Bounce Rate
The percentage of visitors who leave your website after viewing only one page without taking any further action.
Bounce rate tells you how many people arrive on your website and leave without clicking anything else. If 100 people visit your homepage and 45 of them leave without viewing a second page, your bounce rate is 45%. A high bounce rate usually signals that visitors aren’t finding what they expected or that the page experience is pushing them away.
For small businesses, bounce rate is a useful diagnostic tool. If your bounce rate is high on a key landing page, it could mean your page loads too slowly, the design looks outdated or untrustworthy, or the content doesn’t match what the visitor was searching for. Mobile users are especially likely to bounce if your site isn’t optimized for smaller screens.
Context matters when interpreting bounce rate. A blog post with a high bounce rate isn’t necessarily a problem — readers may have found exactly the answer they needed and left satisfied. But a high bounce rate on your services page or product page is a red flag that deserves attention. Focus on reducing bounce rates where it matters most: pages designed to convert visitors into leads or customers.
Simple fixes like improving page load speed, writing clearer headlines, adding a strong call to action above the fold, and ensuring mobile responsiveness can meaningfully reduce your bounce rate.