How Much Does Bounce Rate Affect SERP Rankings?

[bear bryants hat]

I'm new to this SEO thing and need some help with questions I have.

1. how much does bounce rate factor into the serp rankings? I understand that no one knows the secret formula to algorithms. But if you had to give your best guess, what would you say?... 5%? 10%? more? less?

2. what exactly is a bounce? (I've heard two things, and don't know which is correct). Is a bounce leaving your site within 10 secs of arriving there? or... only visiting one page on your site and then leaving (or a combination of the two)?

3. My bounce rate is horrible! it fluctuates between 60-90% (usually upper 70's). But what really bothers me is that the majority of the bounces come from states that I am not licensed to sell in. Does that count against me in the SERPs?

 

[Alston]

2. what exactly is a bounce? (I've heard two things, and don't know which is correct). Is a bounce leaving your site within 10 secs of arriving there? or... only visiting one page on your site and then leaving (or a combination of the two)?

It is both, sort of. Google penalizes you when people leave your site and do another Google search within, I think, 30 seconds. If someone takes 15 minutes to read one page of your site and then goes back to Google, they won't consider it a bounce.

Google assumes that if they stay that long, they got what they came for. Google assumes that your page is relevant for the query.

From a usability and conversion perspective, a bounce is any visitor that doesn't move forward in your sales funnel.

 

[ksigmtsu]

The penalty occurs only when someone leaves your site then goes to another relevant site immediately via google search. Simply leaving quickly was removed from their metrics according to google sometime around panda 1, because the person could have just gotten an answer really quickly to a simple question and that is not a good reason for a penalty.

Good example would be, google search for "what is my ip address" click the top site, answer in 10 seconds, leave, search something else.

You got what you wanted. They try to penalise sites that do not give the user what they wanted.