Is there a time when bounce rate isn't that big of a problem?

[KSAMktg]

I have a website that is very well ranked for the search terms I'm targeting. But, since the search engines love my site so much, they refer over 1000 search terms to the site.

The problem is that many of those terms aren't bringing targeted traffic. I published a blog post once about "bugs" (a whimsical post) and started getting visitors trying to figure out how to get rid of "bugs".

As a result, my bounce rate is high, and a fair number of visitors only look at one page, etc. The search engines haven't penalized my site as of now. But, I'm wondering if Panda is going to make a difference at some point.

Has anyone ever heard about the search engines analyzing a bounce rate considering what is truly a targeted search phrase?

Anyone have an opinion about future problems? Or, if I were going to have problems with Panda, would it have happened by now?

I can't really stop getting visitors for crazy keywords, and it's really annoying.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Kathleen

[edited by: goodroi at 1:07 am (utc) on Nov 9, 2011]
[edit reason] Please no specific keywords or urls [/edit]

[goodroi]

There are times that a high bounce rate is a sign of success. For example I offer a free online calculator for a niche industry. My calculator page has ranked in the top 3 for years and has a bounce rate of over 90% since my calculator page can satisfy the user with just one page view.

If I had a whimsical blog post and it attracted quality traffic I would not worry about how to get rid of the traffic. I would look into rewriting the blog post to better satisfy the quality traffic and add some revenue streams like affiliate links or ads.

[KSAMktg]

So your experience is similar to mine. If Panda is taking bounce rate into account, it must have some exceptions in it, don't you think?

And, thanks for the advice!

[netmeg]

I have a high bounce rate. Hasn't hurt me.

[potentialgeek]

“To the best of my knowledge, the rankings team does not use bounce rate in any way.” --Matt Cutts

Previously he had called bounce rate "a very noisy signal."

The posts in this thread already showed how it's a noisy signal.

SearchMetrics, known for selective use of data, issued a highly speculative commentary after publication of its supposedly Panda-related data. It suggested bounce rate was a significant factor in its list of winners and losers. However, this theory was completely unsubstantiated. Others have speculated on bounce rate since Panda also without supporting their theories or dismantling Cutts' comments.

Panda, Google has said, uses a tremendous amount of resources. That's why the updates are as infrequent as once a month. The complex algo has so many signals more reliable than bounce rate.

[KSAMktg]

Thanks netmeg and potentialgeek (guess that was true about 1300 posts ago, right?).

Looks like the idea that bounce rate is very low in the hierarchy of ranking signals makes more sense all the time.

Another weird thing is that the page rank for my main site was downgraded with the recent update. The ranking is still holding, and I know that page rank isn't a big deal, but really can't figure out why G would hit the page rank since it seems to like the site.

Silly search engines!

[netmeg]

Because pagerank is about links, and maybe some of your links went away (or were devalued or revalued)

[smallcompany]

If Panda is taking bounce rate into account

How is Google supposed to know anyone's bounce rate, unless GA is used?

[KSAMktg]

Hmm, hadn't thought about a change in links. Maybe I need to do something about that!

G can probably figure out a lot using the Google Toolbar, Google Analytics and Chrome data, and tracking what folks do while searching - do they click on a link, then 5 seconds later return to the search results page and click on another one of the results...

It is kinda creepy, but I think they have way more information than we might think possible.

[Simsi]

How is Google supposed to know anyone's bounce rate, unless GA is used?

Depends on how you define a bounce. Regards monitoring pages read on a specific site, the user providing Google with a browsing history could negate the need for GA could it not?

But even putting that aside, you might re-define "bounce rate" by monitoring user behaviour. If the user returns to Google, the same search or a similar one is resumed and he/she visits another site, then that might indicate they didn't find what they wanted on the first site. That might be the search terms at fault or the target site of course. So "bouncing back to Google" as opposed to simply "bouncing off a site" could be a less "noisy signal".

[Chrispcritters]

My vertical has a high bounce rate because people come to the vertical's websites to get an answer that is easily given.

The only way to lower the bounce rate is to include additional "link bait" on the page to get them going in a slightly different direction.

High bounce rate does not seem to cause a problem for any of "us" in the vertical.