Bounce Rate

Today I was going to write about why new websites can display very misleading bounce rates, but I realized I had never covered the bounce rate concept before, so I’ll stick to the basics today, and expand on the topic over the coming weeks.
If you already know the term, consider this post a refresher.

What Is Bounce Rate?

Bounce rate is a very important metric for website owners. It basically tells you what percentage of your visitors are “bouncing” away after landing on your site (e.g., they just visit one page and leave before clicking on to a second page inside your site). A bounce can occur for several reasons, including:

The visitor hit the “Back” button on his browser.
The visitor closed his browser.
The visitor clicked on one of your ads.
The visitor clicked on one of your external links.
The visitor used the search box on his browser.
The visitor typed a new URL on his browser.