What is bounce rate?
Quick answer
Bounce rate is the percentage of website visits in which the visitor leaves without meaningfully engaging. In Google Analytics 4 it is the share of sessions that were not "engaged": shorter than 10 seconds, with only one page viewed and no key event. It equals 100% minus the engagement rate.
Last updated
Updated · By Robert Breen
Why it matters
Bounce rate is a quick check on whether a page delivers what brought people there. A paid campaign sending visitors to a page with an 80% bounce rate is probably promising one thing in the ad and showing another on the page.
It is also one of the most misread numbers in marketing. A high bounce rate on a blog post or a contact page can be perfectly healthy: the reader got the answer or the phone number and left happy. Context decides whether a bounce rate is good or bad.
A worked example
A payroll software company sends Google Ads traffic for "payroll for restaurants" to its general home page. GA4 shows 2,600 sessions from that campaign with a 71% bounce rate and 13 demo requests. The ad promised restaurant payroll; the home page talks about payroll for "every business".
The team builds a dedicated landing page about tip reporting and shift workers, with the demo form above the fold. The next month the campaign’s bounce rate drops to 44% and demo requests rise to 41 from a similar 2,500 sessions, more than tripling results without changing the budget.
Often confused with
Bounce rate vs exit rate
Bounce rate is about sessions that never engaged. Exit rate is the share of all views of a page that were the last page of a session, including long, engaged sessions.
GA4 bounce rate vs Universal Analytics bounce rate
The old Universal Analytics counted any single-page session as a bounce, even a 5-minute read. GA4 does not count it as a bounce if the visit lasted over 10 seconds, so GA4 bounce rates are usually lower.
Bounce rate vs engagement rate
Two sides of the same number in GA4: engagement rate + bounce rate = 100%.
Tips
- Compare bounce rate for the same page type and traffic source, not across the whole site.
- For paid traffic, a high bounce rate usually means the page does not match the ad.
- In GA4, an Editor can add bounce rate to a report with Customize report > Metrics; Viewers can add it in an exploration instead.
Related terms
Learn it in a free lesson
- The Marketing Funnel Explained, With a Worked Example (about 9 minutes)
- Google Analytics 4 for Beginners: Read Your First Report (about 14 minutes)
Related in the AI glossary
Frequently asked questions
- What is a good bounce rate?
- It varies by page type. In GA4, many sites see 25% to 55% overall; landing pages for paid ads should usually sit at the lower end, and blog posts can run higher.
- How is bounce rate calculated in GA4?
- Sessions that were not engaged divided by all sessions. A session is engaged if it lasts over 10 seconds, has 2 or more page views or includes a key event.
- Does bounce rate affect Google rankings?
- Google has said it does not use Google Analytics data for ranking. A page that fails searchers can still slip for other reasons.
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