A bounce is a session that ends without 2 or more pageviews.
A bounce represents the number of visitors who enter the website and exit right after, without continuing to explore other pages on the site. A second pageview negates a bounce. This is a popularly used KPI for high-level website engagement.
A Bounce Rate is calculated by the total number of sessions divided by the number of singe-pageview sessions (bounces).
Is A High Bounce Rate Bad?
A bounce on the surface is a negative metric because it signals a person leaving the website. However, there may be positive actions that could actually direct people off of your website. If you have a website that directs a person to a 3rd party purchasing page, ATS, Social Media profiles, or various other places that exist off of the company domain. The image below shows an example of an employment page with a button that clicks to a 3rd party page of all of their open positions. An active in-market job seeker would ideally need to land on the employment page, rather than the skilled nursing home page (the service doesn’t make sense for the candidate, the position does) and once they’re here the best option may be to see all positions. This would constitute a bounce.
Likewise, a bounce is dictated by multiple page loads. A person may visit a single page, complete the form which actually constitutes a conversion, then leave which could be considered a bounce!
