If you have Google Analytics account then you must be seeing Bounce Rate as one of the parameter analyzing the Navigation of your website. The option is available as Bounce rates under Visitor Trending category in Google Analytics. There are several other tools also to know your Bounce rate.
What is Bounce Rate ?
Bounce rate is the measure of number of visitors who left the page from where they entered to your site without viewing any other pages. If you have a 90% Bounce rate then it means that 9 out of 10 visitors left without viewing any other page on your website.
How much Bounce Rate is good for my website ?
Well, it’s difficult to answer this question but usually less than 40% is considered good for your blog/website. Though initially when you start your blog you may find it to be somewhere around 70-80% but definitely you’ll improve as the quality content grows.
For E-Commerce sites Bounce rate should be as low as possible. For Blogs it doesn’t matter much but definitely it is good to have low values.
Does Bounce rate affects Search Engine Rankings ?
Again, this question is debatable. But in actual practice it shouldn’t. It also depends on the niche you have. If it is entertainment niche like Lolcats or Failblog then can you expect it to be higher ?
However according to SEO Black Hat it does affects SEO rankings.
How can I lower my Bounce rate ?
Now you must have understood that no SEO can improve your Bounce rate as it is independent of any SEO rankings like PR, Alexa etc. But still, you can improve and lower the Bounce rate of your blog yourself by following these tips -
Content is the King! - Write Good Content that’ll make your visitors get attracted to click on few more popular post links that you’ve written.
Design of your Blog - Yes, again I’ll say that user experience of your blog does matter. The interface and web design of your blog should be good enough to allow visitor to navigate.
Writing Catchy Titles - I’ve already written about it, what makes you a good blogger. But never choose titles that are no way related to your blog posts, though it is an exception for some good "copy bloggers".
Linking to your internal posts - This is proven way of reducing the Bounce rate. You link to your relevant posts and visitors might would like to view them too. This is also an effective way to let your RSS Subscribers visit you Blog.
Also note that if most of your traffic is coming through social bookmarking sites like Digg, Stumbleupon then for this traffic you should expect your Bounce rate to be bit higher than the traffic which comes through Search Engines (Organic Traffic)
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