This bounce rate amuses me

low bounce rate, google analytics

[sledge81]

Hi Webmasters,

I'm hoping to get some feedback from the rest of you in regards to a rather amusing/interesting trend on my site.

My site has been enjoying a <20% bounce rate for a while now. Recently, I changed the website layout to sort of a 'Home Page' design instead of the regular magazine/blog kind of look.

This change immediately spiked up my bounce rates and went as high as 70%. I reverted back to the blog/magazine kind of layout and my present bounce rate is 14%..

My question is:

1) 14% bounce rate seems a bit abnormal to me, what are your thoughts?

2) My site deals with affiliate programs in a certain niche industry so often my content is related to tips, pointers, updates on managing a successful affiliate business. Is the low bounce rate due to my niche?

3) Despite the low bounce rate, high traffic I seldom get people to sign up to my newsletter. Recently I also started giving away a freebie for the most interactive visitor but that hasn't help as all.

Eagerly looking forward to other webmaster's thoughts on this

[still]

Can you provide links to the 2 versions?

[Leosghost]

Can you provide links to the 2 versions?

Not without breaching the TOS here [webmasterworld.com]
especially #13

Please do not drop promotional urls, signature files, nor specifics that would lead people to your site. Signing your name is fine, however commercialized posts or resume signatures will be edited. We tend to err on the side of caution to protect the integrity of the system. Affiliate based URLs are not allowed anywhere on the system.

I presume the OP read the TOS when they joined ..which would explain why they didn't give their URLs in the original post ;-)

[Leosghost]

14% bounce is lowish ;-) ..and probably means most visitors are reading and leaving ( do you know how long they spend on page/site and how they move around ? ) ..to get "sign ups" you may have to tempt them with reserved areas only readable/accessible for signed up members ..rather like here ;-) ..read 3 tips and then require sign up ..and possibly paid sign up to get even more goodies/access/fora etc as VIP members later down the line.

Seems to work for online web tech sites ( full of tips for aff's and other web related things )..not to far away from here ;-))

[still]

Its difficult to say without looking at the actual pages why further pageviews aren't firing/users aren't clicking through.

Think the TOS implies on self-promotion which wouldn't see this being the case.

[sledge81]

Allow me to give some more insights.. and then if you think the URL is essential, i'll post the domain name so you can take a look.

Thanks for your inputs so far.

1. My original post was made on 8th April. Today is the 11th and presently my bounce rate has lowered even more to 8%. Strange?

I re-read up on Google and checked my configuration. My IP address is filtered out, so there's no way that my visits are influencing the bounce rate.

2. During the past month the site had 842 unique visits and page views per visit is 4.33, the average time on site is 2.50 and 77.5% make up new visitors.

3. My Site has been online since 2008 and PR3.. not sure if that is influencing the numbers.

I think I won't be surprised if I see a 0% bounce rate in a few weeks time.

[mrmobility]

What percentage are landing on your home page?

[sledge81]

24% land on the homepage

[jennyj]

Depends on how your site is structured, a low bounce rate could mean that your visitors are not finding what they want straight away and are blundering around your site clicking on links in an attempt to find the information they are looking for.
One site I look after has an exceptionally high bounce rate - but it does not bother me. The reason? The site in question is an ecommerce site where a customer will only ever buy one product (wedding industry), they land on the details page and buy from that page. Thus by definition, bounce rate will be through the roof. As long as the sales keep rolling in, bounce rate has no impact on how well the site is doing

[htdawg]

isnt a low bounce rate good for some sites which means that users have found something useful and are staying longer on your site?

on the other hand if you had a directory type site then you would have a high bounce rate which means users found what they were looking for clicked on the link and left your site.

right?