Bounce rate is one of the most commonly misunderstood website metrics.
While bounce rate can help you understand whether a page meets user expectations and supports your broader goals, reading into it too much can lead to unnecessary or unhelpful changes.
In this guide, we’ll dive deeper into what bounce rate is, what a “good” bounce rate looks like, where to find your pages’ bounce rates in Google Analytics (GA4), and practical ways to reduce it when doing so will improve your pages.
What Is Bounce Rate?
Bounce rate is the percentage of unengaged sessions on your website or app, which GA4 specifies as sessions that didn’t meet any of the following engagement criteria:
- Last for at least 10 seconds
- Trigger a conversion event
- Include at least two pageviews or screenviews
If someone lands on a blog post and exits after two seconds without scrolling, clicking, or converting, that session counts as a bounce.
What Is the Difference Between Exit Rate and Bounce Rate?
Exit rate measures the portion of sessions that end on a specific page or screen, while bounce rate measures the portion of unengaged sessions.
If a visitor lands on an article on your blog, clicks an internal link to a second article, then closes their browser, that session isn’t a bounce. But because the visitor left your site on the second article, it increases the second article’s exit rate.
If a visitor lands on an article on your blog and closes their browser five seconds later without taking further action, that session does count as a bounce. And increases the article page’s bounce rate.
How Do You Calculate Bounce Rate?
Bounce rate is calculated by dividing the number of unengaged sessions by total number of sessions and multiplying by 100.
Bounce rate = (Unengaged sessions / Total sessions) × 100
For example, if your site has 1,000 sessions and 320 of them are unengaged, your bounce rate is 32%.
Bounce rate is also the inverse of engagement rate. So, if your site has a 30% bounce rate, it has a 70% engagement rate.
What Is a Good Bounce Rate?
A good bounce rate depends on your page type, audience, and goals—but many websites aim for around 40% or lower.
Bounce rates of 60% or higher can indicate that a page isn’t meeting user expectations.
According to Databox information from September 2024, the median bounce rate across all industries is 44.04%. Here’s how bounce rate varies by industry:
| Industry | Median Bounce Rate |
| Apparel and footwear | 35.76% |
| Automotive | 40.1% |
| Ecommerce and marketplaces | 38.61% |
| Education | 46.28% |
| Food | 38.93% |
| Healthcare | 40.94% |
| Information technology and services | 48.38% |
| Real estate | 42.14% |
| SaaS | 48.27% |
Rather than asking “What is a good bounce rate?” it’s more useful to ask:
- How does my website’s bounce rate compare to industry benchmarks?
- How do bounce rates differ across my pages?
- How do bounce rates vary between campaigns?
- How have bounce rates changed over time?
As Dmytro Sokhach, Co-Founder and Board Member at Editorial.Link, explains, a higher bounce rate isn’t always a bad sign:
“Some pages exist to satisfy intent quickly. When they succeed, users leave fast. Not because they’re disengaged, but because they got exactly what they came for.”
For example, a page that answers a single question—like a glossary page does—may have a high bounce rate while still fully satisfying the user’s intent. In that case, a high bounce rate doesn’t indicate an issue.
Is a High Bounce Rate Better or Worse Than a Low Bounce Rate?
A high bounce rate isn’t better than a low bounce rate because a high bounce rate tells you people arrived on your page but didn’t find enough reason to engage or explore further.
So, a 100% bounce rate means that everyone who lands on your page didn’t engage in some way.
A low bounce rate generally suggests users find your content valuable and engaging.
Where Can You Find Bounce Rate in GA4?
Bounce rate isn’t shown by default in GA4 because the platform prioritizes engagement metrics, so you need to manually add it to your reports.
Sign in to GA4, then go to “Reports” > “Engagement” > “Pages and screens.”
In the top right corner of the report, click the pencil icon to customize the report. (You need proper permissions to do this.)
In the sidebar that appears, select “Metrics.”
Next, click “Add metric.”
Select “Bounce rate” from the list.
Click and drag the six dots beside “Bounce rate” to move it into one of the first columns, then click “Apply.”
