Bounce Rate

The percentage of visitors who leave a site without interacting further after viewing just one page.

Bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who arrive on a page and then leave without navigating to any other page on the site — they 'bounce' back to the search results or close the browser tab. In Google Analytics 4, this metric has been replaced by 'engagement rate' (the percentage of sessions that last more than 10 seconds, have a conversion event, or include 2+ page views).

A high bounce rate isn't inherently bad. For blog posts where a user reads the full article and leaves satisfied, a 'bounce' represents a successful interaction. Context matters. A high bounce rate on a product landing page or a pricing page is more concerning — it may indicate that the page isn't converting intent into action.

From an SEO perspective, high bounce rate on pages intended to drive engagement or conversion may indicate: a mismatch between the content and the searcher's intent, slow page load times causing users to leave, unclear navigation or CTAs, or misleading title tags that don't represent the page's actual content.

Reducing bounce rate requires understanding why users are leaving. User session recordings, heatmaps, and A/B testing can identify the friction points. In B2B, improving page relevance and matching content to the buyer's stage in the journey are often the most effective levers.