How Much Does a Bad Bounce Rate Hurt Your Rankings?

[bear bryants hat]

My bounce rate is horrible! hovers around 70-85%.

But what I noticed is that the vast majority of the bounces are coming from states I'm not licensed in.

Obviously Google has no idea which agents are licensed where. I'm just wondering if all the out-of-territory bounces are hurting me?

 

[Josh]

It's going to hurt you, but by how much is part of the great unknown in the ever-evolving google algorithm. I take it you're using google analytics?

One thing you can do that will help your bounce rate is to have an outlet for folks to go that aren't in your area. For example, if you work in a few states, you can always have links for folks coming from other states to other sites or a generic site. I don't like using google analytics because it gives them access to more info about my sites than I want them to have (yes, they do use that), but if you're visitors are searching for something and go to another site from yours that's going to be invisible to google if you don't have analytics and its going to hurt less if you do, logic being "user found what they were looking for and didn't go back to google".

 

[kheyknee]

User experience is a key component of many of the Panda updates.
Over time a high bounce rate may impact rankings.

In addition to giving a place for out of state visitors to click, you may want to see where this traffic is coming from. If it is coming from search, you may want to adjust the content on your page so the search engines know what locations you serve.

 

[dfw1]

When I land on someones website and it has alot of text in small times new roman font and has a boring look to it, usually I will hit the back button and try to find something else.

An appealing, interesting and informative website holds my attention and keeps me on the site longer.

Try to find out what your visitors want and offer it to them. They stick around longer.

 

[knocker]

Google can't see your bounce rate. The exception is if you are using google analytics which I dont recommend. My fear is they will only use that information in their favor and not yours.

 

[Josh]

Google can't see your bounce rate. The exception is if you are using google analytics which I dont recommend. My fear is they will only use that information in their favor and not yours.

Google can see your bounce rate, analytics or not. They know when people come back from the site.

 

[djs]

How?

If I go from Google to "My Insurance Site", then go somewhere else entirely, Google doesn't know, unless I tell them, how many pages they viewed on my site.

If they click the back button, google knows they returned, but not necessarily that they didn't stay as well in another browser window.

Now, if the user has google toolbar, then okay, yes, they know everything. I don't think most people realize how much data those pesky toolbars report back to the mothership.

Dan

 

[Josh]

How?

If I go from Google to "My Insurance Site", then go somewhere else entirely, Google doesn't know, unless I tell them, how many pages they viewed on my site.

If they click the back button, google knows they returned, but not necessarily that they didn't stay as well in another browser window.

That's just it. If you google "blue ice cream" then click on the first page, read it, hit the back button after 10 seconds, scroll down and click on the second link where you stay for 10 minutes, Google knows what happened. Using Chrome or not, they can track when you go back to their site (google.com). That's one way they can measure the time spent on a site.

 

[insurancejane71]

It's going to hurt you, but by how much is part of the great unknown in the ever-evolving google algorithm. I take it you're using google analytics?

One thing you can do that will help your bounce rate is to have an outlet for folks to go that aren't in your area. For example, if you work in a few states, you can always have links for folks coming from other states to other sites or a generic site. I don't like using google analytics because it gives them access to more info about my sites than I want them to have (yes, they do use that), but if you're visitors are searching for something and go to another site from yours that's going to be invisible to google if you don't have analytics and its going to hurt less if you do, logic being "user found what they were looking for and didn't go back to google".

Keep in mind,it should mostly hurt you for those key word terms to the page seeing the high bounce rate. For example, if you are getting a high bounce rate for CA health insurance, but are getting good traffic for the term "FL life insurance" google infer that your page probably has relevant content for FL life insurance, but not CA health insurance. It is actually a really elegant piece of feedback for google.

 

[knocker]

That's just it. If you google "blue ice cream" then click on the first page, read it, hit the back button after 10 seconds, scroll down and click on the second link where you stay for 10 minutes, Google knows what happened. Using Chrome or not, they can track when you go back to their site (google.com). That's one way they can measure the time spent on a site.

They have no access to your server stats. Not possible. Please cite sources if you think otherwise. They don't track back buttons as far as I know. I have hundreds of sites on page one and it has absolutely nothing to do with time spent on a page.