Stop bouncing: tips for website success

[djbaxter]

Stop bouncing: tips for website success
by Avinash Kaushik, Analytics Evangelist, Google
2/17/2009

Free tools like Google Analytics can help simplify website data so that you can better understand what visitors are doing when they arrive on your site...

Bounce rate is insightful because from the perspective of a website visitor, it measures this phenomenon: "I came; I puked; I left." ... Bounce rate has these attributes:

• It is really hard to misunderstand. It measures the number of people who landed on your site and refused to give you even one single click!
• It is available in most web analytics tools, including our own Google Analytics.
• It is quick and easy to use. Bounce rate will help you understand where and how to make changes on your website in under an hour.

... By identifying the sites that are sending you visitors with high bounce rates, you can investigate the reasons why (the campaigns, the context in which your link is placed, the ads) and make changes to ensure that visitors find what they are looking for when they come to your site.

...more