High Bounce Rates On Web Sites Don't Necessarily Impact Google Rankings

Mar 28, 2016 - 7:46 am 11 by

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A Cre8asite Forum thread has a discussion about is it bad to have a really high bounce rate on your site? Would a really high bounce rate result in Google dropping your rankings.

The short answer is no.

(1) Google doesn't have data on site bounce rates.

(2) Google said back in 2008 that bounce rate metrics are spammable and noisy and has said that time and time again.

(3) Last week, Google said not just the above but also that high bounce rates may be the expected behavior on a specific site.

This site has a 75% bounce rate but that is typical of most news oriented web sites. They read the story and leave. Then read the next new story and leave and so on. That is how users read news sites.

So the truth is, you want your site to fill the user's need. If it means they read one article or help content or whatever and leave, that is the expected behavior and that is a good result. It doesn't have a negative impact on your rankings in Google.

Forum discussion at Cre8asite Forums.

 

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