[Editor’s Note: Even the most experienced PR and communications professionals need a refresher on basics from time to time. Whether it’s how to become a better writer or a review of PR ethics, PRNEWS aims to provide readers with explainers on a variety of topics and issues. Hence, our Explainer series is born.]
Previous posts looked at Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) and NIL (name/image/likeness).
Today we offer a quick refresher on bounce rates.]
What is a Bounce Rate?
A bounce rate, measured in percentages, refers to visitors who come to your webpage and exit your site after only visiting that initial landing page. These visitors do not click to a second page. They may have come to your site accidentally, possibly through poorly-constructed SEO. (Note that bounce rates are just one metric used to measure the success of an SEO campaign).
To determine the bounce rate of your site, divide the number of single visits by the total number of visitors. These statistics can be found in Google Analytics.
Average bounce rates vary greatly, but that mostly depends on the purpose of the site. Average rates are generally between 26 and 70 percent, but communicators and marketers should judge their rates based on what they are hoping to accomplish.
Both higher and lower bounce rates can indicate that something may be wrong with the site itself. Possible reasons could include:
- Slow page load time
- Misleading tags and descriptions
- Low-quality content
- Errors and blank pages
- Bad links
- Site is not mobile-friendly
- Forms that are not user-friendly
- No call to action
Why it Matters to Communicators
PR and SEO departments are often not integrated, but SEO data can be useful to provide communicators with insights for targeting their campaigns. With some keyword research, PR professionals can better determine what their target audiences are searching for and better understand what information might keep them clicking through your, or your client’s, site.
More PRNEWS Resources on Bounce Rates
8 Reasons Why Your Website Has a High Bounce Rate