Reading a bounce rate without fooling yourself

Bounce rate is the most misread number on any analytics screen. It counts visits that saw one page and then stopped, and almost everybody reads it as a measure of disappointment.

Sometimes it is. A product page with a ninety per cent bounce rate is worth an afternoon. But an opening-hours page with a ninety per cent bounce rate is working perfectly. Somebody wanted one fact, found it, and got on with their day.

The version of this we see most often is a support article being rewritten because it “underperforms”. It does not underperform. It answers the question in the first paragraph, which is what a support article is for.

Before you act on a bounce rate, ask what a successful visit to that page would look like. If the answer is “they read it and leave”, the number is telling you the page works.