moving these elements further up the page and above the fold line.
- If the Exposure time is lower for bounce visits - it may be that the content is not engaging or is misunderstood by the visitor. You should check if there were content changes made on the page or if there was a new campaign redirecting to this page.
- If the Hover rate or Click rate is lower for bounce visits - It means that these users do not want to or understand that they can interact with the element. You should either reorganize your content, or make these elements more accessible so that users understand that they should be interacting with it.
- If there is a Click rate for bounce visits on elements that can drive users to a new page or generate a new pageview - it can mean that there is a technical issue or error preventing some users from reaching the next page (either with the directing element or the following page). You should consult with your IT or development team.
- If the Click recurrence is higher for bounce visits - This metric usually translates frustration for users. If this happens on a non-clickable element, it means that users believe this element is clickable and you should change the design. If the click recurrence is high on a clickable element, the issue is more technical or due to error management.
Go further
Compare good and bad bouncers
Check if the increase is coming from good or bad bounce users.
Create two segments:
- users who bounce and spend less than 10 seconds,
- and users who bounce and spend more than 10 seconds
Compare the 2 segments in Page Comparator and zoning. Which metrics are negatively impacting your bounce rate?
Replay the bounce sessions
Use Session Replay to visualize what bouncers are doing, which you have observed in zoning analysis (you can filter sessions by applying the “Bounce visits” segment).
Be alerted right away, next time!
Set up an AI alert to track bounce visits globally on your site or specific pages.