Signs it is time to revisit bounce rate

Teams tend to reach for this after something has already gone wrong. A few signals that bounce rate is due some attention.

Data you do not trust is worse than no data, because it gets quoted anyway. The teams that stay on top of it are the ones who put it on a calendar rather than a wish list.

The signals

• Nobody can say when it was last reviewed
• The answer depends on who you ask
• A high bounce rate is not automatically bad
• Context and page type change what it means

How to approach it

Engagement time is usually the better signal. Where this goes wrong is almost never a lack of knowledge. It is worth deciding this deliberately rather than inheriting whatever the last person set up.

In practice

Measurement is only useful when someone has agreed in advance what they would do differently. Three things worth confirming about bounce rate before you move on:

• Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
• Context and page type change what it means — and you know whether that is true here
• There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped

If you want a second opinion on how yours is set up, ask.