Google Analytics Bounce Rates and Session Duration
In this article we’re looking at Google Analytics Bounce Rate and Session Duration data. Specifically to help to gauge HOW MUCH visitors are interested in what you have to offer.
What is Google Analytics Bounce Rate
The Google Analytics Bounce Rate is the percentage of visitors who leave your site after seeing ONLY ONE page. If you only have a one-page site, this metric need not concern you. (However, we would like to point out a one-page site is NOT good for SEO).
If you have multiple pages, then having an awareness and understanding of your overall Bounce Rate and the ability to compare it page by page is very useful. The Bounce Rate can be thought of as a measure of engagement and the lower the number the better. (Although there are caveats. See ‘Not all high bounce rates are bad bounce rates’ further down).
The Bounce Rate is different from the Exit Rate. Google Analytics Exit Rate is the last page people view before they leave that was preceded by other page(s). Ultimately, there is always an Exit page since people can’t stay on your website 24/7, but there doesn’t have to be a bounce…
To clarify…
- A bounce rate is triggered when there is ONLY ONE page visit during a session
- An exit rate is triggered when the page visited is the LAST ONE of a session
How to check the Bounce Rate in Google Analytics
When you are logged into your Google Analytics account navigate to Behavior>Overview. Here the dashboard is giving you site-wide statistics meaning the Bounce Rate from this view is relative to the whole site.
From the Overview dashboard you can drill down into the Site Content and begin to analyze the Bounce Rate per page. You can also sort by Bounce Rate to see the best performing and worst performing bouncers!
There are actually quite a few places that you can see Bounce Rate data as essentially it’s just a data point that you can correlate with any other piece of data. A few common places you might want to check are:
- Behavior > All Pages > Bounce Rate (see which pages have higher or lower bounce rate)
- Acquisition > Channels > Bounce Rate (see what type of traffic has the lowest bounce rate)
- Acquisition > Source/Medium > Bounce Rate (see which referral traffic and mediums have lowest bounce rate)
- Acquisition > AdWords > Campaigns > Bounce Rate (see how your AdWords campaign fare when it comes to bounce rate)
What is a Google Analytics Session Duration
Session duration (previously known as ‘Google Analytics Average Time on Site’ is defined as the time frame during which there are regular active interactions from a user on a website. The session is timed out when there is no activity from the user for a pre-defined time duration (this is usually set to 30 minutes by default).
Session duration takes into account the entire time that a person spends on a website. It is effectively the sum of the time-on-page for the different pages that a person visits on a website during a single session.
Google Analytics measures periods of time by looking at the difference between the time of the first hit and the time of the last hit. It’s called a Time Stamp.
The Average Session Duration is the average length of your visitors’ sessions. A longer average indicates that your visitors are more engaged.
There is one problem with timestamps. Imagine a User loaded the third page they’re visiting at 10:10 pm, read it for 5 minutes and then left the site. Because there were no further hits fired after 10:10 pm, Google Analytics doesn’t count the extra 5 minutes.
Meaning the time-on-page for the last page, from where the visitor exits, will be zero.
How to find your Google Analytics Session Duration stats
When you are logged into your Google Analytics account navigate to Audience>Overview. This important stat will be right there at the top of the dashboard.
A Quick Word About Google Analytics Conversion Rates
Remember our focus is improved website effectiveness and ROI. This means we need to convert visitors into leads, then customers and then repeat customers.
The conversion rate is the percentage of visitors to your website that complete a desired goal (a conversion) out of the total number of visitors. A high conversion rate can be a sign of a successful marketing and web design campaign. It means people want what you’re offering, are able to find it easily on your website. And respond positively to a call to action!
Why are Google Analytics Bounce Rates and Average Session Durations important?
In relation to website effectiveness and your website ROI, both are indicators of how much visitors to your site are interested in what you have to offer. Meaning, as we often say, awareness and understanding of these stats can help you make better marketing decisions.
For example, if you wrote a long article or page description, wouldn’t it help to know whether people are reading it all, or leaving after 10 seconds? The Average Session Duration metric therefore becomes a valuable insight.
Usually, a high bounce rate is a sign that people are leaving your site (or a certain page) because they aren’t finding what they are looking for. (Remember, if your website is only one page, obviously the Bounce Rate metric becomes irrelevant).
Not all high bounce rates are bad bounce rates
The caveat we mentioned above is that just because a page has a high bounce rate, it doesn’t mean it’s a bad page. In some cases, it could simply be that the visitor found the answer to the question they were asking. (Then left because they had no other reason to look elsewhere on your site).
Likewise, it could be that sometimes a single page visit might be your goal because you’re seeking a specific CTA. For example, if it’s a sales page designed to convert on one call to action. In this case, you won’t want potential visitors jumping around your site.
In these single-page scenarios, you’d want to be considering your data on Average Time on Page. Google Analytics calculates this as the average amount of time users spent viewing a specified page or screen, or set of pages or screens.
This way you can get a feel for whether a page is fulfilling its job or not.
Then you can review if and how it could be altered to improve your website effectiveness. For example, increase the number of pages per session or your conversion rates.
Conversions are really what it’s all about!
Remember, it is conversion rates that really matter as ultimately your business success is highly related to your website effectiveness. Meaning its ability to generate new leads, complete sales transactions and entice people to continue buying from you.
The benefits of Google Analytics Bounce Rate and Session Duration data to improve website effectiveness and ROI
Tactics for improving your Bounce Rate and Session Duration stats are very closely related to Pages/Session data. In particular, using internal linking and adding CTAs. (See the second article in this series Website Effectiveness & Your Website ROI Part2 | What Are Your Visitors Interested In?)
Except now the focus is moving from WHAT interests them to HOW interested are they? Meaning similar to the previous article, our goal is to get them to stick around longer; i.e. increase time on page and session duration. So unless the purpose of any one single page is a single CTA, we also want to encourage them to navigate to other pages. (Consequently boosting both Pages/Session performance AND Session Duration).
Note the way Google calculates Bounce Rates and Average Time On Page is a topic often debated due to the context of the page. From a technical perspective, there are even some plug-ins and workarounds dedicated to more accurately measuring these stats. If this is something you care about, you may find this article about Bounce Rate Zero interesting and practical.
Continuing at a more technical level, you can also use Google Tag Manager to set up an infinite variety of tracking. But this is advanced analytics and not the purpose of this article.
By now, if you’ve read posts 1 & 2 in this series before this third one, you should have a basic understanding of:
- HOW MANY people are interested in what you have to offer?
- WHAT specifically interests these people in relation to what you have to offer?
- HOW MUCH are they interested in what you have to offer?
Now it’s time to find out WHO is interested in what you have to offer and WHERE do they come from? (The 4th and final article in this 4-part series).
PS. Our goal is to simplify analytics reporting so it’s useful to a small business person. So we encourage you not to over-analyze or over-think Google Analytics data. Rather, just think about Google Analytics data as a trending tool rather than a precise measuring tool.