Save the report.
Bounce rate will now appear as a column in the table.
If you need more information on using Google Analytics, check out our guide to setting up GA4.
Does Bounce Rate Affect SEO?
Google has never confirmed that bounce rate is an official ranking factor, but leaked internal documents and testimony from Google’s antitrust trial indicate that user interaction signals do play a role in what results are shown and where.
Plus, bounce rate most certainly affects results shown in AI Overviews and AI Mode. And there’s reason to believe user interaction signals also impact content visibility within Perplexity.
Beyond search visibility, bounce rate is a valuable diagnostic metric. Tracking it can help you identify pages that may fall short on user experience, search intent alignment (what searchers are trying to accomplish), or content usefulness.
How to Reduce Bounce Rate: 6 Effective Tactics
The following tactics focus on improving performance, clarity, and intent alignment, so you can improve bounce rates.
1. Improve Your Core Web Vitals
Improving your site’s Core Web Vitals (CWV) increases the chances of visitors remaining on your site and engaging with your content.
The CWV are a set of user experience metrics that measure how fast, stable, and responsive your pages are for visitors. Google’s three Core Web Vitals metrics are:
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): Measures how quickly the largest content element on the webpage loads. Aim for no longer than 2.5 seconds.
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): Measures how much the layout shifts around unexpectedly while loading. Aim for no more than 0.1.
- Interaction to Next Paint (INP): Measures how responsive a page is to user interactions. Aim for no more than 200 milliseconds.
Check and improve your CWV scores using Semrush’s SEO checker, Site Audit. Just follow this configuration guide to set up your audit, then go to the “Overview” report.
Under “Thematic Reports,” locate Core Web Vitals and click “View details.”
The report will give you a breakdown of 10 pages’ Core Web Vitals statuses over time. So you can track changes. (You can change which pages are included using the “Edit list” button near the bottom of the page.)
Scroll to the “Metrics” section to view your LCP and CLS scores. And Total Blocking Time, which is a useful approximation for INP.
Click any issue the Core Web Vitals report flags to see detailed explanations and recommended fixes. You’ll also see which specific pages are affected, so you know where to focus your optimization efforts.
2. Optimize the Mobile Experience
A strong mobile experience supports a low bounce rate by improving the experience for visitors using small screens.
If your site is hard to read, slow to navigate, or unclear on mobile devices, visitors are more likely to leave without engaging.
Matt Enser, Website and SEO Specialist at KWSM, recommends a simple framework for improving bounce rate, which he calls the three Cs:
- Confirmation: Make it clear that you offer what visitors are looking for
- Credibility: Show that you’re experienced and qualified to provide what you offer
- Clear instructions: Give users an obvious next step to take
Matt explains why the three Cs framework is so effective:
“Our goal is to ensure the three Cs—which are confirmation, credibility, and clear instructions—are visible above the fold. If you’re missing one of them, people are less likely to act due to being unsure that you’re the right company for them or being unsure how to act.”
You can quickly check how your page looks on mobile using Google Chrome by opening the page on desktop, right-clicking anywhere, and selecting “Inspect.”
A panel will appear on the side or bottom of the screen. Click the mobile device icon in the top bar.
To preview the content on different devices, use the “Responsive” drop-down in the top-left corner of the preview window.
To exit the preview, close the panel using the “X” in the top-right corner.
You can also use Semrush’s SEO checker, Site Audit, to identify mobile-specific SEO issues.
Once your Site Audit project is set up, go to the “Issues” tab. Click the three dots and select “Mobile SEO” from the menu.
You’ll see a list of mobile usability and SEO issues you can fix to improve how your site performs for mobile visitors.
3. Strengthen Internal Linking
Thoughtfully adding more internal links to other pages on your site better guides visitors to related pages, keeping them engaged and reducing their likelihood of bouncing.
For example, you could link to an article explaining how to run an influencer marketing campaign from a blog post about influencer marketing benchmarks. Or you could link to a relevant case study from a product feature page.
