How to find the right benchmark for the bounce rate in your industry or website type
Nobody likes high bounce rates. After all, they supposedly indicate that the website might have a serious problem. I've already talked in this blog about some tried and tested ways to prevent visitors from leaving your site immediately. But now it's time to discuss an absolutely essential tool to fundamentally improve your site: Your industry's bounce rate benchmarks. Every industry and every type of business has different bounce rates based on what visitors expect and how online products are sold. Comparing your business to an insurance company or online supermarket won't do you much good unless those businesses are very similar to yours. So when you look at the bounce rate, also look at what to expect in your industry. I'll show you where to start. You should definitely read our detailed article on tracking and dashboards - how to make real values visible. It is also always important to observe where the traffic (that stays longer) comes from. LinkedIn without lead gen forms can be better than Facebook in the B2B sector, for example.
The fundamental problem with the bounce rate
The dwell time describes how long a user stays on a website page. For many websites, the longer the dwell time, the more interesting the content is for the user. This is not true for so-called one-pagers. Why? You need to know how the dwell time is actually measured. How is the dwell time calculated? Google Analytics in the standard configuration measures the dwell time on the basis of page views. This means that the dwell time can only be calculated if there is a second page view. The dwell time is therefore the time that elapses between page view 1 and page view 2. But how many page views do your users make on average per session? This is where the problem begins. Users who only visit one page per session are not included in the calculation of the average dwell time, as the dwell time of the individual visit could not be determined. The bounce rate for these users is therefore 100%. The data and its significance are therefore usually distorted. This can be remedied via the Google Tag Manager by setting a ping at meaningful intervals (e.g. at least 20 seconds on the page) and thus querying "Hey user, are you still there?". This gives you a reasonable unit of measurement for the length of stay and the bounce rate is no longer measured from page 1 to page 2 but from the entry page to the last ping.
In addition, Google Tag Manager offers almost infinitely more options that Google Analytics does not offer in the standard configuration. The topic of dwell time is also explained in more detail in this blog post.
Take a look at the basic statistics on bounce rates
Before I delve deeper into the comparison topic, it is useful to take a look at general industry statistics that have been compiled by companies that have already collected this data. This is a good opportunity to see how bounce rates vary by industry and what reasons might be behind these changes. I recommend the following Hubspot infographic as a good starting point.
Pages for generating leads: These pages are particularly important for B2B companies because they sell special services and service packages. Such pages must expect a bounce rate of 30% to 50%. This indicates that it is even more important for visitors to stay on the page within the first few seconds. Service websites: Service websites are pages on which users can perform an action (such as financial management, portal logins etc). Such sites usually have a low bounce rate of between 10% and 30%. This is because visitors know very well what exactly they want when they reach the site. E-commerce/sales sites: E-commerce websites are companies that operate online stores, so everything from Amazonto Zalando. Their average bounce rate is around 20 to 40 percent, although there are some differences depending on how efficient the site is (Alibaba less so, Amazon very efficient). LandingPages: LandingPages that only contain a single call to action definitely have a high bounce rate, ranging from 70% to >90%. This may be due to the fact that users move quickly from one website to the next. However, another reason could be that there are a large number of unattractive pages and landing pages with poor image and SEO management. Content/News: These pages have a bounce rate of between 40% and 60%. This rate is higher because although these pages are often ranked at the top of search engines, they do not necessarily contain the information that users are actually looking for in detail. With this information, you can now start to initiate changes and build expectations. For example, it could be that the bounce rate on blog posts is so high because people are used to quickly scrolling through blog posts until they find something that really interests them. If your blog post bounce rate is lower than average, it means that your blog is absolutely successful at engaging readers and not just entertaining them temporarily.
Interested in more? For example, tracking the correct bounce rate?
Incidentally, it is also very interesting that the bounce rate for landing pages is extremely high: landing pages should be carefully designed to attract people to a specific topic or product through a good user experience. These high bounce rates mean that there are plenty of landing pages out there - and therefore plenty of room for your landing page to stand out! For more general statistics, I recommend Conversion Voodoo "piece on industry bounce rates", which took a closer look at web stores, news sites and many more.
How Google can help you
It's now time to dive deeper into Google's ability to create bounce rate benchmarks. If you haven't yet used the benchmarking features of Google Analytics this is a good time to start doing just that. You can find options for your benchmarks in the Reporting tab under Audiences/Audience. Google offers over 1,600 industry categories that you can pick out for comparison. There are only a few statistics on benchmarks, but these include important page performance figures such as session duration, new sessions and, of course, bounce rates. Set your parameters and see for yourself. One of the benefits of this is that you can customize your observations to those pages that are most similar to your site. You can add controls for traffic levels and even geographic locations to ensure your comparisons are as appropriate as possible.
Pick out a few factors that you would like to take a closer look at
You'll have already noticed that Google Analytics Benchmarking also allows you to compare general channels (social, email, display etc.), devices (smartphone, desktop) and locations (international and can be scaled down to states). I encourage you to play around with these options and use all three to find your appropriate industry comparison to see what a healthy bounce rate looks like in your industry. And hey, why stop now? Check out some more and other web performance stats while you're at it! More tips: View pages per session: This will show you how many pages users view while they are on your website. B2B companies should aim for 2-3 pages per visit, this is a good indicator that people are really interested. Beware of extremely low bounce rates: This usually happens rather rarely, as there is a certain amount of chaos on the internet. However, if you see a bounce rate of less than 20%, you should take a closer look at the processes on your site and assess whether something is going wrong, such as faulty tracking(Google Tag Manager configuration or strange actions that are incorrectly counted as long website visits). Ads make the difference: Good content and a slick website layout are important, but always remember that a major factor in bounce rates is usually the quality of ads on the page. Overly intrusive pop-ups or auto-play ads will definitely lead to more bounces. Be careful with general statements about bounce rates: If you come across an average bounce rate from your industry, you should always investigate where this information comes from. Sometimes statements are made about bounce rate that are simply not true, or are made up to sell something, or are derived from an extremely low data set. Also keep in mind that bounce rates change constantly the more years go by. So the bounce rate from two years ago will not be able to tell you where your industry is today. And very important: both the dwell time and the bounce rates are developing negatively. You have to work three times as hard today to maintain the length of stay from three years ago. And users are also becoming more demanding when it comes to first impressions. If, for example, your landing page does not meet initial expectations, these users will leave!
And what about sales conversion?
