Comments on: Is bounce rate and conversion rate related? Short answer: No

By: Paul Thomas

Paul Thomas — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 14:13:59 +0000

Brilliant explanation! Many people have been (are) confused by these metrics. I have been working in SEO for 10 years and dumped the idea that bounces and conversions are proportionately related.

I have clients with a 40% bounce rate, their audience want a phone number – right on the top of the page in 56 point type. They are busy with orders.

I have achieved a zero bounce rate for a client two months running – they are busy too!

It boils down the industry you are in, what your audience is looking for. A big bold positioning statement drops bounces and boosts conversions!

Nice blog too by the way!

Cheers,
Paul

By: Directory

Directory — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 10:26:56 +0000

It is the rate of visitors that enter your site, and leave within the first 5 seconds without viewing another page.

By: Ben Tilly

Ben Tilly — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 15:57:10 +0000

My point is that conversion rate measured from visitor to conversion is what matters more to the company’s bottom line than conversion rate measured from non-bounce to conversion. Therefore in many businesses the conversion rate from visitor to conversion should be measured and tracked.

By: Wingify

Wingify — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 06:42:43 +0000

Hi Ben,

I totally agree that what needs to be cared for primarily is the conversion rate as the impact of it can be directly quantified in the company’s bottom line. Bounce rates and other metrics are secondary.

The purpose of the article was to show that these two metrics are unrelated, not to argue that one is better than the other.

-Paras

By: Ben Tilly

Ben Tilly — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 06:07:55 +0000

I respectively have to disagree with your division of measurements. The reason is because many things that lower your bounce rate will hurt the conversion rate because you get more marginal people to stay on your site longer and be counted in the conversion rate. What is the right way to balance the value of the bounce rate versus the conversion rate? I maintain that what most companies really care about is advertising cost per conversion. Given that they generally have a reasonable idea of their cost per visitor driven by advertising, the ratio of visitors to conversions is the figure that they care about, and therefore what should be measured and optimized. Details of how that figure is broken down, what percentage bounce, etc, are of secondary importance.

In short my point is that what we need to optimize is actionable metrics that directly impact the business, and not our understanding of how exactly the site is used. It is nice to measure and look at the latter, but only because it helps us produce theories about our users that give us ideas for how to drive the business forward.

By: How to benchmark competition conversion rates using Alexa in two super simple steps « Wingify Conversion Optimization Blog

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:25:54 +0000

[...] The way I define Bounce Rate and Conversion Rate, they are not related. But the way Alexa defines, the two metrics are definitely [...]

By: Vincent Roman

Vincent Roman — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:46:54 +0000

Congratulations on your ability to write such a long article on something that could have been cleaned up with 2 definitions That aside, all good points and thanks for the output!