Internal links also help search systems understand your site’s structure and distribute ranking authority.
To improve your internal linking:
- Add links to relevant pages naturally within your content
- Use descriptive anchor text (the clickable text the link is placed over) that clearly tells users what the link goes to
- Link from high-traffic pages to pages with lower visibility
Use Site Audit to identify internal linking issues. Once your project is set up, go to the “Overview” tab and click “View details” under “Internal Linking.”
The Internal Linking report highlights several potential problems. Pay close attention to the “Broken internal links” issue since users are more likely to leave if a link doesn’t lead to a useful destination.
Click “# issues” next to “Broken internal links” to see a list of pages containing broken links that you can address to improve the user experience and improve your bounce rates.
4. Boost Your Content’s Readability
Improving readability makes it easier for visitors to scan content and quickly find what they need, reducing their likelihood of bouncing.
Let’s compare two versions of the same content:
The version on the right is clearly easier to scan, making it more likely that visitors will stay and continue reading. As an added benefit, this type of structured content is also easier for AI systems to extract and use in answers.
Here are a few practical ways to improve content readability:
- Write in plain language and avoid unnecessary industry jargon
- Use clear headings and subheadings to create a logical content hierarchy
- Keep paragraphs short—two to three sentences is usually enough
- Use lists for steps, features, or grouped ideas
- Add white space between sections to make pages feel less crowded
- Choose readable fonts and text colors with strong contrast
Use Semrush’s SEO Writing Assistant to improve readability as you write. The tool provides real-time feedback on readability, tone of voice, SEO, and originality.
SEO Writing Assistant is available as an extension for Google Docs, WordPress, and Microsoft Word, so you can apply improvements directly in your workflow.
5. Add Visual Breaks
Adding images and videos makes your content easier to scan and more engaging to read.
Brandy Hastings, SEO Strategist at SmartSites, shares her approach to deciding how often to add visual breaks:
“We review scroll heatmaps and place visual breaks right before drop-off points. I use them to re-engage users who are skimming. The general rule is one visual break per two scrolls, but I let behavioral data lead the layout.”
Visuals should also complement the content itself—not just break it up. For example, if you’re writing a blog post about building a landing page, a step-by-step walkthrough with screenshots can guide readers more effectively than text alone.
Consider using images and videos for these use cases:
- Step-by-step tutorials: Show each stage of a process so readers can follow along
- Data visualization: Turn statistics or research findings into charts or infographics
- Before-and-after comparisons: Highlight improvements or changes visually
- Complex concepts: Use diagrams or explainer videos to simplify technical ideas
When adding visuals, make sure they load quickly and include descriptive alt text to support accessibility and search visibility.
6. Give Users What They Want
Designing your pages to deliver what users are looking for makes those users more likely to stay, and engage.
If a page doesn’t satisfy that intent, visitors often return to the search results.
A quick way to find search intent is to use Semrush’s Keyword Overview tool, which labels keywords with one or more intent types (informational, navigational, commercial, and/or transactional).
It’s also a good idea to look for the same term in Prompt Research. In this case, it’s clear that people using AI tools are looking for commercial options.
Next, review search results manually to see what types of pages are showing most prominently.
Are the top results list-style blog posts, buyer’s guides, or product category pages? Your page format should match the dominant content type users are already engaging with.
In the example below, there are AI citations to consider. Most of them appear to be review articles that compare a number of options.
It’s also important that your title tag and meta description set accurate expectations. These elements are often the first things users see before clicking an AI citation or standard search result—and mismatches here can lead to quick bounces.
Once users land on your page, the H1 and on-page content need to immediately deliver on the promises made in search results.
Go Beyond Bounce Rate
Analyzing bounce rate helps you spot engagement and intent issues, but improving overall search visibility also depends on factors like crawlability, site health, mentions on other platforms, and content quality.
Taking a broader view makes it easier to identify what’s really holding you back—and where optimization efforts will have the biggest impact.
Semrush One brings information related to SEO and AI visibility together in one place, helping you discover the most impactful ways to grow your search visibility.
Try it today.