If the majority of the users were returning visitors, I wouldn’t be concerned about the bounce rate (but then I’d have to wonder why the site wasn’t getting new visitors.) If I felt the front page did a good job of putting something awesome in your face (instead of hiding it behind a link) then I wouldn’t be concerned. If the sitepoint graph showed the site growing as quickly as 50% new users per month implies it could, I’d assume the bouncers were returning visitors. It’s that combination of factors that makes me think that new visitors are going away and that the web marketing has room for improvement.
A lot of blogs have only a single page—that single page nature may be why they’ve got a higher bounce rate compared with other types of sites because new visitors get the content they were looking for on the first page, and because there’s not anything else to do but read. Yes, you can read every post if it’s really interesting (Hyperbole and a Half was like that for me.) but 90% of the time I’m just grabbing a recipe real quick or trying to figure out how to fix my blender and the information I need is right on the first page, then I’m done. These single page blog sites aren’t a gateway into a community. And LessWrong isn’t a place with practical information where you’re doing a quick question run. Correct me if I’m wrong, but this place attracts intellectuals who love reading. Assuming that’s the sort of person coming here, we have to ask why new visitors are not clicking. It’s not because they’re satisfying their reading fix on the front page as with a single-page blog. The front page doesn’t have a lot of text. If they have an intellectual nature, and are expecting to read something interesting, they should be showing more curiosity about other pages. That they’re not means the page failed to interest them. Why else would a new visitor leave without clicking on something when you think about the current home page design?
When it comes down to it, there’s no right number. Every website and situation is different. You can find people saying “oh 60% is normal” and other people saying “60 percent! You should be worried!” but when it comes down to it, it really depends on the situation.
And then, you also have to ask yourself this:
Do I want to tell myself my bounce rate is okay or do I want to get as many repeat visitors as possible?
If it’s the former, 60% is okay. If it’s the latter, especially if you’ve got that many new visitors not becoming returning visitors, 60% is totally unacceptable.
Good marketing techniques can bring the bounce rate down to 30%. Can they do that for this website? I don’t know. I say that it’s time to make a hypothesis about what would work and do the experiment of trying it out.
If you would like a reputable source of information on this, you can try this Google video. I assume they know what they’re talking about because they probably profit off of helping website owners make their websites better, since a lot of those people use their adwords service on their websites—I’ve been told they care quite a bit about profiting off of that:
If the majority of the users were returning visitors, I wouldn’t be concerned about the bounce rate (but then I’d have to wonder why the site wasn’t getting new visitors.) If I felt the front page did a good job of putting something awesome in your face (instead of hiding it behind a link) then I wouldn’t be concerned. If the sitepoint graph showed the site growing as quickly as 50% new users per month implies it could, I’d assume the bouncers were returning visitors. It’s that combination of factors that makes me think that new visitors are going away and that the web marketing has room for improvement.
A lot of blogs have only a single page—that single page nature may be why they’ve got a higher bounce rate compared with other types of sites because new visitors get the content they were looking for on the first page, and because there’s not anything else to do but read. Yes, you can read every post if it’s really interesting (Hyperbole and a Half was like that for me.) but 90% of the time I’m just grabbing a recipe real quick or trying to figure out how to fix my blender and the information I need is right on the first page, then I’m done. These single page blog sites aren’t a gateway into a community. And LessWrong isn’t a place with practical information where you’re doing a quick question run. Correct me if I’m wrong, but this place attracts intellectuals who love reading. Assuming that’s the sort of person coming here, we have to ask why new visitors are not clicking. It’s not because they’re satisfying their reading fix on the front page as with a single-page blog. The front page doesn’t have a lot of text. If they have an intellectual nature, and are expecting to read something interesting, they should be showing more curiosity about other pages. That they’re not means the page failed to interest them. Why else would a new visitor leave without clicking on something when you think about the current home page design?
When it comes down to it, there’s no right number. Every website and situation is different. You can find people saying “oh 60% is normal” and other people saying “60 percent! You should be worried!” but when it comes down to it, it really depends on the situation.
And then, you also have to ask yourself this:
Do I want to tell myself my bounce rate is okay or do I want to get as many repeat visitors as possible?
If it’s the former, 60% is okay. If it’s the latter, especially if you’ve got that many new visitors not becoming returning visitors, 60% is totally unacceptable.
Good marketing techniques can bring the bounce rate down to 30%. Can they do that for this website? I don’t know. I say that it’s time to make a hypothesis about what would work and do the experiment of trying it out.
If you would like a reputable source of information on this, you can try this Google video. I assume they know what they’re talking about because they probably profit off of helping website owners make their websites better, since a lot of those people use their adwords service on their websites—I’ve been told they care quite a bit about profiting off of that:
http://support.google.com/analytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1009409