Does Bounce Rate affect ranking of the website

It is said that increased bounce rate leads to falling of website ranking.

[faraz sayyed]

Let us first understand what is bounce rate? when a visitor clicks on website and immediately closes the website ie they leave the website without spending any time on it.
Bounce Rate can be reduced by:
1. Relevant and informative content
2. Proper website navigation
3. Compelling Call-to-action
4. Reduce page loading time
5. Appropriate landing page
6. If possible avoid pop-ups

[NickMNS]

Let us first understand what is bounce rate?

Your description is incorrect. Bounce rate is when visitor clicks on a website and there are no further interactions with the page. This is regardless of time spent or whether or not the user got the information that they were looking for. Examples:
[ul]

User clicks on result, spam page appears, user closes window == bounce

User clicks on result, long form article appears, user reads first paragraph then closes window == bounce

User clicks on result, long form article appears, user reads entire article then closes window == bounce

User clicks on result, table appears showing the user the information desired (sports score), user then closes window == bounce

User clicks on result, table appears but due to screen table cannot be read, user then closes window == bounce

[ul/]
Basically, bounce rate covers a wide range of different action and thus is a metric that when must put too much importance in.

It should also be noted that bounce rate is easily manipulated, sometimes for very valid reason, other times because people feel the need to skew there own metrics. One can use Javascript to add events to a page can be triggered without interaction by the user, for example timer based events. These events then cause GA, to record an interaction and thus not count the session as a bounce.

[tangor]

Bounce rate is often given too much consideration. Reality is most users are seeking instant gratification. Find it, see it, leave, already thinking about something else even as your page loads. These I call "one shot wonders" as in I wonder what it was that either satisfied them in that instant, or made them go away.

I look at time on site and number of page views to tell if the site is "compelling" and "satisfying".

So the metrics for "2 page views and up" is more important than "1 and gone".

[JorgeV]

Hello-

Also, think about how Google (or other search engines), can know/guess about the bounce rate and how they interpret it.

For example, a search engine, can (might) tell when someone clicks on a link from the SERP, and hits the back button. If, this person, then, visits another site from the SERP, it suggests the first site visited did not provided the right answer, or a satisfying answer. So it can have a negative effect. If this person, searches for something else, or refines the search, then the bounce might not be interpreted as something negative. The site might have answered the question, which is why no click occurred on other sites, or, that it was the searcher who did not used the right query;

[lucy24]

For example, a search engine, can (might) tell when someone clicks on a link from the SERP, and hits the back button.

By this time, search engines must know that this kind of thing depends on what device the visitor is using. On a mobile device it's click, return, click, return, until you find what you're looking for. But on a desktop it's more likely to be newtab, newtab, newtab, and the search engine has no way of knowing which of those tabs ends up occupying your time. If you click five search results in two seconds, they have to know you haven't looked at any of them yet; all they can know is that they were superficially clickworthy.

[tangor]

I think faraz sayyed was posting an instructional lists of "don'ts" to start a discussion. I hope we did not scare this person away!

[Demaestro]

I agree that a bounce rate can be a good thing. It just depends on the site.

Did a user enter the site on a product page then bounce? This bounce is probably not good, because you likely wanted them to "add to cart" or "browse similar products"

Did a user enter the site on an information (eg contact us) page then bounce? That user likely found what they needed (phone number or address) and moved on. This bounce is probably not bad as they looked for a thing, then easily found it.

Are there things you can do to bring down the bounce rate? Yes, like in my above example, they came to your contact page looking for a phone number, maybe they are on a mobile device. You make the phone number a clickable link, then in something like TagManager you add an event so that links starting with tel: fire an event when clicked. By default the click will be what is called an "interactive hit" and if triggered and then user leaves the site it will not be considered a bounce.

I don't think the assertion that a high bounce rate is bad for a site or that it negatively affects rankings is correct. Depending on the nature of the website, a bounce rate can indicate success. Eg a user searches for information about "widgets" in Google, they find a page on your site with said information and visit it. Then they leave the site because they found what they are looking for. This is good and indicates your site is useful.

Google can tell if that user who was searching for information on "wdigets" kept looking for the thing by clicking other results in Google SERP page after trying your page, or if they stopped their search with your page. Bounce or not Google will assume you gave them what they wanted in the latter scenario, not penalize you because that user left your site after 1 page view. If they keep looking Google may dip your ranking for "widgets" because the user bounced AND kept searching. Alternatively Google could increases your ranking for "widgets" if they stopped searching.

TLDR; Bounce rate is subjective and depending on the scenario Google won't dip rankings for pages based on Bounce Rate.