What Effect Does Bounce Rate Have on Search Engine Rankings?

If you have invested time and money in creating an online presence you want to make sure you get a good return for it. A major part of securing this return is ensuring that you are well placed in search engine rankings. Google’s algorithm can be difficult to determine, so it can be hard to gain a good search engine ranking.

In this article we are going to take a look at bounce rates and whether they have an effect on the search engine ranking your website obtains. We are going to start be examining exactly what bounce rate is.

What is bounce rate?

Think of when someone completes a Google search and ends up clicking from the search results through to your website. They may spend time navigating around your site or they may navigate away from it; often by clicking the back button to return to Google search. If a visitor to your site visits only the original page and then navigates away from your site this is known as a bounce. The number of times this happens is the bounce rate.

Is a bounce always a bad thing?

The thing that many people do not consider is that a bounce is not always a bad thing. If the first page a visitor to your website clicks onto is the contact page it may be a good thing that they have been able to get all the contact information they need and are able to then navigate away and make contact. It may also be the case that people visit a blog where there is only one page. They are obviously going to navigate away as soon as they have finished reading.

The time to worry about a bounce is when it’s away from a page such as the site homepage from where you want people to navigate to the rest of the site. If your bounce rate is high from a page like this you may need to reconsider the content of the page including any calls to action which may be present.

Does a high bounce rate affect your search engine ranking?

As we have already discussed, a high bounce rate does not necessarily indicate a poor website, so there is no reason why it should adversely affect search engine ranking. That being said, if a lack of quality is to blame for the high bounce rate this can be detrimental. One of the most important factors in the Google algorithm is quality of content.

This is why it’s a good idea to keep an eye on the bounce rate for your website and make any adjustments as soon as possible. If you need help there are plenty of web design professionals around who can give you the advice and assistance you need. You can click here for more information about getting the help you need to ensure that your website has the quality required to gain a high search engine ranking.